ReMix:Metroid Prime "Mission Final" 4:48

The weight of the world -- the fate of the galaxy, even -- weighs down on you, as ZackParrish & Emunator cobble together bits and pieces from all of their Game Set Mash!! 2 compo teammates (Ridley Snipes, Xaleph, Lucas Guimaraes, JSABlixer, lunarice & Ronald Poe) to make this manic Metroidvania mashup of Metroid Prime & Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow! Zack led the way, so he walks us through the minutiae of the mission, including an inconvenient bout of COVID:

"For this track, I had a kind of chaotic vision for how to do things. I have had a similar idea in the past, but, because of time restrictions, availability, etc.... it didn't happen. Well, what better way to negate that former statement than to try and pull off the same idea with even LESS time. The concept was simple... I spend a few hours banging out a sketch/skeleton of what the track will be... melody, countermelody, harmony, bass, etc. I then share this skeleton with the entire team and ask them all to contribute as much or as little as they want to the concept, and that they won't get to hear how they are going to be implemented until the track is 100% done.

I, of course, would be contributing my own portion of stems for this monstrosity, frankentrack. So when the 3rd round of Game Set Mash 2 kicked off, I dove in and conjured up the skeleton/base for everyone to work from. As I awaited their contributions, I worked on my own pieces, as darkness loomed around the corner. Stupid COVID kind of came in and demolished my family that week, and I got nailed with it myself leading up to the weekend. I had already asked Wes to be my main support for this track, but I had not planned on leaning on him so heavily.

By Friday, we had a huge pool of stems to work with and imported them all while the drugs were suppressing the ick in my body, so Wes and I hopped on voice and talked through where to feature different parts, what to cut, what was missing, and set out a plan for getting it all moving along. The first pass was already surprisingly pleasant-sounding but obviously had a few kinks to work out, and lots of filler for sections that weren't fully realized. Ultimately, because of my dwindling energy, I asked Wes to pickup the slack where I left off. We both spent a lot of time over the weekend pounding out parts and fine-tuning transitions to make it a more cohesive and enjoyable experience, all still without the rest of the team having a clue how their parts were being used. :)

It was a blind collaborative effort and I can't thank Wes enough for keeping me alive through it, because I did not expect to get that stupid virus the one week I decide to take the lead on a track. :| We tried to incorporate as many ideas from the team's submissions as we could and kept way more than we cut, even sliding the full track over to add even more to the intro. Overall, the project file had 175 tracks and a hefty dosage of automation. My computer from 10 years ago would have burst into flames trying to render it, but, thankfully, it is 2024, and that's not a problem. We hope you enjoy this different approach to producing a remix.

As to who contributed what..."

OHOK, gotta keep it super mysterious! Well, we know VARIA & an opposing posse took on this team with another impressive compo entry, which makes this ReMix's competition also well worth checking out. We'll never quite know the full story for this collab, so judge MindWanderer didn't quite know what to make of the track, but dug it nonetheless, which speaks well to its smörgåsbord-like structure of melodic variations:

"Frankentrack, indeed. I've been mulling over for this one for quite some time because I didn't know what to make of it. It doesn't sound nearly as disjointed as it ought to, given its backstory, but it definitely goes in quite a variety of directions.

But just because I'm having a tough time formulating a description of it, or even an opinion, doesn't mean I can't vote on the merits. And it has plenty of them. It's an achievement of arrangement on several levels, as well as being plenty creative. No reason at all not to give this a YES."

Fellow judge Hemophiliac argued that this was actually quite cohesive, which was exactly where I landed, though he put it much more articulately:

"Too many cooks in the kitchen here, just kidding...everyone said, "YES CHEF!" and Zack + Emunator wrangled everyone in.

It's incredible how all of the contributions from so many amount to this cohesive beast of a track. I particularly like the chip elements and how they fit into the mix, they fit very well into the chaos of everything. It's also very impressive how the blend and mixdown worked out as well. Nothing is too overbearing, too loud, or too quiet.

As far as the arrangement, things dovetail in and out from each other very nicely in the first minute. Overall both sources are used very well, and transitions between them feel well prepared and not sudden at all.

1:10 sounds like a Sonic spin-dash!

Excellent work all around, can't even nitpick anything here."

I was bowled over from the start, though I'm not at all shocked given the leadership here; Zack & Emu used the team's building blocks to construct something exceptionally impressive and sturdy, literal order out of chaos. The arrangement's dynamic, the combination of themes is effective, the sound design's top flight, the beats hit hard, the string work is gorgeous, and the loopability factor is high. The mission may be final, but you'll be enjoying this ReMix a long, LONG time! :-)