Arcade, 8-bit, and Game Soundtracks - part 3

𝟑 𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠

Day 28 of March Madness, where I challenge myself to remaster 1 final boss/final area theme from a video game every day. Today, I did the Great Palace theme from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. This game gets a bad reputation, but if you play it with save states/rewind and a guide, it's really fun. Dark Souls-esque combat on the NES hasn't aged that well, but the game is a fun one to pass the time. Not much to say about the song, though, except for the fact that I REALLY like how it came out. Enjoy!

Great Palace (Zelda II: The Adventure of Link) (March Madness: Final Boss/Area Themes Remastered)

Thanks everyone for patiently waiting. 3 years 9 months is how long I've been stuck on this track. I would always quit and do some other track, and this one always kept nagging on me until I finally gave myself an ultimatum to finish this up or none at all. I spent nearly every day of the pandemic working on it. Zelda II is such a different beast compared to the rest of the series, which is why I am an apologist for it. I really like how populated the world is, and funny enough it's still the game furthest along in the timeline. I treated it as if it was everyone's favorite in the series. This may be my only track where you see a perfect mesh of story, visuals, and music working in perfect sync.
 
For more notes on the track, and to appreciate it with the visuals, check it out on my YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/thesecondnarrator

Support me at https://www.patreon.com/thesecondnarrator

Arrangement and Cover Art by Jeremiah Sun
Original Theme by Akito Nakatsuka
You can play Zelda II on the Nintendo Switch Online NES app

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement

01 - Prologue & Title Theme | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Orchestral Arrangement

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past playlist.

Note the similarities between this and A Link Between Worlds. I suppose since they're set in the same Hyrule they have similar soundtracks.

Princess Zelda's Rescue   The Legend Of Zelda A Link To The Past

Zelda II The Adventure Of Link - Palace Theme

Revised version after ace feedback from OC ReMix judges panel.

Zelda II The Adventure of Link - Do You Need A Light? Remix (Battle BGM)

written for lead composer Steph Kowal for Amazon's Animated Children's Special 'Super Spy Ryan' (2020)

"Arcade Claw" - 'Super Spy Ryan' Additional Music (Animation, 8-Bit, Chiptune)

Drew Mikuska is a film and television composer living and working in Los Angeles, California.  Most recently, Mikuska finished orchestrating and conducting Anton Sanko’s score for the upcoming Netflix feature Fracture (2019). This is his second collaboration with Sanko as orchestrator; their work on Sanko’s score for French feature Amanda (2018) was nominated for “Best Score” at the César Awards earlier this year.  Currently, Mikuska is completing additional composing & orchestration work in television for composer Layla Minoui on Disney’s Vampirina, Anton Sanko on Freeform’s Siren, and Leo Birenberg on Adult Swim’s Tigtone. Recent selected credits include: additional writing, arranging and performing as a vocalist on Dreamworks’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power for composer Sunna Wehrmeijer; additional writing on an upcoming Dreamworks series for composer Josh Moshier; and acting as scoring assistant for composer Patrick Kirst on Netflix’s hit The Kissing Booth.  Mikuska completed a Masters of Music in Screen Scoring in the Spring of 2017 at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music after finishing a Bachelors of Music in Composition at USC in 2016. During his time at USC, he was awarded the ASCAP Betty Rose Award & Scholarship, which is presented each year to an "outstanding, promising composer participating in The ASCAP Foundation Composer-in-Residence Program at the University of Southern California."  In addition, Mikuska has been selected to participate in a variety of prestigious professional scoring workshops.  He completed a fellowship in the 2018 Los Angeles Film Conducting Intensive under the mentorship of Conrad Pope, William Ross and Angel Velez after taking part in the 2017 ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop with Richard Bellis, through which he was recognized with the ASCAP Foundation Michelle and Dean Kay Award for his achievements.  He also took part in the 2016 NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop.  During his time in LA, he also has had the privilege of writing for, assisting and interning for several other outstanding film composers, including Joe Trapanese, Jake Monaco, Peter Bateman, Gabriel Mann, Peter Golub, and at Remote Control Productions.  For more info, click here.  To listen to more original music in addition to the highlights below, click here.