Remix64 — Last Ninja 2 vs Ninja Remix: what's the deal? (Chris Abbott)
Why the cartridge re-release of last-ninja-2 has a completely different soundtrack — a one-page case study in the practical meaning of "a game has one music driver".
Key claims#
- System 3 re-released LN2 on cartridge (and enhanced tape/disk) with an intro animation that needed new music, "and Matt Gray had left System 3 for pastures new. So, reyn-ouwehand of maniacs-of-noise, the new darlings of game music, stepped into Matt's shoes."
- "But what to do about all the old tracks? In a game like Last Ninja 2 there's no room for two music drivers, and Reyn couldn't work in Matt's driver (though they managed to squeeze Antony Lees' driver into the intro!) The only alternative was to rewrite the soundtrack. And, in the process, remove some of the youthful copyright infringements Matt had enthusiastically peppered the original soundtrack with." (sid-player-routine, matt-gray-player, musicfile)
- Track by track: no separate loading tunes (the level's in-game tune plays while loading); intro = Antony Lees' The Dungeons from Last Ninja 1; Central Park = a bouncier cover of Ben Daglish's Wastelands (LN1); The Street = "a cover of Matt's Central Park, though again, much bouncier than most would remember, an inevitable part of using the MoN driver"; The Sewers = "a direct and unapologetic cover" of Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence; The Basement, The Office (another Wastelands remix "adding a Follinesque riff here and there"), The Mansion/Final Battle ("moving, romantic and epic").
- Verdict: "The whole experience is lighter and poppier. That's a whole new New York, but it's not the one Matt Gray had in mind!" — "one of the first steps in birthing Reyn Ouwehand".
Relevance to the wiki#
Concrete evidence that composers were tied to drivers: a rescoring rather than a re-entry of the notes into another player. Touches last-ninja-2, reyn-ouwehand, matt-gray-player and sid-player-routine.
Pages touched#
last-ninja-2 · reyn-ouwehand · maniacs-of-noise · matt-gray · matt-gray-player · musicfile · system-3 · sid-player-routine