Dwelling Of Duels 09/09: Rareware Month Results

We here at OSV are huge fans of Dwelling of Duels, a monthly game arrangement competition held over at The Minibosses Message Board. The rules are simple: every month has a specific theme, such as game specific, system based, or character based where you can only arrange a song within that set theme. The songs must contain one live instrument and from there on, it’s all up to you. Let’s take a look at the results of September’s DoD, “Rareware Month,” and at the upcoming October DoD.

Click the jump to read the results!

1st: Ergosonic: Donkey Kong Country 2 – “Essence of the Woodlands”
2nd: NekoFrog, Oinkness: Donkey Kong Country 2 – “Monkeys Disarm Your Kremlings”
3rd: LuIzA, Level 99: Star Fox Adventures – “Fossil’s Oasis”
4th: Hale-Bopp: Perfect Dark (N64) – “Sludge Pit”
5th (tie): Hat: Donkey Kong Country – “Celtic Diddy”
5th (tie): Krastins: Donkey Kong 64 – “Mermaid’s Lullaby”
7th: Harjawaldar: Banjo Kazooie – “Longing to See You”
6th: Demonstray: Wizards & Warriors I, II, III (NES), X: Fortress of Fear (GB) – “Fabio Hath Discovered Gooseface”
9th (tie): Eponymized: Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (SNES) – “Rash is a Punk”
9th (tie): MichaelTheCrow: Banjo Kazooie – “Bear And Bird Nightmare”
9th (tie): Rasgar: Battletoads – “Check Out These Shades”
12th: NintenJoe64: RC Pro-Am (NES) – “Race in the A.M.”
13th: Rayth Xelos: Goldeneye (N64) – “Bond of the Hood”

“Essence of the Woodlands” is a wonderful acoustic arrangement of “Forest Interlude” with a wonderful blend of guitar and piano throughout. There is some clipping at times in this song, but it doesn’t distract from its mellow splendor. NekoFrog and Oinkness went with a melodic death metal style with vocals. Pretty awesome stuff, but it could have been a bit more hard-hitting and brutal, as the melody feels a bit light behind this style of vocals.

It wouldn’t be fair of me to comment about LuIzA and Level 99’s entry as I have a sexual history here. Is it with LuIzA or Level99? Or maybe both of them on a moist night at the Hilton Hotel in 2007? Who knows, maybe I’ll come clean if you put a box with evidence in the back of my car.

Hale-Bopp’s arrangement of Perfect Dark emulates Alice in Chains to great success, and seeing as I’m a big AiC fan from my junior high days, I can’t help but love and applaud this song. Love it, love it. Another favorite of mine this month that didn’t place so high was another acoustic marvel, “Longing to See You” by Harjawaldar. Might be some nationalistic bias (this artist is from Norway), but it’s a really beautiful arrangement with guitar and strings, and should have placed higher.

All in all, a pretty good month. It could probably have benefited from a wider selection in Rare’s library, but the songs chosen are good selections. So next month’s DoD is Game Boy Month, where you can arrange anything from the Game Boy and Game Boy Color library. There are a lot of great handheld soundtracks out there, so the results should be exciting.

You can check out Rareware Month and the guidelines for Game Boy Month at the DoD website if you want to enter. And please share your opinions with us on the songs from September and what you want to see in October!