Arrangement of the Week: Apollo Duck

Each game generation seems to have its set of favorite tunes that people just love to remix and arrange. The NES era in particular has a long list of classic game pieces that we never seem to get tired of, no matter how many versions of them we hear. With that in mind, this week’s selection is an arrangement of “The Moon” from the DuckTales NES soundtrack.

This arrangement of “The Moon,” originally composed by Hiroshige Tonomura, comes from artist WillRock (William Harby) with a synth/rock interpretation titled “Apollo Duck.”

The arrangement opens up with some very light synth and piano, but quickly begins to build with a synth arpeggio. At the 0’30” mark the lead melody emerges in the high register to launch us into the main section of the track. The guitar solo work is what really sells this arrangement for me. The clean electric guitar sound works really well with the iconic melodies from the source piece and WillRock delivers a solid performance with the solos.

Part of what puts this particular arrangement up above other interpretations of “The Moon” is the instrument balance. I hear so many rock arrangements with really in-your-face drums, but WillRock makes sure that they are present without drowning out the other instruments. The guitars and synth elements also blend really well together, making for a powerful and energetic sound. Overall, a really solid rock arrangement of a classic NES track.

Have any favorite VGM rock arrangements that you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments below. You can check out and download WillRock’s “Apollo Duck” at OCReMix.