Andrea Baroni - Aztec Challenge (run of despair)

Well…now you might say: "no, not another Aztec Challenge remix!!" …but it was spinning through my brain for many months by now, 'cause I belived it was worth a new arrangment, a bit different from the others.
I know, maybe it's not perfect, but it's a work from the heart, for one of my favourite C64 games.
Maybe even the game it's not perfect, it could be repetitive and the graphic s it's not always "brilliant", but I always believed to be an addictive game, with a great intriguing theme…..and I always loved the first scene with the poor fella running through the spears (very drammatic! 😉 ).
So…just a tribute, for all the hours spent with my dad when I was just a kid, trying to pass that fu**#ing first level, and for a very intense Sid, made by one of my favourite composers.

Thanks to Francesco Caprina for the guitar parts!

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Shouts

Tas shouts:

I'll appologise right now for never liking Paul Norman's work. So, It's quite hard for me to judge this correctly.

Waz shouts:

Absolutely spot on. Really nice rendition of the original complete with loud rocking guitars and nice ethnic instruments. Sounds a bit less Industrial than Reyn's version but all the better for it.

z80 shouts:

Woooahhh, it's.... A.... New kind of arrangement.

klosterkatten shouts:

Awesome intro, to bad some sounds are a bit disorted.

dream_19 shouts:

I think that you lost the feeling for the whole tune by concentrating on the (really! ) perfect sound of the instruments. In parts: outstanding, but overall only a "very good" ;)

maindrian shouts:

Interesting. It's nicely epic, takes some ace diversions, has some great sounds.

infamous shouts:

A seriously different take on this tune, and for some reason it really does catch my ear.. Bloody nice.

westerling shouts:

The harmonics is sometimes all over the place, but not with enough hardon to justify it. But it is an interesting remix.

misser shouts:

Yeah I love aztec challenge, I expected lotsa piano. To my suprise it didn't have that, but the guitar and other instuments togheter with the piano makes this my fav. AC to date.

xerex shouts:

Very good atmosphere, I think the best aztec mix

vassago shouts:

Maybe another aztec challenge remix and a new kind of arrangement, but one of the best aztec challenge remixes I´ve come across so far.

condor shouts:

Intro is great! Sound is not clear.

exo shouts:

What is this? A new talent? Nice work.:-)

tony.rc shouts:

I'm impressed nice pace and feeling.

provolik shouts:

Very good!! I hope this arranger will work also on other gams :)

LaLa shouts:

Yeah, the despair and the frustration definitely gets thru! =) I like the arrangement, some of the instruments could use refining, though (like that annoying analog lead). Not the strings: they sound nice!

fraspras shouts:

I love it, especially piano sequence

romeo_knight shouts:

Could have been a red one - intro and mood is fantastic, but there are timing issues with the first guitar part and some instruments seem very unbalanced in the mix.

eliot shouts:

Thiz gets a red even with timing issues (not only the first guitar part) - but we need much more of new ideas...

chilli_uk shouts:

Its a very good mix and yes there are issues - but its nice to see a new side to something - nice work

loz shouts:

Suspance, pathos, wonderful!

omoroca shouts:

Starts out very nice, with the piano and everything. But then the guitar ruins it. And the drums? Are they supposed to sound tribal or something? Doesn't work for me.

prowler shouts:

Good effort, but it just sounded a bit too messy to me.

the_jinx shouts:

Wonderfull version of a great (IMO) SID!! Wonderfull choice of instruments..

zapp shouts:

Great interpretation, fantastic, please make more

snorski shouts:

I would have given it an outstanding, if it weren't for the moodkilling piano at the end.... Nevertheless: great tune!

OldGowrie shouts:

Differnet and Good

tyns shouts:

Unbelievable Remix! I can feeling myself ducking and jumping the spears!

laloczki shouts:

Very nice. Just like the game

earthquakes shouts:

Outstanding

anaconda shouts:

Not bad, not bad at all. Just a bit too noisy towards the end.

InternetRebel shouts:

There isn't much to the original, so I really was curious about this one... Well... Fabulous! Very well done. The first guitar leads sound kind of messy to me, but maybe that's just because rock guitars really aren't my 'thing'. For the rest, superb!

Beebop shouts:

Liked the shouting crowd at 1:45 very much.

GhostEcho shouts:

Very suspenseful and heavy. I like it. The intro rocks!

chabee shouts:

Brilliance!

zajos shouts:

Gives the felling 100% back. Mixing and effects could be better but of course outstanding

Nebdar shouts:

It has the heart

NecroPolo shouts:

If the statement 'it is as sick as the original' works as a compliment, well, then it's a compliment. Great work!

Review by LMan

24/02/2007

Technique

Artistic skill

Nostalgia factor

Overall rating

Parts of this arrangement are absolutely fantastic, others are a bit dissapointing. For instance, the guitar part at 1:43 should be much more bassy heavy (Rammstein esque), maybe an octave lower.

Some of the melody variations don't seem to work very well, because the original arrangement is so powerful - kind of disappointed anticipation.

Still - very good effort, only so close from being really outstanding.