Dan Tootill - Last Ninja 2 - Central Park Loader

173 other remixes of Last Ninja 2

26 other remixes of subtune 1

When I started making this, it was never my intention to release it. I was studying the original tune to see if I could learn something from it; I mean how can a 3-channel chip tune sound so huge? I remember standing open-mouthed in front of my cousin's C64 in 1988, rubber shuriken in hand watching the game loading up and thinking If the music is anything to go by, this is going to be the best C64 game of all time. As far as I'm concerned, I was right and this tune has been etched in my brain ever since.

As I'm sure you're aware, Matt Gray himself revisited this in 2014 and that remix launched his Reformation project. I love that version and looking it my Google Play listen history I've had it on 57 times! However I also love the original SID and set out to recreate it as faithfully as I could. Having done so I couldn't resist mixing it with the long bass notes all the way through, just to see how it would sound. I had to keep the sounds fairly SID-like and didn't want to change it too much, but as usual I couldn't resist adding some sweepy chords for good measure. Some big power chords would do a better job of lifting this tune but I never felt it needed much lifting and besides, that's already been done.

I set about playing the chords as major / minor triads as I usually do. The original SID doesn't use any plexes, only root notes and appears to be in the key of G major. For some reason I played the D chord with a minor third, which is what LaLa mentions in the comments. It sounded right at the time and kind of still does, somehow darker than it would otherwise be. Straying from the key isn't something I would usually do on purpose.