The internet’s favourite bait-and-switch music collective, SiIvaGunner, is at it again. Almost immediately after Nintendo blew everyone away by announcing the Ocarina of Time remake for the Switch 2, the SG team started pumping out “high-quality rips” of a soundtrack that technically doesn’t even exist yet.
For a channel that has spent a decade hiding The Flintstones theme or Crazy Frog inside video game music, jumping on an unreleased game is a wild move. But their take on the Ocarina of Time Remake Title Theme hits entirely differently. As one YouTube commenter perfectly put it: “The joke is that this one is… beautiful.”
The Anatomy of a High-Quality Rip
If you aren’t familiar with SiIvaGunner’s whole deal, it usually goes like this: you click on a video expecting a clean soundtrack upload. The first thirty seconds sound normal, and then a chaotic meme melody completely hijacks the song.
With this new Ocarina of Time upload, the arrangers show off how talented they actually are when they aren’t just trying to make you laugh.
- The Bait: The track starts with a stunningly believable modern interpretation of Koji Kondo’s classic title theme. The virtual piano sounds crisp and sparse, echoing the instrumentation of Breath of the Wild, while the sweeping strings feel right out of Twilight Princess. It goes on for a full minute and a half before the twist, giving you a legitimate look at what a modern remake could sound like.
- The Switch: When the transition finally happens, it doesn’t drop a loud meme on your head. Instead, the track beautifully shifts into Joe Hisaishi’s iconic theme from Spirited Away. From there, it effortlessly weaves in America’s “Ventura Highway” and Janet Jackson’s “Someone to Call My Lover.”
What makes it brilliant is that even when the pop music takes over, the arrangement keeps using the musical language of the Zelda universe. You will catch acoustic guitars that sound like Gerudo Valley and hand drums that feel right at home with the Gorons. By the end, the ocarina returns to layer the game’s main melody right over Janet Jackson’s rhythm.
More Than Just a Meme
There is a genuine affection for the source material here that sets it apart from the rest of SG’s massive catalogue. It isn’t just cheap juxtaposition for a quick laugh. The humour comes from the fact that the musical craft is entirely real, combined with the absolute absurdity that the team put this together less than 24 hours after the Nintendo Direct happened.
If you want to hear a genuinely gorgeous piece of fan community music that doubles as a brilliant piece of DJ mixing, it’s worth a listen. The team has already built an entire playlist of “rips” for the Ocarina of Time remake, and it’s proof that sometimes the best internet jokes are the ones handled with actual care.