Ocarina of Time is one of the most influential games ever made, and it still receives love from the gaming community to this day. So much love, in fact, that people have modded its version of Hyrule into a wide variety of other games. My personal favorite of these crossover mods is Banjo-Kazooie: The Jiggies of Time, made by Kurko Mods in 2020. It features fully revamped areas, tons of Easter eggs, and, of course, a bunch of rearranged music tracks. One of these reimagined classics is the Gerudo Valley theme.
It opens with the same iconic riff, but it’s played on a plucky bass instead of the original version’s acoustic guitar. Once the rest of the ensemble jumps in, you can instantly hear how this style differentiates itself. The upbeat pace combined with the horns’ doo-wops in the background give this arrangement a delightfully silly bounce. The track embraces a thick, satisfying swing, but the melody remains unmistakable. This version of the song is vastly different from its Ocarina of Time counterpart, and it fits this new style surprisingly well. It’s so wonderfully crafted that somebody who doesn’t know the context might believe it to be from an official Banjo-Kazooie game.
When I first went into it, I didn’t quite know what to expect. How could any alternate version top such a timeless track? The truth is, it never needed to — that wasn’t the point. This lively romp isn’t better or worse than the original, nor is it trying to be. Its goal was to show us an iconic piece of music through a completely new lens, and I think it accomplished that wonderfully.
