#siiva commentary

[cookiefonster]

SiIvaGunner Rip Commentary #1: 22 Short Films About Donut Plains

I've decided to do a little thing inspired by @7grandmel's awesome blog writing elaborate reviews of Siiva rips. And that is, writing commentary on every single rip I made for SiivaGunner, and also for TimmyTurnersGrandDad because why not. There's over a hundred of them, so buckle up! I plan to commentate one rip per day if I can.

Donut Plains (Beta Mix) - Super Mario World

Upload date: Feb 5, 2018

Album title: 22 Short Films About Donut Plains

This is my first ever rip to get on SiivaGunner, and also my most viewed at 188,405 views as of this writing (September 19, 2025). I managed to find the exact moment its idea came into my head, on January 28, 2018 in the Cool and New Music Team Discord server:

I NEEDED to turn this idea into reality, so I went on a frenzy of research (with some help from Wild Matsu's high quality ripping guide) to figure out how to do it. I struggled at first:

But eventually, I managed to put the rip together in FL Studio, and submitted it in an email. I still remember how excited I was to find a private video in Siiva's Super Mario World playlist, sorted right after the original Donut Plains rip. And then I was even more excited when my rip went up on the channel. It was the first rip published on the channel to use the Skinner and the Superintendent theme song, then many rips with the same joke followed. I like to think my Donut Plains rip played a part in causing that trend.

I wish I could've had this rip on Volume A, the megacomp album released in summer 2018. I actually did send an email submitting the rip to the album with a lossless file and title for the rip, in case the team had a new best-of album planned, but it was ignored. So instead, after I got on the team I submitted it to the 2019 megacomp, Volume AI. Both albums are now gone from Bandcamp, which is sad to me because I've always loved SiivaGunner albums. I love digging through them to find who made which rip, the humorous names people would invent for their rips, and even rediscover rips I hadn't heard in forever. All the albums before the Bandcamp got taken down in April 2024 are still available as Google Drive mirrors, but it's just not the same.

I sort of wish my most viewed rip was something more elaborate than this, but I do still have a special place in my heart for this one. It's only 15 seconds long and I executed the joke perfectly.

And plus, I've learned that how many views a rip on the channel gets mostly depends on what game it is. For instance, Undertale, Deltarune, and Pokemon series rips get a lot of views, whereas some games I have many rips of such as Cave Story or Simple DS Series Vol. 1 - The Mahjong get very few.

[cookiefonster]

SiIvaGunner Rip Commentary #27: The Most Obvious Undertale Joke in the History of the World

Friends 1 - Kirby's Dream Land 3

Upload date: May 19, 2019

Album title: The Most Obvious Undertale Joke in the History of the World

"Friends 1" with "Enemy Approaching" from Undertale is such an obvious joke that I'm surprised Siiva didn't do it until I came along. It was a simple and easy rip and that's exactly what it needed to be. Maybe I could have done a full-length arrangement of "Enemy Approaching", but I didn't need to at all.

[cookiefonster]

SiIvaGunner Rip Commentary #26: idk why i didnt submit this to volume L

Route 201 (Day) (JP Version) - Pokémon Diamond & Pearl

Upload date: May 15, 2019

Album title: idk why i didnt submit this to volume L (though I could've also called it Route 201 on Mars)

I wanted to do something with "Cats on Mars" by the Seatbelts because it had shown up in several Siiva rips and is such a fun song, so I simply came up with this. I think it's a nice little arrangement.

There's one part of the song I kept unedited except a pinch of Snow Halation. In retrospect I could've probably put another joke there, but ah well.

[cookiefonster]

I haven't forgotten about my SiIvaGunner rip commentary post series, don't worry! I am just working on a big musical project throughout October (it's called Riptober, maybe you've heard of it?) and that's taking up a lot of my free time. I may write a post or two before the month ends, but my commentary series will resume for real in November.

[cookiefonster]

SiIvaGunner Rip Commentary #25: Player Down - Phil & Jack's Island

Player Down - Yoshi's Island

Upload date: May 14, 2019

Album title: Player Down - Phil & Jack's Island

There isn't much to say about this super-short rip, so instead of commentating on it, I'll explain why I only have three tracks on the album "smol rips for smol people" when I've made plenty of other rips that are just as smol. The reason why is because I completely forgot to submit to the album at first, and I only got to be on it because three tracks were removed at the last minute and needed replacements so that the album would still have 69 contributors and 420 tracks. I picked the three smol rips of mine that I think are the funniest, and the rest will have to wait till another day to get on an album.

Anyway, people... it's the Nutshack.

[cookiefonster]

SiIvaGunner Rip Commentary #24: Aqua Swamp

Aqua Star (Alpha Mix) - Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Upload date: May 4, 2019

Album title: Aqua Swamp

Now here's my second rip of Aqua Star! It's not as good as the one with Redial, but I still think this is a fun one. Backroom member Harmony Friends chose this as the second rip uploaded on the 20th anniversary of "All Star" by Smash Mouth because they really liked this one in particular. I put in not just All Star, but two other songs with a similar personality that are connected through their presence in Neil Cicierega's Mouth albums: "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind, and "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies. All three of these songs are goofy and weird, but total bangers at the same time—in other words, perfect for Siiva rips.

By the way, I fucking love All Star. It's one of my favorite songs ever, and I'm happy Siiva honored the song with a fun little anniversary event. That song just never fails to lift my mood, even after the untimely death of its singer Steve Harwell. My face lights up whenever I hear it in the wild and I even sometimes sing it while running.

[cookiefonster]

SiIvaGunner Rip Commentary #23: Amity Square (Beta Mix) - Pokémon Diamond & Pearl

Amity Square (Beta Mix) - Pokémon Diamond & Pearl

Upload date: May 2, 2019

Album title: wait a minute kirby isnt a square

Probably one of my cutest-sounding rips, this features Butter Building, The Lion Sleeps Tonight (which became a small running gag during the channel's 2019 termination), and Totino's. And the four notes of the Nutshack which I occasionally sneak into rips.

The annoying thing about multi-source medley rips is that it's hard to come up with an album title for them, especially if they're of a game I haven't played. So as is typical of me, I came up with the silliest album title I could.

[cookiefonster]

SiIvaGunner Rip Commentary #22: World 5 Map (Alternate Mix) - Kirby's Adventure

World 5 Map (Alternate Mix) - Kirby's Adventure

Upload date: Apr 26, 2019

Album title: this was lazy i should've arranged the rest of gentle breeze

I think this is one of my weakest rips on the channel. It's yet another that didn't make it to an album until Volume L Again. It's one of those rips where the concept sounds good on paper, but when I actually made it it just ended up sounding stilted.

Due to the janky behavior of the triangle channel when combined with DPCM samples in Famitracker, this rip didn't end up sounding great exported straight from the software, so I rendered each channel individually then combined them into one rip.

Fun fact: this is the only rip of mine that made it onto a demo playlist for a King for Another Day contestant, specifically the one for Dr. Piccolo, because the source used is related to medicine.