I respect going for the super challenge! I could never it just looked to difficult!
I'm not sure how well the realistic cymbal crash fits the 8-bit aesthetic though.
If you are interested I think that a cool thing to do would be have the cymbal crash go into an orchestral version and then the second crash takes it back to the 8-bit section!
I know that would kind of ruin the "plays the same backwards" aspect but it would also just be a cool idea if you ever revisit this piece.
good job!