KENZIE Releases RE:WORKS 2 Featuring NCT WISH

KENZIE and NCT WISH have brought a familiar song into a new digital world with “Cheat Code (KENZIE RE:WORKS).” The track leads RE:WORKS 2, a project released through SM Entertainment’s ScreaM Records on October 8. Its official music video is available on SMTOWN’s YouTube channel, where the release is presented alongside an instrumental version.

The new project is built around reinterpretation. Rather than treating “Cheat Code” as a finished object that should only be replayed in its original form, KENZIE’s version uses the existing song as a starting point for a different sonic environment. Newsis describes the result through chiptune sounds and glitch effects, with the production shaped as an experimental 8-bit retro-game soundscape.

That description gives the release a clear identity while leaving room for listeners to compare the original and the reworked version. The appeal is not simply that the track has a new arrangement. It is that the rearrangement changes the frame through which the song is heard.

RE:WORKS 2 Rebuilds “Cheat Code”

The official SMTOWN description identifies RE:WORKS 2 as a KENZIE and NCT WISH release and lists two tracks: “Cheat Code (KENZIE RE:WORKS)” and its instrumental version. The compact tracklist makes the project feel focused. The vocal version places the reworked composition at the center, while the instrumental offers a separate way to hear the arrangement’s construction.

Newsis reports that the title track reinterprets “Cheat Code,” a song associated with NCT WISH’s third mini album. The word “reinterprets” is important here. The project is not presented as a new unrelated song that happens to share a title. It is a deliberate conversation with an existing NCT WISH track, using new production choices to reveal another side of its musical material.

The sonic details reported by Newsis point toward a strongly coded atmosphere. Chiptune timbres are associated with the limited, synthetic vocabulary of early video-game music, while glitch effects introduce interruption, fragmentation and digital texture. Combined, those elements suggest a track that treats sound almost like a visual interface: melodies and rhythms can feel like movement through a screen, a level or a set of electronic signals.

The official description similarly frames the broader project as a reimagining of KENZIE’s iconic hits through bold experimentation and fresh sounds. The confirmed facts do not identify every song that may belong to the wider creative history, so the safest reading is that RE:WORKS 2 demonstrates the principle through this collaboration. “Cheat Code” becomes a test case for how a recognizable K-pop song can be transformed without losing its identity as the source material.

The instrumental listing strengthens that idea. When a release includes an instrumental version, listeners can focus more closely on the arrangement itself: the rhythmic programming, electronic textures and spaces between the vocal lines. It creates a second listening route for the same reworked track and makes the production choices easier to examine.

An 8-Bit World for NCT WISH

The retro-game reference gives the music video and the song a shared interpretive language. The available report does not claim a specific plot for the MV, and it does not provide a scene-by-scene account. What it does establish is a production direction that can be understood through the title “Cheat Code” and the reported use of chiptune and glitch elements.

A cheat code changes the conditions of a game. In musical terms, that idea offers a useful metaphor for the rework: the familiar song is placed under a new set of rules. Its central material remains recognizable, but the sound design alters the route through which the listener reaches it. The result is less about erasing the original than about opening an alternate path.

For NCT WISH, the collaboration connects the group’s recorded identity with KENZIE’s producer-led project. For KENZIE, it provides a contemporary example of the RE:WORKS concept. The pairing is also notable because the source song and the new arrangement belong to different moments of the same K-pop ecosystem. NCT WISH supplies the song’s established identity, while KENZIE’s rework supplies the experimental lens.

That lens can make a familiar track feel newly discoverable to existing listeners. Someone who already knows “Cheat Code” can listen for the changes in texture and rhythm. Someone encountering the song through the rework can then understand it as part of a larger exchange between artist, producer and label. The instrumental version adds another point of entry for listeners who want to concentrate on the production rather than the vocal presentation.

KENZIE’s Producer Perspective

Newsis places the collaboration within KENZIE’s wider career as a K-pop producer. The report associates her work with BoA, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet and aespa. Those credits matter in this context because they show why a reworking project can function as more than a one-off remix. KENZIE is approaching the material with a long familiarity with the structures and visual worlds of SM-related pop.

The RE:WORKS idea therefore turns production history into an active creative method. A song can carry the memory of its original arrangement while still being opened up to new rhythmic, electronic and visual possibilities. The reported chiptune and glitch palette makes that method audible. It is a way of treating K-pop composition as something that can be disassembled and rebuilt, with the new version revealing details that a straightforward repeat might leave in the background.

The project also extends beyond sound. Newsis reports that KENZIE worked with media-art group AMBERIN on a media-art exhibition connected to the release. The available information does not specify the exhibition’s individual works or schedule, so those details should not be assumed. The confirmed collaboration does, however, establish that RE:WORKS 2 is being presented as a broader audiovisual idea rather than only a track upload.

That expansion fits the release’s digital vocabulary. Glitch effects and 8-bit references already invite listeners to imagine a visual system. A media-art partnership makes that connection explicit, suggesting that the project’s sound and imagery are intended to share a common language of pixels, signals and transformed familiarity.

Where the Rework Leaves Listeners

The strongest immediate reason to watch the official MV is to hear how the reported production concept operates in practice. The official SMTOWN upload provides the primary viewing source, while the two-track release allows the song to be revisited in both vocal and instrumental forms. No chart figures or verified audience-response numbers are included in the sources, so the release should be assessed through its confirmed creative choices rather than unsupported predictions.

The outlook for “Cheat Code (KENZIE RE:WORKS)” is consequently tied to repeat listening. Its structure invites comparison: the original NCT WISH song establishes the reference point, KENZIE’s version supplies the alternate design, and the instrumental makes the reworked foundation more exposed. That format gives the collaboration value for both casual listeners and fans interested in production.

RE:WORKS 2 presents reinterpretation as an event in its own right. KENZIE and NCT WISH do not simply revisit “Cheat Code”; they place it inside a new 8-bit vocabulary shaped by chiptune, glitch and the wider idea of a digital game world. With the official music video now available through SMTOWN, the project offers a compact but clearly defined example of how K-pop songs can be revisited, expanded and heard again from another angle.