My Gaming Audio History: Super Mario Land (1989)

Super Mario Land was released at the same time as the Game Boy, and everyone who got a Game Boy knew you had to get Super Mario to go with it!  What a blast from the past to watch this!  I've done a little reading about the GB and its audio capabilities were similar to the NES.  Four channels of sound possible.  Usually a percussive track was one of them.  Otherwise, bass, melody, and an often homorhythmic harmony voice that dropped out to produce sound effects as needed.  I actually remember playing this game a lot and liking the music.  The graphics were hard to see on the Game Boy screen, but it was a hand held game!

Hirokazu Tanaka.  Here's a composer I didn't know I knew so well.  That's one of the coolest things about this project: learning who's res.  I suppose the same thing might be possible if one actually searched out the composers of pop music from the radio.  It's really interesting to learn whose music I'm hearing and connecting the dots between the music of games I grew up playing.  Perhaps as I continue, and certainly when I'm done with the My Gaming Audio History, I'll be able to examine similarities in the styles of composers across genres, platforms, and throughout their careers.

Love the classical references in the score: Offenbach's Can Can is the invincibility music, and Rock-a-Bye baby for game over!  My favorite themes are the Submarine/Airplane music and End Game music, which reference SMB in certain moments with melodic and rhythmic shapes.  My other favorite theme is the Chai theme-- pentatonic and so stereotypically Asian sounding!  Almost 5 minutes of music in this game, though internal repetitions mean there's slightly less memory needed than the amount to store 5 full minutes of music.

Here's a link to the soundtrack and my notes on each theme:

-Birabuto: C major.  27 sec.  2 sec intro doesn't repeat.  A A' B.  The high off beat punctuations at the end of the two A sections remind me very much of part of the ground theme in SMB 3.
-Coin room: C major. 4 sec.
-Invincibility: Ab major.  8 sec.  Can-can!  (Infernal Ballad- Offenbach this 8 bars starts at :40)  Love the classical reference!
-Level complete: E.  3 sec.  Planing 5ths.
-Oh! Daisy: G major/G minor.  10 sec, 8 sec intro doesn't loop.  Starts in major, 8 sec (5 bars-- similar to SML ground theme) then switches to diminished arepeggios when "Daisy" transforms into a bug.
-Muda theme: A major.  26 sec.  <3 sec intro doesn't repeat.  A-A-B
-Submarine/Airplane: C major. 19 sec.  1 sec intro doesn't repeat.  A A' B. Compositional similarities to the original SMB theme, but inverted-- not strictly.  I loved the underwater worlds and remember thinking the music was similar to SMB even as a kid.
-Easton theme: G minor.  23 sec.  A A B.  Sounds very "Eastern" (otherworldly, old) with the harmonic minor scale.  The lowered 2 scale degree adds even more interest to the melody.
-Chai theme: G major.  49 sec.  A-A-B.  2 sec intro doesn't repeat.  Starts with P4s planing in a stereotypical Asian sound.  Pentatonic.  Old world but with a rock beat to it too.  This is by far my favorite music in the game, simply because of its cleverness.
-Boss fight: Eb. 3 sec.  Very chromatic.  Descending Eb-Bb and arpeggiating diminished chord.
-Final battle: D.  18 sec.  6 sec intro doesn't repeat.  Very chromatic!
-End game: E major.  89 sec.  A-A'-B-C-C'-D(11).  Begins with the same music from an unsuccessful castle rescue (27 sec) then an 8 bar transition (B) and then into the final music which loops (C-C'-D).  The C sections begin very similarly to SMB ground theme in shape and rhythm, but is not an exact replica.
-Bonus game: G major.  5 sec.  Ragtime?
-Game over: C major.  5 sec.  "Rock-a-bye baby" sound-a-like!