Analysis: Music and Nostalgia in The New Super Mario Bros Wii

My partner and I have been playing The New Super Mario Bros Wii again recently because we like to play games together and, of course, because of my blog, I've been thinking about the music.

In general, the music has a calypso feel that reminds me of the original Super Mario Bros game.  And many of the NSMB Wii themes, like the Underwater Theme or the Beach Theme, while not a direct remake of the original, call to mind classic themes like the Super Mario Bros Underwater Theme or Super Mario Kart's Koopa Beach Theme.  Likewise, for a thirty year old gamer who can remember playing the original game, some of my favorite moments in the game music are those tracks that bring back classic themes from previous games.  Many of the sound effects, the death sound and the "Help me!" cries of your character-- which actually play from the Wii remote speaker (Wiimote as I call it).  These bring a cool added dimension of 3D spacial sound for the player that highlights the audio advantage the Wii has by giving you a speaker in your hand.  There are other touches too: the layering effect of adding percussion (first used in Super Mario World) when you get on Yoshi in NSMB Wii is still a part of the classic audio experience.

Several of the short, classic themes make a reappearance, for instance, The P-Switch, Star Theme, Course Clear (with fireworks), and Princess Peach Rescue Theme come to mind immediately.  However, some longer themes make an appearance as well as remade, updated versions.  These are some of my favorite sound tracks in the game because they bring up nostalgia from my childhood, particularly from Super Mario Bros 3, which many gamers of my generation would consider to be the "best" of the Super Mario Bros classic games.  For instance, the Koopa battle theme is a remake of the theme from Super Mario Bros 3.  Compare:

The Hammer Bros Theme from SMB 3 is redone as well for this game for the battles that occur from encounters on the world map.

The Underground Theme from the Original Super Mario Bros also gets a remake in this game.  I never thought about the original not being in common time, but as I re-listen I realize that it got moved to 4/4 at some point.  These first examples have all been lengthened in some way from their original versions.

My favorite classic remake, though, is the airship level theme.  Not only was I super pumped to see an airship level because they are so much fun, when the music starts up, it's an absolute flashback to my childhood.  This is the first remade theme I've listed here that's not in the same key as the original.

Other miscellaneous audio thoughts:

While not a direct remake, the Volcano Level theme reminds me of Ganon's Dungeon Theme from the original Legend of Zelda.  The World Map 3 theme, being an icy world, uses sleigh bells in the instrumentation to convey that sense of holiday/winter that is prevalent, at least in America.  Similarly, the Snow Level theme is the same as the new Overworld theme of the game, but has sleigh bells playing in the background.  It's a cool way to make the music sound wintery (Christmas-y?).  Compare Leroy Anderson's Sleigh Ride.  The Giant Bowser theme incorporates organ and chimes, classic sounds that invoke the ideas of death and godlike imagery common to many games, but of course, I think of Final Fantasy IV Golbez theme and Final Fantasy VII, Sephiroth's theme.

Game Music Online: Audio mentioned in G4 Top 100 Video Games: Part 5

And the final of the best of the best list.  The top games of all time whose music was worthy of being highlighted in G4's series.  I've learned a lot from this process and will reflect on it in a journal follow up next.  Enjoy!



13 Portal:  GLaDOS-- computer female voice-- a "you're being taunted by HAL's sarcastic sister with her very pleasant speaking voice and her passive aggressive nature."  -Todd Stashwick  This is the highest spoken game audio highlight.  Not a game I know, but one I definitely think I should check out.

12 Doom II:  One of the members of Soundgarden mentions dreaming about the audio effects in Doom II.  I've dreamed about all kinds of music-- definitely game audio as well-- but never thought about the importance of this level of musical engagement with game music.  As a classical musician, I regularly dream about operas/musicals/chamber music/ songs that I'm studying.  I've definitely done it with game music before, but interesting to really consider how deeply this sound event enters our consciousness.

11 Zelda 64 (Ocarina of Time):  "Adding to the Legend were the music moments made possible by the Ocarina."  "They completely integrated this thing where you actually got to play the music in Zelda."  "So to call your horse, you actually play its song."  Music is such a central part of the Zelda series and why I love it so much.  I'm interested to consider some of the newer additions to the series-- I think Skyward Sword has incredible music.

6 Legend of Zelda  "LoZ mixed a high fantasy adventure with some of the most memorable music and sound effects in gaming history."  "The whole Zelda series is one of the most powerful pavolvian audio experiences you can have in terms of the sound effects you hear that trigger crazy reactions in your body." --Tim Schafer

5 Tetris  "most obnoxious get stuck in your head music ever"  -Claire Grant.  I love this music-- and as I know it, a Russian folk song.

1 Super Mario Bros:  Introduced by nearly all the hosts singing a part of the theme song put together in a montage.  I used to play this game at the local Pizza Hut growing up.  The audio was life changing.  Incredible.  An article about this game audio inspired me, in part, to start this blog!

Live Performances: The Legend of Zelda Timeline

Tonight, I watched The Legend of Zelda Timeline movie from gametrailers.com.  While there's no specific mention of the game music in the video, it's fun to hear snippets of the game music.  Immediately I realized that most of the soundtrack seems to be from the Legend of Zelda 25th anniversary CD that came with Skyward Sword.  Of course, I've listened to that MANY times already.  The credits list Zelda Reorchestrated and Twilight Symphony as the other sources of music.  These sites are in their infant stage (much like my own blog) and I hope to see them grow over time.

The coolest thing I found as a result of watching this video is this incredible guitar cover of my favorite theme from Skyward Sword, Faron Woods.

Game Music Online: Visualization of The Legend of Zelda overworld

I found this video via the retro game audio tumblr site I posted about last time. To be honest, I've probably watched this video 20 times in the last few hours since I found it. I'm very interested in how the connection of visual images to audio can get people listening more closely to music, and this realization of the various channels/waves from the NES is both impressive and artistic to me.

Here, we see the two pulse waves on the top playing the melody and harmony/countermelody. The sawtooth wave on the lower left is the bass and the lower right video is the noise channel, percussion.  Amazing connection for me between the physics of the sound waves, and the NES audio channels.