Mario's long history with music! (Super Mario Bros. Music post part 1)

     Here's a sentiment that I bet you have never heard before: Koji Kondo's music is incredible. I'm joking of course, considering just how many iconic themes Mr. Kondo has written over the past 35 years or so. If you don't think you're familiar with his contributions, I can almost guarantee that you are in some shape or form. Mr. Kondo has written music for the Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda series of games, including the iconic theme from the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES which is quite possibly the best known theme in any video game. The man is a legend to the video games community, and his contributions cannot be ignored. He could potentially be seen as the original video game composer, as before him, video games had very simple scores, typically there wouldn't be more than one song you heard for an entire game, especially back during the Atari days of the 70's and early 80's. In the years since his iconic works, however, he's not just sat back on his laurels. As the profession of video game composer became a much more common entity at different developers, Mr. Kondo has continued to work on different themes for all of his games, and continually strives to add his flair to Nintendo's best known titles. Though Koji Kondo remains one of my favorite composers to date, there are so many great Nintendo composers and musicians that have clearly been inspired by his iconic themes, which is why Nintendo games continue to have some of the best tracks, not just from the gaming industry, but of all time. In this post, I'll attempt to write about some of my favorite tracks from Mario's long history, though this is quite a large task, so it may be several weeks that I'm writing about this topic. Get your tuxedos on, for we are in for quite a musical post today!

Let's take it from the top!

    As I stated before, Mario's music has always been great. Level 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. catches you immediately with its iconic overworld melody, which is as upbeat and charming as it can be as you jump then transitions to another great piece for the underground in 1-2, it's much more subdued and relies on the feeling of a theme echoing off the walls, perfect for what it is. The heart-pounding castle theme conveys a perfect blend of fear and adrenaline that keeps pushing Mario forward in his quest to rescue the princess. World 2-2 is when water levels are first introduced, and the track for the water levels is so smooth and flowing, it makes perfect sense for this style of level. Even on the early 8-bit console, the music in Super Mario Bros. is simple, but extremely effective for setting up the tone of the series. Super Mario Bros. 2 (in the U.S. anyways) is a very different game, but many themes are inspired by the original's soundtrack. The main theme of the game when it is first booted up is basically a recreation of the underwater theme from the original game, for example. The music this time around is much more energetic, though the caves/ underground theme have an almost Arabian feel to them. Birdo or other boss characters appearing in many of the game's levels, so the boss music is more common than in the original game. The theme conveys a similar air of tension to that earlier game, and still makes it satisfying to defeat these weirder enemies. There was still not a huge collection of different music here, with the first game only having about Six or Seven songs (not including the flagpole jingle), and the second having a similar number of tracks, but that would change with the next game in the series. Super Mario Bros. 3 is a fantastic game no matter how you slice it, and the music is right up there with the gameplay. This time around, Mr. Kondo came up with not just a song for the individual levels, he wrote songs for the world map as well (as this was a new addition with this game). There was a "normal" level theme, but there were also many variations on those themes. Eight new worlds meant new catchy songs to get stuck in your head, and all were very appropriate to the themes of the areas. The themes for World 8, where Bowser was waiting, were definitely among the most intimidating, where as world one was full of dancing hills and trees dancing along to the map screen music. So much of the music in this game is permanently etched into my head that I really can't describe it without you just listening to all of the wonderful tunes, though with the new console generation just around the corner, surely Mario would have a new tune to hum soon.

Now you're listening with super power!

    Super Nintendo, or SNES came out in November of 1990, and right alongside it, Super Mario World was released for this new console. As always, Mr. Kondo composed the music for this game, and it features exactly what you would expect. The new console made for much better music, of course, and with that, you have some of the best tracks ever listed even today. I still go back and listen to the Yoshi's Island level themes from this game, it's such a happy theme and practically acts like another "overworld" theme for this game. There are many themes, don't get me wrong, but you hear this one many times, not to mention that the cave theme is a more slowed down version of it which echoes slightly. The castle theme is more than just bombastic this time around, the tunes are almost reminiscent of something that you would hear on an organ in a vampire's castle mixed with the overworld theme that I was mentioning before. It's really amazing how many different inversions can be made with the same general themes in mind, especially when you consider that any level theme could have bongo drum beats added anytime you jumped onto a Yoshi. Really a touch of genius there! I have to give a special shout out to Forest of Illusion, as that area has such a unique world map theme, almost sounding like it should be part of a Zelda game and it lends to the idea of you having to explore every nook and cranny to find secret exits to get out of the forest. It's a special area to say the least. Of course, this game wasn't the only appearance of Super Mario on the system, they also released Super Mario All-Stars, an updated version of the first three NES games as well as The Lost Levels, which was the new name given to the Japanese release of Super Mario Bros. 2. The remakes came with remade music, though they were the same basic themes as the original games, brought forward with what the new technology could handle. 

    In a completely different take, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island also released for this console, and though it has the title, "Super Mario World 2," this was a completely different game from the original. This game had players controlling different Yoshis as they take Baby Mario to reunite with Baby Luigi and save them both from the clutches of Bowser. The music in this game is quite different from the rest of the Mario series, with the opening theme having the loving touch of not only sounding like it's coming from a music box, but the box running out of steam and a hand having to crank it part of the way through the song. It's a beautiful piece of music, and the same goes for the vast majority of songs in the game. The ending credit themes are also all brilliant for basically every Mario game, but especially the themes for Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island hit pretty hard. Even though the music from these SNES games are pretty phenomenal, with the Nintendo 64, Mario still manages to turn up the heat.

The heat is more concentrated this time around!

    Super Mario 64 is obviously one of the most influential games of all time, known for transitioning into 3D, and paving the way for other properties to do the same. Along with the improved 3D graphics came even more music. Mario 64 took a different approach to the worlds this time around, with fewer large, open spaces, instead of more individual levels. There are only a handful of levels here, and all of them have extremely memorable themes to them. As soon as you enter Peach's castle, you are hit by a theme that's so memorable and iconic that it's essentially Princess Peach's theme song now. Bob-omb Battlefield, the first real level of the game, starts you off with a supremely catchy and upbeat melody that just begs you to keep exploring more and more of the area, and the same thing goes for just about every level in the game. Dire Dire Docks is just beautiful and takes the "water theme" genre of video game music to new heights (or should that be depths?) Special shout out to Big Boo's Haunt, which is a haunted mansion area, if for no other reason than making the music really creepy to begin with, and then you fall into a pit and end up on a carousel of sorts where it plays this creepy circus music. It's creepy and it works really well. Speaking of killer music, there's actually a piano that attacks you in this level if you get too close. be warned! The Bowser music in this game is interesting in a way that has really stuck with me as an omen of evil, in a way that very few songs have. 

    This task has been a lot more daunting than I first anticipated, so I'm going to cut this first post off here with a little recommendation for each of the games that I've been talking about today. I hope you'll listen to some of them and enjoy what you hear. Know that I own none of this music of course, all of it belongs to Nintendo and Koji Kondo was the actual composer. I just want to give you all a small taste of the progression of Mario's music!

Super Mario Bros.: Underwater Theme (Just a delightful piece that I feel gets overlooked)
Super Mario Bros. 2: Overworld Theme (upbeat times in the dream world of Subcon)
Super Mario Bros. 3: World 1 Map theme (all of the music in this game is amazing, you really cannot go wrong)
Super Mario World: Overworld theme or Credits Roll (perfect celebration music)
Yoshi's Island: Opening theme (Beautiful music box sound) or Athletic theme (Much more energetic and fun)
Super Mario 64: Peach's Castle, Bob-omb Battlefield, or Dire Dire Docks (all incredible tracks that I couldn't really choose between)

    Thank you all so much for reading this post, I hope you've enjoyed it, and I'll continue with Mario on the Gamecube next time I touch on this! Do you have a favorite song from any of Mario's games? Let me know what it is if you can think of any! I hope you're all staying safe and healthy! Until next time, I've been Jonathan, your Self-Proclaimed music aficionado, and I'll talk to you again soon!