Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.
May 26, 2010
Game: Super Mario Bros 2
Song: Character Select
Composer: Koji Kondo
Above: MIDI madness kicks in after 20 secs
Okay, I’ll admit that I’m currently in the throes of aSuper Mario Bros 2 obsession(brought on by a certain 2nd Mario game out this week), but I still wanted to highlight this track for no other reason than the music is perhaps the weakest part of SMB2. There’s only a handful of tracks in game, and they’re all about 30 seconds and loop for an eternity. While this may’ve been acceptable right after the original SMB, it certainly doesn’t fly in a post Super Mario 3 world. Memorable though they may be, they’re hardly what you call remarkable.
It’s impossible to have missed the Character Select music, so you’re no doubt familiar with my favorite track here. But I can guarantee next to none of you have heard the entire thing! Why would you? You knew the drill – Mario’s balanced, Luigi high-jumps, Toad is a quicker picker-upper, and Princess floats for 1.5 seconds – there’s literally no need to dwell there for longer than it takes to fart. Thing is, it’s actually as long as every other track in the game. Thus, I highly doubt many of you have had the exquisite pleasure of hearing Nintendo maestro Koji Kondo go apeshit on the keyboard twenty seconds in, as if he were pounding away on a rickety piano at gunpoint in a turn-of-the-century saloon.
More importantly, it feels more like a Mario track than just about all the other original music in the game.
Game music of the day: Super Mario Galaxy
Purple Coins and Good Egg from Koji Kondo
Game music of the day: Final Fantasy IV
Battle with the Four Fiends by Nobuo Uematsu
Game music of the day: Spider Man vs The Kingpin
Heavy shreddin' by Frykman and Strong
