Summary
The composer of the originalSuper Mario Bros.goes into detail about how he created the game’s music, specifically the iconic “Ground Theme.” In terms of recognizable video game music, one of the most likely answers to come up is theSuper Mario Bros.“Ground Theme.” It is the first piece of music players will hear when playingthe original NES game, used for the first level of the game. This theme would continue to be used throughout the franchise, including spin-offs, mainline platformers, and even the theatrical film that was released earlier this year.
This theme was originally composed by Koji Kondo, a composer who would help establish many of theiconic themes and motifs heard in various Nintendo franchises. He has been working with Nintendo ever since 1984, with the first game he worked on beingPunch-Out!!for the NES, creating its sound effects. He’s still working with Nintendo to this day, with one of his latest composing credits being the music for the recently releasedSuper Mario Bros. Wonder. Recently, Kondo described his process of working on the originalSuper Mario Bros.and how he came up with the game’s music.
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In an interview with NHK (with atranslation by Nintendo Everything), Kondo spoke about how his first version of the track was scrapped. His first impressions of the originalSuper Mario Bros.were very strong, thanks to the bright sky and grassland. Kondo initially composed a track that was gentle and relaxing, but he found it unfitting with Mario running around and jumping on enemies. As a result, he needed to scrap the track, with the second composition he made being the iconic theme fans are familiar with.
According to Kondo, the track was scrapped after the other staff members told him it sounded “weird,” with them agreeing that the first version of the theme matched the background, but didn’t go with its gameplay. Instead, Kondo approached the theme’s rhythm by making it match the physical feeling of running and jumping, which he had toplaySuper Mario Bros.multiple timesin order to get the basic melody and tempo down.
Kondo described how he was under a lot of pressure, with the originalSuper Mario Bros.being the first game he composed background music for. Past games that he worked on were the game’s sound effects. Despite the pressure, he wanted to create enjoyable music that had never been heard before, using only three notes. When he was asked by peers about what genre the theme was, he noted that he didn’t create with a specific genre in mind. Instead, it’s justvideo game music, with the music not fitting a particular genre and was created to matchSuper Mario Bros.itself.
Super Mario Bros.
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