From Iwata Asks, we find that Mario music now has an IDEOLOGY. Yes, apparently music can’t be ‘fun’ anymore. No, the music now must be ‘functional’ (to whom? Certainly not functional to the player’s standards).
Yokota:
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This is stupid. The true fun of a game like Super Mario Brothers is when the player gets into a type of ‘zen state’ where he is moving, jumping, going through the stage where his hands and senses are moving faster than his thoughts. The sounds and music all blur and give a somewhat hypnotic effect. In this, the player feels like king of the world.
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The music, like graphics, also adds flavor to the content. It is impossible to think of a Robot Master from the Mega Man games without thinking of their music. The reason why these robot 8-bit characters have so much personality is because much of it is created by the music.
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I don’t want the music to try to get me to ‘move forward’. I want the music to be part of the world I am exploring. It is why the music of the underwater stage is so special as is the music of the underground stage in Super Mario Brothers 1 (as well as the castles). The music flavored the game.
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What idiot would believe Yokota’s music ideology?
Iwata:
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And there you have it.
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Kondo: Video game music is different from movie music. I think it’s more like music for television commercials. An intro is important as a kind of sign that as soon as you hear it, it instantly tells you what song it is, and even if the level changes, what level you’re on.
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When Kondo says something like this, he sounds like a genius. But what he is really saying is not that game music should be different from movie music and more like commercials, he is saying that movie music places restrictions on him that he doesn’t like while commercial music allows him to do more of whatever he wants. Listen to what Yokata says:
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It’s like the music in a silent film. Just by listening to the music, you can tell what kind of story is unfolding. That’s the characteristic of Mario games.
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Now the music tells the story!!! Now music is like a movie! Oh God!
Yokota:
.No one listens to music to tell them a story or to give them instructions. Music creates a hypnotizing effect. People are more comfortable pairing music up with hypnotizing visuals (computer visual generators, MTV, etc.).
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What idiots would agree with this?
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.And this is why the music of NSMB series is so terrible. Nintendo developers are not interested in creating good music, they are interested in making music follow an ideological path: music that follows function. What function is this? Who defines this function? That is not said. While everyone complains about the NSMB music, Nintendo will ignore these complaints and think the complainers are all idiots because the music is following the ‘ideological path’ of ‘following function’. Therefore, it must be good!
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But why is everyone assuming music is the same as industrial design? I mean, seriously?
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When I was a kid, I played all kinds of games, and that was the difference between Super Mario and other games. With other games, when I made a mistake, I would get mad, but with a Mario game, I would think, “I’m gonna try again!”
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The reason why people keep retrying levels is because of the level design and because of the content. But these Mario music makers are so arrogant, they think the music is the reason why people keep playing the game. Actually, their music is the reason why I want to turn the game off.
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Aside from a couple of other tunes, Super Mario Brothers 3 music is the most recognizable Mario music outside of the original Super Mario Brothers. Conan O’Brien used the Hammer Brothers theme for the intro to his TV show.
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Kondo: While working on Super Mario World, I decided that game music should be music that uses an ensemble of instruments that you wouldn’t usually hear anywhere else.
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And this is where the problems began.
Kondo:
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It sounds like noise to the ear. Music is the oldest medium to mankind. It has been around since before writing. I seriously doubt a single video game music maker will innovate where tens of thousands of years of Human history didn’t.
Iwata:
.Ugh. One of the reasons why Sonic the Hedgehog was so attractive was because the music sounded AWESOME while Super Mario World was a mixed bag.
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Now reader, let us listen to the NSMB DS song together.
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Does this sound like an amazing Mario song? It has all the stupid BAH BAHS in it. Who is responsible for this crap? Oh, that’s right. Kondo is.
Kondo:
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If you don’t like the NSMB music, blame Kondo. Moving on to NSMB Wii….
Nagamatsu:
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The people who play the NSMB games clearly know that Kondo doesn’t get it. “BAH!” “BAH!”