But Yokota knew a live orchestra was worth fighting for in Galaxy, and he succeeded. Nintendo uses synthesised instruments almost exclusively in its scores – it’s easier to control MIDI music, and you obviously need to pay for an orchestra. Yokota was in his element with orchestra writing, but he tried to draw inspiration from other sources too to keep things fresh: “In order not to make the scores just like ordinary orchestra music, I paid attention to the combination of electric musical instruments and live audio, and listened to various kinds of music from that genre.” Kondo composed four pieces for the game at Yokota’s request, including the observatory waltz. Miyamoto picked a lively orchestral piece, and that informed the music.

Yokota almost quit after the rejection, but three months later, he returned to Shigeru Miyamoto with three styles of music to sample. Mario is not cute, Kondo insisted, Mario is cool.įrom the moment we load up the game and hear the fanfare of the ‘Overture’, a triumphant swell of horns and violins, we know that we’re in for a Mario game on a different scale He composed around 28 tracks, which were rejected by the game’s sound supervisor and original Mario composer Koji Kondo, who said it was too cute. Yokota studied previous Mario music and came to the conclusion that its Latin elements were at the heart of the series’ unique sound – he began by combining Latin instruments with electronics to create a tropical-space feel. Here’s a look at the creation of the music to Super Mario Galaxy, and why it’s such an incredible listen, playing the game or in its own right.Īs I wrote in my ‘Concept to Console’ piece on the game, most of the score was created by Mahito Yokota. It’s full of exceptional music, perfectly crafted to convey a sense of the adventure and the many worlds you explore throughout Mario’s galactic quest.

It’s a remarkable game for a variety of reasons, from its intuitive gameplay to its stunning visuals to its finely-tuned difficulty, and the music is another of those factors. Let me start off with an obvious statement – Super Mario Galaxy’s soundtrack is brilliant.

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