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Here's a challenge – take a look at some of the screenshots here without any mental playback of the associated audio. Can you imagine the underground areas of Super Mario Bros without that recurring theme? Can you see Super Mario 64's title screen without thinking "It's-a me, Mario"? If you can do that, we're impressed because we certainly can't. You can hardly blame us – even the Goombas hop to the beat in Super Mario Bros, and that speaks to the importance of audio as a part of the overall Mario experience.
The music of the Super Mario Bros series is extremely widely known – according to a paper titled Video Game Music: Not Just Kid Stuff by Matthew Belinkie of Yale University, 66% of American college students polled in 1999 could hum the main theme of Super Mario Bros. The ubiquity of the NES ensured that even people who didn't necessarily own a NES themselves were exposed to that tune, including Smooth McGroove, a YouTuber famed for his a capella covers of videogame music. "I first heard it at my next door neighbour's house, along with a few other NES classics they'd play over there," he says, citing it as his favourite piece of Mario music, explaining, "It's hard to beat the original because it set the stage for the rest!"
This feature originally appeared in Retro Gamer magazine #252. For more in-depth features and interviews on classic games delivered to your door or digital device, subscribe to Retro Gamer or buy an issue!
1985 was a year that saw a number of videogame compositions that set new standards for length and intricacy – on home computers you had the likes of Rob Hubbard's theme for Monty On The Run, and in arcades Hiroshi Kawaguchi's theme for Space Harrier. Koji Kondo's Super Mario Bros overworld theme certainly pushed those boundaries in the console space. Of course, the overworld music wasn't the only iconic piece in Super Mario Bros – just consider how often the underground theme has been reused and remixed. "It only makes sense to keep the themes going," says Smooth McGroove. "Bringing them back to life in new games with new twists has always been a delight for us fans."
In the early years, Mario's soundtracks were not only musically satisfying but technologically impressive. The drum sounds in Super Mario Bros 3 were atypical for the NES, and the realistic piano sounds in Super Mario World were unlike anything heard on a console up to that point. However, the musician wasn't nearly as famous as the music – in the aforementioned paper, Matthew Belinkie stated that none of the students knew the name of the veteran Mario series composer in 1999. Fortunately, that situation has changed these days. "Koji Kondo wrote Mario music with such light-hearted joy, and so it makes it fun to sing along to," says Smooth McGroove, namechecking the composer. "Many people have commented about that over the years as I've released different Mario tunes."
One game that Smooth McGroove has covered many tracks from is Super Mario 64. "It was the first 3D Mario, and the soundtrack was a masterpiece," he explains. "For a lot of people, it was their first introduction to Mario and so it holds a lot of fun memories. For me, it's another fantastic Mario soundtrack from my childhood." However, as great as the music is, Super Mario 64's audio is perhaps most notable for introducing many players to Mario's voice, delivered by Charles Martinet. His whoops and yelps enhanced the joy inherent in steering Mario around his new 3D environments, and helped to add life to him as a character.
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It's a point that Smooth McGroove also makes. "The sound effects are just as iconic as the music. The jump sound, the coin sounds, and his voice clips are almost universally recognisable," he says. We certainly think back fondly on Yoshi's bizarre SNES-era sound effects, and enjoy tormenting Toad a little in the modern games just because of his voice. Meanwhile, hearing the sound associated with picking up a mushroom instantly conveys the feeling of a power boost. We've even heard Bowser's roar being mentioned as the basis for a rather unflattering comparison to the sound of someone being rather unwell.
Of course, as the series has expanded, change has been inevitable. The number of audio staff has grown, with composers including Mahito Yokota and Toru Minegishi leaving their own mark on Mario's audio landscape. Ever more elaborate arrangements have been performed, with recent highlights including Super Mario Odyssey's Jump Up, Super Star!, used as the theme for an incredible Donkey Kong-inspired sequence. Charles Martinet has also officially retired as the voice of Mario to move into an ambassadorial role for the series, a move that felt unthinkable before it happened – but one that Nintendo marked appropriately, thanking the voice actor for his work over the years. That the fans showed an equal outpouring of love just demonstrates how important Mario's soundscape really is.
Want to play some of the plumber's best games? Check out our best Mario games ranking!
