Super Mario Bros.
I almost feel silly summarizing this one, but Super Mario Bros. is a 2D game, developed by Nintendo, in which the player fights and jumps their way through courses to rescue Princess Peach.
Music in Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. has some of the most famous video game music in history. This can be seen by the crazy amounts of covers in a number of different styles uploaded to the internet. Check out a few fun ones below.
So, why is this music so popular? How does it both stand out and blend in with the game? One answer could be the many different themes and leitmotifs in the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack. As seen and heard in the videos above, Super Mario Bros.' soundtrack has various themes for various places and events. For example, normal, above-ground courses sound like this:
Whereas underwater courses sound like this:
While each theme has a similar sound, the two are different enough to signal to the player that they are in a different setting. The different setting also requires different controls, especially for underwater Super Mario courses. The underwater theme can help the player, either consciously or unconsciously, switch their brain over from above ground controls to underwater controls.
The music in Super Mario Bros. also helps reflect and build the world (or worlds). Let's keep with the underwater theme example. Sean E. Atkinson in his article, "Soaring Through the Sky: Topics and Tropes in Video Game Music," writes that "The waltz contains nothing that is overtly water-like...Koji Kondo’s music takes another route entirely, choosing the waltz to give players a sense of floating through the level along with Mario. Waltzes have always been tied to a sense of weightlessness" (Atkinson). The combination of real world connotations of waltzes and the unique sound the various percussion instruments in the soundtrack provide allow for the player to enter into a completely unique world yet with a tether to reality.