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Saturday, August 18, 2012

Song of the Week! 18 August 2012


This week, Nintendo is releasing the 3DS game New Super Mario Bros 2 to Europe and Australia. A perfect timing to talk about Shigeru Miyamoto's plumber in this corner once again!

 New Super Mario Bros. Wii (New スーパーマリオブラザーズ Wii)
Version
Taiko Wii 3, 4x3 (159)x4 (182)x6 (297)x9 (637)
Taiko Wii 5x3 (159)x4 (182)x6 (297)x8 (637)
 Taiko Wii 3, 4, 5
 97~154
 none
 mario3


Once more, Taiko pays homage to Mario and the inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom again, this time with a Wii-exclusive song, as the game in question is obviously for Wii as well! As we have already written a brief history of Mario on one of our very first SotW articles, this week's focus will be on the 'New' subseries of Mario games.

After the advent of the 3D platformer starting with Mario 64 (and tons of spinoffs in between), nostalgic Nintendo fans longed to see the Italian plumber return to his 2D roots where he was at his prime, with quality titles like Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES) and Super Mario World (SNES). Nintendo's answer was a new 2D platformer for the then spanking-new handheld DS, simply named 'New Super Mario Bros'., in which new powerups and new graphics attempt to deliver a fresh breath of air to the aging 2D format. NSMB comes sixteen long years after Mario World, and the return to 2D was met with overwhelming demand. To date, the original DS New Super Mario Bros remains one of the highest selling games for that console, together with the Pokemon games, Brain Age and Nintendogs.

The crux of all the 'New' Mario games are the same bouncy soundtrack and 3D graphics on a 2D plane, and Mario has his 3D platforming moves brought in, like wall jumps, triple jumps, and side somersaults. A few years after NSMB, a Wii sequel was made, where for the first time the adventure can be played with other 3 players on the screen at the same time. Whatever the player's purpose is - to help each other clear the level or fight each other for coin supremacy - Nintendo's big risk paid off for NSMBWii (a risk due to criticisms that the game would be too similar to the DS original), leading the Nintendo EAD development team to create another 2 more 'New' Mario games, one for Wii U and one for 3DS, each with their own new gimmick blended with the same classic platforming players have grown to love over the decades.

This medley is from the Wii version, although some of the music here can also be heard on the DS. Like the previous Super Mario Bros. medley, this is a mix of the most common BGM tunes in the game with some random sound effects, following this order: Ground Stage, Underground Stage, P-Block BGM, Bonus Stage, Ground Stage 2 and Stage Clear BGM. The beat signatures and pace of the song change widely between each music sample, making for a frantic time as players try to get used to new timing, with 1/16 beats, 1/24 clusters and speed-up sections all in one song, with the final leg of the song being the toughest part to read.

There are four special dancers in New Super Mario Bros. Wii instead of the usual five (3 in the Ds games), matching the playable characters in the game: Mario, Luigi, Yellow Toad and Blue Toad. The song's side dancers are Bowser's sons and daughters (which act as sub-bosses in the game): the red-haired Bowser Junior from Super Mario Sunshine and the seven Koopalings from Super Mario Bros. 3 (from the left to the right: Ludwig Von, Lemmy, Morton Jr., Wendy O., Iggy, Roy and Larry).