Interactive Music - Super Mario Galaxy

Super Mario Galaxy was released in late 2007 for Nintendo Wii and is the third 3D platformer in the Mario franchise. The official soundtrack for the game was released in early 2008 and was proclaimed to have the 'Best Design in Audio' in Edge Magazine's 'Edge Awards 2007'. While being great fun to play, the sound team have made a sound job (no pun intended) of fusing interactive music with full pre-recorded composition.

The linear (non-interactive) elements of the Super Mario Galaxy score are fully orchestrated. This was a well-thought out choice on the behalf of chief composer/arranger Mahito Yokota and 'audio adviser' Koji Kondo to emphasise the grandeur of the game's environment. Interestingly, Yokota and Kondo hold the view that high-quality, sweeping orchestral scores are not always appropriate to Nintendo titles.

"It almost seems like while you’re playing the game, the music is coming from a CD player, and not from the game console and it feels like you are obligated to play the game in time to the music. For that reason, Nintendo has only used a live orchestral soundtrack on a few occasions in the past." - Koji Kondo in an interview for wii.com's 'Iwata Asks: Super Mario Galaxy' segment.

An important aspect of the Super Mario Galaxy ethos is rhythm. In an interview with Music4Games (now archived at originalsoundversion.com), Yokota comments:

"...we were making music in order to make them match well with [the] game tempo of Mario Galaxy and [imagined] that people [would want to] explore the magnificent universe. I think you will notice when you play the game that tempo is very much constant, although rhythm of the music may be epic, because we prepared orchestrated tunes that will well suit tempo of the game play."

It's clear from associated interviews that the team at Nintendo EAD (Entertainment Analysis and Development) spend a lot of time thinking about how best their music can be implemented to compliment game-play and don't just throw in the first piece they come up with as a constant bed. Further proof of this ideal is sound designer/programmer Masafumi Kawamura's MIDI-based triggering system which, using MIDI data, only allows certain sound effects to trigger in time with the streaming orchestral score. To do this, the team had the live orchestra record all 28 pieces in time with a metronome.

Currently playing through the game myself, I've come across a few of the game's different interactive music systems so far. The musical note collection mini-game plays an arrangement of the classic 'Underworld' them from the original Super Mario Bros (NES). Each small segment of the music is played back at a varied rate depending on how quickly Mario approaches the note.

The ball-rolling mini-game is another element of game-play in which Mario balances on a large ball and works past obstacles to reach the end of the level. In this particular level the speed and pitch of the music is varied based on how fast Mario is moving. 

While simple and perhaps not highlights of the game, these solid examples of interactive music systems add to the overall game-play experience in more subtle ways and help make it incredibly enjoyable for the player.

(Clips to be uploaded)


Interviews:


http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks_vol3_index.jsp

http://www.originalsoundversion.com/?p=8512