The times of a few beeps in the background of a game are long gone. While the classic 8-bit sounds and melodies will forever have a place in our hearts (and ears), nowadays the technical possibilities create a much larger scope for game audio. Some of the melodies, compositions and tunes featured in games have become classics that will always be remembered and played outside of the games they were conceived for.
Super Mario Bros.
(Koji Kondo)
The original Super Mario Bros. game from 1985 will always have a special place in the hearts of video game enthusiasts worldwide. It was the first non-static, side-scrolling game world, something that was not thought possible with the technology of that time (John Carmack of id Software made his first real invention by porting this technology to the PC in the eighties). But something else than the pure technological advancements made Super Mario Bros. a shining example for video games: the music. Composed by Nintendo’s Koji Kondo, the melody and musical score has been reproduced, remixed and played by different orchestras, DJs and music enthusiasts countless times.
Kondo made his personal breakthrough inside of Nintendo happen by composing this score and went on to create many musical masterpieces, scores and melodies for Legend of Zelda, Star Fox and other Mario titles like Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros. and Super Mario Galaxy. The creation of the Super Mario Bros. theme is a milestone in sound design for video games and will forever be remembered.