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Inside The Score – Super Mario All-Stars – Bonus

Jackpot

Welcome to Casino Mario, a place where the coins that literally give life to the plumber galore. Just like Super Mario Maker gave us an alternative reality piercing into what the music for ghost houses and air levels would have sounded like if they had been on the original, back then this bonus cue was added into the Super Mario Bros. soundtrack to show what the bonus rooms would have sounded like (which previously just had the underground theme). Soyo Oka, the composer/arranger for the Super Mario All-Stars project, who previously worked on the original Mario Kart, concocts a track that would have felt at home within the 8-bit score, even down to using few notes in the accompaniment. It keeps using the Mario All-Stars particular orchestra with some Latin elements and the result is a track that feels like Mario. And there is a reason behind that. It replaces the original bonus music from the game which was none other than the Starman theme for the heaven bonus and the underground theme which does not feel too happy of seeing you reach a bonus.

Musical Analysis

Just like Kondo used the notes of the T-Square song Sister Marian (Sister Mario?) to generate the first few notes of the Mario theme, Soyo Oka takes those same first notes as the basis of her new theme an then goes her own way; the first four notes are the same of the Mario theme with the same syncopation except for the last one which plays immediately, disturbing the syncopated pattern. It also fits the Mario tradition to a tee by using some jazzy harmony that is implied by the interplay between bass and piano. A bunch of seventh chords that could pass for Caribbean music with the right rhythm. It is also on the same key as the rest of the soundtrack, pretty much C Ionian/Major. Full harmony implied that could work would be something like:

Section 0:

F – G – F – G

Section 1:

Cmaj7 – Dm7 – [Em7-Ebm7-Dm7]

Fmaj7 – G – Em – C – D – G7

Other Marioisms include using the secondary dominant D chord just like the intro of the main theme to reach the V chord.

The drums here use a way more powerful snare sound that emphasizes certain beats of the melody. It is the kind of ultra compressed rock sound that makes snares pop out and more exciting. The steel pans of the main theme also remain alongside the shine of the glockenspiel like sound.

Feel free to add more interesting thoughts about the track for future reference.

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