Super Mario Maker 2 Announce Trailer Music Appreciation

The Mario Maker 2 trailer premiered during the February 13th 2019 Nintendo Direct.  I prefer to play Nintendo dev crafted Mario platform experiences myself; so I have not picked up either of the Mario Maker games.  But goddamn did I enjoy the music in the announcement trailer for Super Mario Maker 2; it’s an absolute eargasm.

Let’s break it down.

The best part begins when the real action in the trailer begins – at 0:37.  And this is where you’ll hear the Super Mario World theme like you’ve never heard it before! 

The arrangement from 0:39 through 0:49 is absolutely fantastic and I wish I could hear the entire song from beginning to end in this arrangement style!  Then, there’s a short bridge – a sort of slower-paced underwater type arrangement of the song from 0:50 through 0:52; before it goes full on Super Mario 3D World-style live instrumentation from beginning at 0:53 through to 1:10.  Also, during this time interval, there is a quick segue into Super Mario 3D World’s main theme from 0:56 to 1:03 before segueing back to Super Mario World’s theme which takes us through the end of the trailer.  There is some nice sound editing here too as the theme plays alongside different Mario eras/visual styles - notice at 1:11, the music switches to the NES-style sound library, then at 1:13 the tune continues in the SNES/Super Mario World sound library.  Really good stuff here.

The sound in this trailer really reminded me of my favorite arranged VGM album of all time:

Yes, still my all-time favorite VGM arranged album to this day - it’s that remarkable!

I want to give a nod to whoever was responsible for the musical arrangement and audio editing in this trailer.  That/Those person(s)a is/are (a) fan(s) of Mario music – I think this level of attention to detail supports that notion.  And s/he/they did an amazing job with this.

What if it was actually Kondo himself!?

That’d be so cool! I hope we find out someday.