And here we have the #1 song from the 2010 GaMetal era, The Legend of Mario.
A lot of people ask me why I haven’t done the main themes from Mario and Zelda.. well, because that’s too obvious, and I’m not into doing obvious songs. Then one day I was sitting around and thought how neat it’d be if someone mashed up songs from Mario and Zelda.. then realized I had the ability to do this.
It took me a while to figure out a way to make it work, but after a few drafts I got an arrangement down that I liked. The only thing, which has been pointed out by a few people, is that it’s a little bit Zelda heavy.
We start off with the slow intro from the original Zelda, which is suddenly cut off by the Mario pause sound. The Mario overworld theme takes over for a bit here, then suddenly reverts back to the Zelda overworld theme. The point I tried to hit here was to do the Zelda overworld theme with a Mario overworld feel, this is reflected in the drum and rhythm part, which is slightly jazzy and bouncy like the Mario overworld theme.
After the overworld themes, we cue up some Mario Underground theme music. After a run through of that, the Underground theme still plays, but now with the lead line from Zelda 1 Dungeon playing along with it. I really liked how well those 2 came together and it’s probably the best part of this remix.
We exit the mashed up underground/dungeon and go into a fast paced blast beat-filled version of the Zelda 1 Dungeon. After a run through of that, we have a music box interlude.
Now, here is where I will note there are 2 different versions of this remix. The ‘old’ version, and the current version. In the old version, the music box part was only playing the Zelda 1 Dungeon theme. This was the version that was on Youtube. About a week or so later, I realized it could’ve been neat to have some Luigis Mansion theme in the music box part. So I went back and actually did this, and this is the current version. This version was available only on the .com and Newgrounds.
The music box part is a mixture of the main theme from luigis mansion and the rhythm part from the Zelda 1 dungeon. After the music box part, we go into a short guitar solo played to the Dungeon rhythm. After the solo comes the Mario 1 Castle theme, with the lead part played on Guitar. After a run through of this, a keyboard solo comes in, ending with the Castle lead line again. At the end we go back to the buildup part that ends the Dungeon theme, then seal it off with some ascending 1-ups and descending item discoveries.
The very end of the song is the Mario 1 death theme, played in an Ocarina of Time ocarina tune style.. on an actual Ocarina. This effect was easily achieved by doing it slowly with a soft string line and harp line in the back.
This remix was an immense hit on Newgrounds, and on there it is still my most played song, at, as of this writing, over 29,000+ views. In comparison, the second most popular is currently Stickerbrush Symphony, with 19,000+ views.
That alone tells me this remix was a great idea, but personally I don’t feel I executed said idea well enough… so I do plan on remaking The Legend of Mario in the future, for sure. When? Well, you’ll have to keep in touch to find out! For now, you can hear the small piece it gets in the Blast from the Past medley at #10.