Plus, Tao reveals a personal connection to the devs. They discuss in-game reputation aim and controller systems the role of incentives in gaming loot, upgrades and skill trees in RPGs in general and if isometric RPGs face a unique difficulty in world building independent journalism and the role of critics in general. “There ain’t enough room in this personality for the both of us!” calls a voice, and Ben and Tao face off, eyes narrowed, hands hovering at gun belts, ready to quickdraw. High noon rings out from a nearby bell tower. And that infantile summary is in no way representative of the content herein. It always makes me think of the Simpsons quote where Homer and Abe are being chased and Homer says, “They didn’t start chasing us until you turned on that getaway music.” Choco Mountain is pure getaway music - and it only gets better and more getaway-ish on the third lap when it speeds up.In servitude to a higher power and with a mysterious brand to show for it, Ben and Tao dominate multiple characters (and creatures), fill their posse, and ride hard all over the weird west in Wild West twin stick shooter, action RPG, supernatural spin-off: Weird West. The worst course in the game gets the best song. That’s fitting for Moo Moo Farm, one of the great race tracks in the virtual or real world. It’s so upbeat, it actually sounds like you’re having fun. It fits the vibe of both courses quite well (Moo Moo Farm perhaps a little more than Yoshi Valley, but that’s splitting hairs). I’m glad they put in the effort if you’re going to be on a course for 5+ minutes, many of which involve perfunctory racing with no other players in sight, you might as well have a nice tune to listen to. Still, it ranks high mainly because the bridge about two minutes in is really quite good. I guess it’s supposed to kind of sound Christmas-y, but they didn’t quite hit that. The two wintery courses share the same song, and it’s pretty good. 4 | Frappe Snowland and Sherbert Land (20:05) To me, this song feels like racing music - but that could be a chicken/egg scenario. I don’t know if it’s all that good or not, but I know I’ve heard it so many times that I appears I’ve inadvertently established an emotional connection with it. 5 | Luigi Raceway, Mario Raceway, Royal Raceway and Wario Stadium (4:15)Ģ5 percent of the courses in Mario Kart 64 use this song. I’m just not sure it’s good enough to be associated with the most popular track in the game. The song absolutely fits the course it’s definitely beach music. The notes tend to really fuzz out, especially on the old TVs that were around when Mario Kart 64 came out. The song here fits the wild west motif, but it gets docked for the poor recording quality. (Like, why is Peruvian pan flute music and African drum music the same genre?) That being said, the song for DK’s Jungle fits the course pretty well - it’s just awfully basic. This song is Mario Kart 64‘s only venture into the mysterious genre of “world music,” a section that baffled me as a kid going to record stores and still doesn’t make a ton of sense as an adult.
It feels more like “driving around the Pacific coast at sunrise in 1995” music. The song they chose doesn’t feel like “weaving in and out of traffic” music. Why not just give them both the same generic spooky music and give Wario Stadium its own song? 9 | Toad’s Turnpike (16:55) Still it’s really a coin flip between the songs for Banshee Boardwalk and Bowser’s Castle which is worse. It seems they tried a little harder here the eerie choir and a more complicated melody show a bit more effort. The other “spooky” song from the game, and another failure.
I also can’t really explain the random sounds of perhaps a broom hitting a floor that are repeated almost randomly throughout the song. Or someone over at Nintendo got a marimba for his birthday and decided he was going to find a way to use it in the studio that day no matter what, dammit.
They were going for spooky minor key action but more or less phoned it in.