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I love October. While everyone else is obsessed with changing leaves and pumpkin spice flavored… everything, for me, October is about horror. It’s about scary movies, it’s about survival horror games, and it’s about that delightfully creepy feeling that comes with Halloween. This month, Nintendojo is selecting a few of our favorite scary music tracks for each Track of the Week. Kicking things off is the Ghost House Theme from Super Mario World.
Titles like Resident Evil and Eternal Darkness are expected to deliver creepy, atmospheric music, but it’s not something most fans had come to expect from the Mario series. The Boo ghosts were introduced in Super Mario Bros. 3, but I think it can be argued that Super Mario World‘s Ghost House Theme really provided the characters with a fitting piece of music that made them an intimidating threat. Of all the tracks that Koji Kondo has composed for the Mario franchise, I would imagine that this was probably one of the most difficult. After all, Mario isn’t the sort of protagonist known for facing off with scary opponents. Sure, Bowser can be intimidating at his worst, but Mario’s rogues’ gallery is overwhelmingly wholesome, for the most part. Delivering a piece of music that takes players out of the cheery world of Dinosaur Island and gives them a sense of dread couldn’t be an easy task. Like most things Kondo has done, the results speak for themselves.
The Ghost House Theme never stops feeling like a Mario track, but it still feels different from any other piece of music in the franchise. The ability to find and deliver that perfect balance is just one of the many reasons that Koji Kondo’s role in the success of the Mario titles can never be overstated. If you can take gaming’s most wholesome icon and deliver a piece of music that stands up with some of the scariest music in gaming, it’s certainly an accomplishment!
What are some of your favorite “scary” video game tracks? As always, let us know in the comments below!
