Mario vs. Donkey Kong is finally here on Switch. This remake gives the original GBA puzzle platformer a fresh lick of paint and throws in a handful of new features too — including a fully revamped score. The composers for the GBA original, DigiPen Music Department, were brought back on this time around and a new interview from the department's website provides an interesting look into the process of updating a 20-year-old soundtrack.
As it turns out, recreating the GBA music was not a case of downloading it onto a computer and hitting a button that says "modernise". Aside from writing tunes for the remaster's two new worlds, the team also composed and arranged acoustic performances to complement the virtual soundscape of the original soundtrack. As the game's production, engineering and mastering lead Tacket Brown states:
You take a composition that is largely recorded with virtual instruments, but you apply a few bespoke, acoustic performances to liven it up. It’s the whole notion of the uncanny valley. When something’s too perfect, the brain knows, but when you add one layer of slight imperfection, it feels way more human.
The article details the institute's long history of work with Nintendo, which started back in the 1990s. Lawrence Schwedler, who worked on the music for the original game, briefly mentions his experience of working with Shigeru Miyamoto and Koji Kondo on the GBA title, praising the "extraordinary amount of freedom" that they gave him:
Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Kondo had a very light touch, and aside from a few constructive comments, they really just let me do my thing
Alongside working on the remastering project, the team continued to work as teachers in the DigiPen music department and had to keep the Nintendo connection under wraps for the duration of the project — hey, those Nintendo ninjas have eyes everywhere. It all seems to have been worth it, though, as Schwedler describes the gig as "an absolutely crazy, full-circle moment" and "the opportunity of a lifetime".
You can find more details on how the DigiPen team set about remaking the soundtrack in the full article on the DigiPen website, or by checking out the video version below.