French impressionism, chromatic harmonies, and Marvel music aren’t words you’d use to describe the music in a Mario game. But then again, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope isn’t your typical Mario game, so this chaotic combination of musical phrases makes sense for a crossover game that merges Ubisoft’s Raving Rabbids franchise with Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom.
Sparks of Hope, released in October, is the sequel to Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, which was revealed to the world at E3 2017. Taking to the stage, Mario’s creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, recalled his first meeting with the game’s creative director, Davide Soliani, and told a packed audience he had just one condition for Soliani to go ahead with the project. “Whatever you do, don’t try and make a jump game or a Mario platformer. Try and make a Mario game that’s never been made before.”
It’s fair to say that Soliani nailed that brief. With its fusion of turn-based strategy and RPG mechanics, the Mario + Rabbids franchise has more in common with XCOM than Super Mario Bros. Add the quirky humor of the Rabbids into the mix, and, on paper, Mario + Rabbids is a franchise that shouldn’t work—but it does. “When someone says to you ‘Mario Rabbids,’ you think, ‘what a daft idea that is,’ right?” Mario + Rabbids series composer, Grant Kirkhope, tells WIRED. “It’s not until you play the games that you realize how much it really works.”
Kirkhope is best known for writing the music in some of the best-selling games on the Nintendo 64, such as Banjo-Kazooie, Goldeneye, and Donkey Kong 64. His score for Kingdom Battle retains all of the quirkiness you’d associate with Kirkhope’s music but breaks enough boundaries to give the franchise a distinct musical style. It’s a style that the game’s audio director, Romain Brillaud, defines as “friendly-epic.”
“This friendly-epic thing, there’s a bit of Moonrise Kingdom meets Banjo-Kazooie meets Marvel,” Brillaud says.
