While the 8-bit music crowd are reimagining Kraftwerk as covered by Game Boys (more on that soon), 8-bit is getting its own acoustic treatment. No, not that dude who plays a Mario Brothers medley on the piano (though adding the blindfold is a bit kinky). One-man band Jason Cox last week took Super Mario World and recreated an unplugged rendition of the entire soundtrack. (via Make:Blog) It’s good enough that FFWD calls it the “Pet Sounds of Mario covers.”
It’s the instrumentation that’s brilliant. Guitars, bass, kit, yes, but also banjo, melodica, accordion, groovebox, thumb piano, turkey locator, bike horn, ribbon crasher, tacklebox, fridge door, school bell, and let’s not forget “antique pickaxe” and “asscheeks.” And that’s just for starters. Jason’s not a one-hit wonder, either: see his other covers of Sonic, Metroid, Pole Position, and the like. We’ve said it before, but why not again: game composers, can you write new music as iconic as the oldskool stuff? (I think you can.)
Stream or download the full album in MP3/Vorbis formats at Archive.org.