It’s been 30 years since the release of Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo, and it still holds a place in the hearts of many gamers who grew up with the title during the ’90s. In the wake of last year’s notorious Nintendo Gigaleak, a group of fans dug through the game’s data in hopes of making new discoveries. Thanks to their delving, the group has managed to restore the uncompressed version of Super Mario World‘s soundtrack.
The Gigaleak revealed tons of Nintendo development info, including cut content, source codes, and other data from a variety of older titles. Super Mario World was among the crowd of leaked games, and fans were able to find unused sprites and other pieces of artwork in the leaked code. Thanks to the work of the aforementioned data miners, Super Mario World‘s music has been recreated with the uncompressed versions of its instrument samples, in addition to the previously discovered assets.
The process was documented by Twitter user The Brickster, who explained “some friends” (members of the VGM & Other Instrument Sources Discord community) were able to find the original sample files with the help of the source code for Super Mario Advance 2, a port of Super Mario World for the Game Boy Advance.
How The Nintendo Gigaleak Led To Restored Super Mario World Music
Naturally, a majority of the files and assets present in Super Mario World were reused for Super Mario Advance 2, including a handful of sound files that revealed the proper names of instrument samples used in the original game’s soundtrack. With the sample names in hand, they were able to search commercial sample libraries to find the corresponding instrument samples Nintendo originally sourced for the game’s music, then use these uncompressed versions of Super Mario World‘s instrument samples to recreate the music as it was first composed.
The result of this work is a collection of what sound like enhanced versions of the game’s tracks. “Athletic Theme” has a richer piano sample compared to the final version, delivering punchier notes. This also applies to other tracks, such as the “Overworld” theme and “Vanilla Dome,” which also carry a more complete sound. A playlist of these restored tracks has been uploaded to The Brickster’s YouTube channel. While players of the original Super Mario World may have enjoyed the game’s 16-bit soundtrack, these new restored tracks offer a different take on the game’s OST and are definitely worth a listen.
