You know Yasunori Mitsuda, right? The beyond legendary composer of Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, most Xeno- games, and countless others. Well, in what is usually a fun, mildly goofy trivia fact, he also composed music for the original Mario Party: which, as it turns out, was a hellish experience. MP was Mitsuda’s first freelance gig (he’d previously worked exclusively for SquareSoft), and while you’d think you’d let the composer of Chrono Trigger and Xenogears just write whatever music he wants, it apparently isn’t that easy.
Yasunori Mitsuda:"Mario Party was my first freelance gig; the music director told me they wanted "jazz" but all of my songs got rejected—when I caved & asked for pointers, I learned he specifically wanted "big band jazz", so I have the bitter memory of being like, "seriously?!"
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Apparently Yasunori Mitsuda’s attempts at jazz were not, in fact, what the music director wanted. Nintendo’s always been rather particular about the way they present their star plumber, and apparently Mitsuda had to get rid of almost 200 songs for the game. 200! That’s enough to fill multiple game soundtracks at the time! And while trial and error is inevitable in this kind of creative collaboration, I can’t blame Mitsuda for having a bitter memory of it all.
Mario Party is available on the N64 Emulator of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack today. If you want one of Mitsuda’s more recent games, check out Xenoblade Chronicles 3.
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