Nintendo gigaleak helps fans restore the Super Mario World soundtrack Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Nintendo gigaleak helps fans restore the Super Mario World soundtrack Cool synth. News by Wesley Yin-Poole Deputy Editorial Director Updated on 6 Feb 2021 27 comments Fans have used the great Nintendo "gigaleak" to restore Super Mario World's soundtrack. Nintendo's 2020 gigaleak, which revealed eye-opening prototypes for Yoshi's Island, Super Mario Kart, Star Fox 2 and more, also contained the source code for Super Mario Advance - a game that reuses samples from 1990 SNES classic Super Mario World. Twitter user The Brickster found proper names for many instruments in Super Mario World, which helped other tinkerers find the source for those samples. With the source samples discovered, work on restoring Koji Kondo's iconic 30-year-old music began. The Brickster's friends recreated the tracks that were compressed to work on the SNES using the original, lossless synths. For anyone curious as to how these findings were done, its actually rather simple. Know how the Gigaleak had source code for Super Mario Advanced? That game reuses samples from Super Mario World. Those samples had names we didn't have, which is how we were able to find them. pic.twitter.com/qWFTG1YdYW- The Brickster (@lebrickster) February 3, 2021 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings The restored Super Mario World OST is up on The Brickster's YouTube channel. Here's a snippet: The restored music provides an indication, perhaps, of what Kondo's music might have sounded like if it hadn't been constrained by the SNES hardware. However, some have said the restored music sounds worse than the original lo-fi music upon which they are based, with too much reverb. The Brickster addressed this criticism on Twitter, saying the restoration is a what if? exercise done for fun. "... I see where you are coming from," The Brickster said. "Truthfully, these tracks were likely not designed with the full patches in mind. These are simply things we are doing for fun, as a 'what if' kinda thing." What if Kondo wasnt limited to the small sound ram size, and he could use sounds to their fullest? We may never know if he did, of course, since no demo versions of tracks for Super Mario World were ever officially released, but these I think would be similar to such tracks. 2/2- The Brickster (@lebrickster) February 5, 2021 To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings Work is ongoing. Who knows what the Nintendo gigaleak will lead to next? Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More News Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Atari will hold RollerCoaster Tycoon rights for another decade Ups and downs. 7 Lady Dimitrescu will be a tad smaller in Resident Evil Village's Mercenaries DLC Level the playing field. 1 Overwatch 2 suffers another DDoS attack and character roster bugs Mei Mei. 13 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store