I remember when Super Mario 3D World was first announced and how very few people seemed impressed with it. Aside from the new Cat Mario power-up, there wasn’t really anything appealing about it until the second trailer dropped and showed a lot more cool, new stuff about it, which caused a lot of fans’ opinions to do a complete 180 (myself included).

And while it may have been a bit of a chaotic mess as a multiplayer game, I found it to be an enjoyable single-player romp. But one constant that I think a lot of people can agree was good from the very get-go was the first piece of music we heard from the game, which also acts as the music for the game’s first level.

First levels in videogames usually have memorable music. After all, they’re the FIRST level; they need to do everything right to hook the player and keep them going for the whole adventure. This one’s admittedly rather repetitive but it’s stupidly catchy and upbeat – a perfect fit for the calm hills that make up that first level.

I personally love the use of horns, which adds a jazzy feel to it while still retaining that same Mario-like energy, if that makes sense. I think it also helps set the overall style for the rest of the soundtrack in terms of the instruments it uses. It’s certainly one of the most memorable and iconic pieces from the whole game. I honestly wish I managed to grab the soundtrack CD when Club Nintendo was still a thing but I sadly missed my chance. Come on, Nintendo, make your games’ OSTs more easily available and put them on iTunes!

Regardless of how you felt about Super Mario 3D World as a game, there’s no denying we got some good tunes out of it, with this one being the primary example. And any game that has a soundtrack performed by a whole band is doing something right.