Revolución de la danza de la danza: Mario Mix, O esa vez que Mario se mudó a Mozart

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En la superficie Revolución de la danza de la danza: Mario Mix appears to be the ordinary and obvious by-product of Konami and Nintendo continuing to operate in the same creative space.

Después de todo, by the time of the game’s 2005 liberar, Mario had already been doing non-Mario things for a very long time — he could paint, paseo karts, run a hotel, star in his very own RPG, administer medication, y mucho más. Revolución de la danza de la danza had not only included smattering of licensed tunes since the original’s 1998 En los últimos años, los fanáticos de, but had also proved it was more than happy to cooperate with high-profile brands, even to the point of producing a few Hello Kitty LCD DDR games.

All these two industry legends had to do, entonces, was mash these two universally popular and highly successful series together, reap the inevitable profits, and then sit down in a Japanese office somewhere and sign a contract for more of the same the following year. It’s a tried-and-tested formula; Sega’s Hatsune Miku titles are an ever-shifting blend of independent artists occasionally graced by vocal remixes of classic arcade tracks, and Namco’s Taiko no Tatsujin series has, over the years, included guest tracks with everything from Ridge Racer a Undertale. Mario’s entry into this accommodating musical genre should have been easy and annual, another string to the plumber’s already full bow.

Instead we got, bien, Mario Mix.

Known as Dancing Stage: Mario Mix en Europa, this Konami and Hudson Soft-developed GameCube title is absolutely bonkers — “My uncle who works at Nintendo said…[insert impossible playground rumour of your choice here]” levels of bonkers — and a lot of that’s down to the story mode which, depending on your point of view, is either the greatest thing to happen to any dancing game ever created or an utter offense to your eyeballs, game collection, and sense of rhythm.

For the first few seconds it’s all innocent enough. Your task is to collect the freshly-scattered Music Keys and then put them safely back in place before everyone finds themselves unable to resist the urge to dance, no matter how inconvenient it may be, and then Toad cheerily adds “Oh yeah and chaos and discord will rain down on the Mushroom Kingdom and maybe destroy us all” to his explanation of your rhythmic quest, as if the one thing missing from a dancing game was world-ending peril.

En un admirable intento de integrar la llamativa serie de baile de Konami con el juego tradicional de Mario., cada problema en Mushroom Kingdom es, solo para un juego, causado y resuelto por el poder de la música

todo es cuesta abajo (o cuesta arriba dependiendo de cómo veas estas cosas) desde allí, alegremente en espiral hacia una historia completamente innecesaria que se siente ridícula incluso en un entorno que presenta regularmente hongos parlantes y un tipo lagarto que escupe fuego con una obsesión por secuestrar a las princesas locales. En un admirable intento de integrar la llamativa serie de baile de Konami con el juego tradicional de Mario., cada problema en Mushroom Kingdom es, solo para un juego, causado y resuelto por el poder de la música, lo que en este caso equivale a que el jugador use sus pies descalzos para presionar las cuatro teclas de flecha en la alfombra de baile plegable incluida.

Lo primero que debe hacer Mario es usar el poder de la danza para… embalsar, en un bote. Después de eso, se le pide que use sus hábiles movimientos para hacer cualquier cosa, desde esquivar Bullet Bills, evitar que Koopa Troopas se alborote en un huerto, superar a Waluigi en un baile, Pisotea a los Goombas al ritmo de la música. (la alfombra de baile siempre hace que uno se sienta un poco cruel) y desenredar un hotel recientemente torcido porque, como bien señala el dueño de Toadette, “Nadie quiere vacacionar dentro de un sacacorchos!".

Los minijuegos que rompen esta locura son igual de extraños., facilitarle las tareas que cualquiera esperaría de la configuración: el pilar del balneario whack-a-mole, running Track & Campo-estilo para realizar un salto de asta de bandera, y luego, después de que te haya atraído, Mario Mix decide lanzar golpeando estratégicamente a cualquier Koopa Troopa que pase con gigantescos guantes de boxeo robóticos porque… bueno, it passes the time, suponemos.

This is all permanently intertwined with what can only be politely described as a questionable choice of music. We know it’s tempting, but please put down the pitchforks and let us finish — there’s no doubt Mario music is beautifully written, timeless, and suits the games it was created for like the plumber’s spotlessly white glove, but it’s not by design something that was ever meant to be danced a (in spite of the Ambassadors of Funk’s attempt to prove otherwise). Even when remixed as heavily as these tracks are, it doesn’t really work.

¡Ay, y Mozart? Strauss? As spirited (and license-free) as these classical arrangements are, nobody has ever looked at a rhythm game — not even Mad Maestro!’s long-forgotten playlist — and thought “Looks good, but does it have Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka in there?”.

Mario’s normally unremarkable backside is made to animatedly jiggle in ways usually reserved for a certain sort of fan art

At least the stranger moments are balanced out by a visual style that’s faultlessly accurate to the much-loved series the game’s based on… except when they’re not. Mario’s deliberately oversized gloved hands and chunky brown shoes are absolutely perfect for their usual purpose of helping players easily keep track of a platforming character running and jumping about all over the place at speed, but become something of a ‘hypnotic’ experience when transferred as-is into an upbeat rhythm game. Mario’s giant hands frequently flap around as though he’s trying to scare pigeons off his lawn and his normally unremarkable backside is made to animatedly jiggle in ways usually reserved for a certain sort of fan art; and it’s made all the easier to notice thanks to Mario Mix’s (sensibly) simplified dancing action, which favours, en la mayor parte, comfortably-spaced single stomps of individual arrows over the flowing step charts that made Konami’s dancing series such an exhausting hit in arcades across the globe.

Así, what the heck is Mario Mix? Is it a joyously off-the-wall take on two normally safe and dependable series, or more of a ‘Now That’s What I Call… A Very Bad Idea’? Did we finally find the one thing Mario was no good at, even though the game is at least on paper appropriately faithful to all of its component parts?

We’re still not entirely sure — but whether it’s good, malo, or Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, we’re glad Nintendo was at least brave enough to permit the existence of this unforgettable experience. Because if nothing else, it’s certainly impossible to forget.

What do you think of Mario’s boogie wonderland? Háganos saber en los comentarios a continuación, and check out our other Nintendo Life VGM Fest articles in our season of music-focused interviews and features.