Super Mario World Soundtrack Restored Following Nintendo Leak

It used to be a lot more difficult to make music for older video game consoles. Nowadays, music is something that developers don't have to stress over as much, but on devices like the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis, music had to be compressed in order to fit on the limited amount of space available on a video game cartridge. Now, after a prominent Nintendo leak, some fans have been able to restore the soundtrack of one of the publisher's most popular releases in history to its original form.

Yes, the soundtrack from Super Mario World, the iconic platformer from the Super Nintendo era, has now been restored to what it was supposed to be in its original state prior to being compressed. The restoration has come about after a Nintendo "gigaleak" that happened last year. The leak led to a lot of private Nintendo files falling into the hands of some folks in the general public. Some of those files just happened to be of the original music for Super Mario World.

Thanks to a breakthrough I had, regarding the Gigaleak, we were able to find proper names for many instruments for Super Mario World, which lead to some friends finding the source for those samples. With these source samples, they are now restoring the OST for Super Mario World.

— The Brickster (@lebrickster) January 31, 2021

With the original files, some have been able to slowly stitch the music of Super Mario World back together and have been uploading the songs onto YouTube. As of this writing, the whole soundtrack in its entirety hasn't been restored, but new songs are being added to YouTube at a fast pace. It stands to reason that the entire score could soon be available to listen to in this manner.

It's hard to state just how rare it is that this newly remastered version of the music from Super Mario World is, but it's awesome that it has surfaced nonetheless. While I'm sure Nintendo is frustrated that these files leaked in the first place, it's cool to now hear what each track may have sounded like in its original form.

So what do you think about these new restorations of the songs from Super Mario World? Do you prefer these iterations, or do you like the versions that were shipped on the game cartridge more? Let me know down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.

[H/T VGC]