Loading...
Start Date
13-6-2025 10:00 AM
Description
Emanating from the speakers above the crowded lines of Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Hollywood are the sounds of Nintendo’s past. Patient attendees listen to the music representing a wide variety of Nintendo games as they wait, sometimes for hours, to take rides such as “Yoshi’s Adventure” and “Bowser’s Challenge.” As one such attendee who attended Super Nintendo World in both Los Angeles and Osaka, one particularly striking aspect was how Nintendo’s music from decades past was arranged. These celebrated cues were not presented in their original format. Rather, they were reimagined; the music was recorded by a jazz big band. Such observations have prompted the following questions: How does Nintendo sonically represent their digital worlds in their two theme parks? How might the reimagined cues differ from one geographical location to the other? How has Nintendo reimagined their chip music through a live ensemble for their theme parks? The present research explores these questions and presents an analysis of field recordings from attending Super Nintendo World in both Los Angeles and Osaka. Additionally, this paper draws from and builds upon scholarly writings on Nintendo’s 8- and 16-bit music (Summers 2024; Schartmann 2015), place studies (Feld 1996; Cresswell 2014), and ludomusical world-building (Galloway 2024; Scoggin 2023). A study of the cues heard in these two theme parks offers a unique opportunity to hear how Nintendo reimagines their music and sound from 8- and 16-bit games as a musical device to situate audiences within physical representations of these past ludic places.
Transcript
Recommended Citation
Heazlewood-Dale, James, "Swinging in the Queue: Reimagining Nintendo’s Cues in the Super Nintendo World Theme Parks" (2025). Theme Park Music and Sound. 2.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/tpms/2025/friday/2
Swinging in the Queue: Reimagining Nintendo’s Cues in the Super Nintendo World Theme Parks
Emanating from the speakers above the crowded lines of Super Nintendo World in Universal Studios Hollywood are the sounds of Nintendo’s past. Patient attendees listen to the music representing a wide variety of Nintendo games as they wait, sometimes for hours, to take rides such as “Yoshi’s Adventure” and “Bowser’s Challenge.” As one such attendee who attended Super Nintendo World in both Los Angeles and Osaka, one particularly striking aspect was how Nintendo’s music from decades past was arranged. These celebrated cues were not presented in their original format. Rather, they were reimagined; the music was recorded by a jazz big band. Such observations have prompted the following questions: How does Nintendo sonically represent their digital worlds in their two theme parks? How might the reimagined cues differ from one geographical location to the other? How has Nintendo reimagined their chip music through a live ensemble for their theme parks? The present research explores these questions and presents an analysis of field recordings from attending Super Nintendo World in both Los Angeles and Osaka. Additionally, this paper draws from and builds upon scholarly writings on Nintendo’s 8- and 16-bit music (Summers 2024; Schartmann 2015), place studies (Feld 1996; Cresswell 2014), and ludomusical world-building (Galloway 2024; Scoggin 2023). A study of the cues heard in these two theme parks offers a unique opportunity to hear how Nintendo reimagines their music and sound from 8- and 16-bit games as a musical device to situate audiences within physical representations of these past ludic places.