Super Mario Odyssey - I'll Be Your 1-Up Girl.

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Neddy Seagoon: Oct 12, 2012; "Hi Everybody!"

Devlan Mud posted:

Homing hat throw really solves a lot of difficult situations in this game I�ve found.

Just make sure you swing down instead of up, because that's its own thing.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 02:59

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 23:20

UZR IS BULLSHIT: Jan 25, 2004

�So you have a PhD in computer science? That�s impressive, what do you do with that?�

�Well I don�t have a job right now, but I hacked the Super Mario Odyssey ROM and added in instructions to make him automatically jump rope. The algorithm can only get to about 50 thousand jumps before it crashes right now, though�

# ? Nov 11, 2017 03:08

Bongo Bill: Jan 17, 2012

Waffleman_ posted:

That link don't exist.

Weird. It looks like they took it down. Fortunately I still have the tab open, so I can reproduce it.

It starts with a link to the localization demo version of the song.

quote:

Hey, it�s me Rob T. from the Treehouse. So, you may have noticed that some guy (spoiler, it�s me) is singing a not-quite-right version of �Jump Up, Super Star!� in that audio there. Maybe you�re wondering why? Well, let me tell you�

Life in the Treehouse moves pretty fast, and it can be hard to remember when you did what, and sometimes even why, so I had to check my e-mail archives to figure out that we started working on the lyrics for the songs in Super Mario Odyssey back in January of this year. (�Unless it was earlier? Who knows, man.)

Faults in my memory aside, the prospect of working on some songs at work was an exciting one. As a former music and Japanese double major, the idea that I would be using BOTH my degrees at my actual job was amazing. Who does that? Besides, I mean, people who chose their majors for more practical reasons�

When I became involved, the song that would eventually become �Jump Up, Super Star!� was basically done, at least as far as the music was concerned. The song was already going to be a hit in my mind, no matter what the lyrics ended up being, and at that time, the first section already had Japanese lyrics, written by Nobuyoshi Suzuki at NCL. I translated them thusly:

quote:
The symbol of a voyage, let�s start to raise the sails
A tailwind dances at our backs
Flip a coin, the goddess who�ll tell our fortune
Blows a kiss
Let�s sing our love as brightly as
All the lights in all the world
Then jump! (JUMP SE)
And grab! (COIN SE)
Say yeah!!! (yeah!!!)
Let�s dream together
Love together
If we walk with our eyes to the sky
Once all our tears have fallen
We�ll get a 1UP
Let�s all
Jump up high and high five
Tap and dance
I�m a superstar lighting up the world
Switching you on to happiness
So, let�s dance the Odyssey!!!
(Chorus)
Odyssey, ya see! etc.

Obviously, directly translating song lyrics leaves you with�well, something that won�t actually work as lyrics in the target language. But it�s clear that Suzuki-san and the team wanted something big and romantic. A love song of sorts.

I listened to the song a few more times and set about creating a first draft of the English lyrics, taking the ideas from the above and fleshing them out so there would be enough syllables to match the rhythm and melody of the song.

Mayor Pauline is a fantastic vocalist, so we had to make sure she had an equally fantastic song to sing.

Here�s what I ended up with:

quote:
Oh we�re ta- / -king a trip / Here we go it�s time to raise the sails
The wind is dancing at our backs
Flip a coin / Make a wish / and the goddess might just blow a kiss
Boy I�d say your fortune�s looking good
Le-et your love shine as bright as the lights in this whole wide wonderful world
Jump with me / (grab) coins with me / Oh yeah!
Together we can live our dreams /
This love is what it seems /
So keep your chin up as you trek alone/
And when the tears they start to fall /
There�ll be no need to fear �cause /
I�ll be your 1UP girl
So let�s all jump up super high / and high five in the sky /
There�s no power-up like da-a-ncing /
You know that I�m the superstar /
No one else can take you this far /
I�m flipping the switch / are you ready for this /
Oh, let�s do the Odyssey
Odyssey, ya see!

As you can see, a lot of that first draft did survive through to the final version of the lyrics.

At this point, Rob Heiret (main English writer on Super Mario Odyssey) and I passed the lyrics back and forth a few times, until we had the following:

quote:
This time we�re / off the rails / Here we go let�s raise our sails
It�s freedom like you never knew
Grab a coin / Make a wish / and the goddess might just blow a kiss
You could say my hat is off to you
We-e can zoom all the way to the moon from this great wide wacky world
Jump with me / (grab) coins with me / Oh yeah!
Together we can live our dreams /
This love is what it seems /
So keep your chin up as you trek alone/
And when we�re underground in gloom, /
Don�t fear, don�t shed a tear, 'cause /
I�ll be your 1UP shroom
So let�s all jump up super high / high up in the sky /
There�s no power-up like da-a-ncing /
You know that you�re my superstar /
No one else can take me this far /
I�m flipping the switch / are you ready for this /
Oh, let�s do the Odyssey
Odyssey, ya see!

We now felt like what we had was worth sharing with the folks on the Japan side, so I went into my home studio (living room) and whipped up a demo version. I�m not sure if it is fortunate or embarrassing that I didn�t delete these demos once the project was done, but up top you can hear what that sounded like.

Too bad it couldn�t have been �Mayor Paul.� If you�re curious, I�m singing the song down a 6th in Eb because singing in the original key of C was not going to happen for me.

After we sent off the demo, the first round of feedback we got from NCL was really illuminating. They liked a lot of what we�d done, but also wanted a lot of it to change. For one thing, we�d leaned a little hard on the Mario references.

Through conversations with Suzuki-san, Naoto Kubo (the composer), and Shigetoshi Gohara (the overall sound producer), we learned more about their vision for the song: that it should be a fun, bombastic jazz number you could enjoy even if you had no connection or familiarity with Mario, but that would reward you even more, with little allusions to the Mario universe, if you were a Mario fan.

The same can be said of the musical that was produced to help promote the game as well�it�s fun to watch no matter who you are, but Mario fans will catch little details like Mario�s classic block-punch in the choreography.

The Mario references had to be at such a level that if you knew, then you knew, but if you didn�t, you wouldn�t really notice.

Another big goal from the dev team was to make the chorus as catchy as possible�simple and repetitive so even people who don�t speak English might be able to pick up on the lyrics and sing along.

So, we had our work cut out for us.

Over the next couple of months, I settled into a pattern of adjusting and rewriting the lyrics, sending those around internally at NOA for more feedback, recording a demo, sending that to NCL, getting more feedback, rewriting, and then doing all of that again.

More than a few times, we even had video conferences with Gohara-san, Kubo-san, and Suzuki-san at NCL headquarters, where we would come up with new ideas on the fly that I would sing back to them then and there. I wonder what that sounded like outside the room�

At the end of that long (but fun) process, we had the lyrics for the first verse nailed down and realized that we were going to need two more verses. Oh, and we realized we had to record the song in about three weeks� time. So, yeah� Things were going to need to speed up.

And they did! Here�s the first draft of the second verse:

quote:
Spin the wheel / take a chance/ every journey starts a new romance
A new world�s calling out to you
Take a turn / off the path / find a new addition to the cast
You know that any captain needs a crew
You can play it in 3D or 8-bit they�re just different points of view
Down the pipe / there�s an extra life / oh yeah!
(Come on and) Jump up in the air /
Jump without a care
Jump up �cause you know that I�ll be there
And if you find you�re short on joy
Don�t fret, just don�t forget that
You�re still our 1UP boy
So go on straighten up your cap / let your toes begin to tap
This rhythm is a power shroom /
Don�t forget you�re the superstar /
No one else could make it this far /
Put a comb through that �stache / you�ve got panache
Oh, let�s do the Odyssey

Except for the �3D or 8-bit� line, and the �down the pipe� stuff, that�s pretty much what the final lyrics ended up being.

One thing Gohara-san and company really focused on was making sure that the lyrics felt good to sing, and that�s always been something I�ve really focused on in my own songwriting over the years as well. Aside from the actual meaning of the words, lyrics should have an intrinsic aesthetic appeal.

Gotta get those toes tapping, after all, right?

Which isn�t to say that meaning isn�t important, or wasn�t important when working on these lyrics. That said, I�ve found the various interpretations I�ve seen of our final lyrics to be way more thoughtful than my own.

A lot of people think there�s a deliberate �sails/sales� pun in the first line, as in: �Here we go, it�s time to raise our sales!� Sadly, I�m not that clever.

The best interpretation I�ve heard seems to have come out of Japan. I heard about it during the height of E3, when the song debuted. See, people read a lot into the idea that Pauline (in their eyes, Mario�s ex-girlfriend, though I�d never really thought of her that way) was singing a song to cheer him on as he undertakes an epic journey to rescue his current girlfriend (again, feels weird to type that out, but who am I to argue with other people�s headcanons?).

Kinda makes you think about Pauline differently, doesn�t it? Especially when you take a shot of her in Snapshot Mode and the moment you caught the fireworks almost makes them look like tears. I�m sorry, Pauline!

Viewed through that prism, the song becomes�while still joyful and upbeat�incredibly bittersweet at the same time. Again, I�d love to take credit for that, but I know I at least wasn�t cognizant of any of that stuff, really. I just wanted the song to feel good when you sing it.

And from the very humbling reception the song has gotten, it seems like it does! So thanks for listening, singing, and reading.

�Rob T.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 03:24

asecondduck: Feb 18, 2011; by Nyc_Tattoo

Electric Phantasm posted:

gently caress this moon

https://twitter.com/mmmossy/status/929138241097232384?s=17

This moon was one of the ones that convinced me to use my Pro controller for SMO instead of my joycons.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 03:26

CharlieFoxtrot: Mar 27, 2007; organize digital employees

New Donk City is magical.

So how many jumps do I need to be done with the jump rope? I did 58 and got a moon on my first try but I'm wondering if I need to keep at it

# ? Nov 11, 2017 04:17

boxcarhobo: Jun 23, 2005

CharlieFoxtrot posted:

New Donk City is magical.

So how many jumps do I need to be done with the jump rope? I did 58 and got a moon on my first try but I'm wondering if I need to keep at it

there's a second moon at 100

# ? Nov 11, 2017 04:19

RCarr: Dec 24, 2007

Zuzie posted:

Iceburn Circuit S is a load of bullshit. Is rubberband AI involved?

Yea this is the only moon that is making me consider not 100%ing this game. The jump rope, volleyball, etc are all a piece of cake compared to this. It�s ridiculous.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 04:26

Neddy Seagoon: Oct 12, 2012; "Hi Everybody!"

I found the real nuisance to be the speed increase from 49 to 50 jumps in the jump-rope. If you can clear that, you're pretty much set all the way to 100.

Zuzie posted:

Iceburn Circuit S is a load of bullshit. Is rubberband AI involved?

What part of the course are you having trouble with?

# ? Nov 11, 2017 04:31

g0lbez: Dec 25, 2004; and then you'll beg

My advice for that is to keep going even if you're behind. I went from half a lap behind to lapping the guy in last since I guess the AI tends to screw up around the final lap

# ? Nov 11, 2017 04:32

RCarr: Dec 24, 2007

RCarr posted:

Yea this is the only moon that is making me consider not 100%ing this game. The jump rope, volleyball, etc are all a piece of cake compared to this. It�s ridiculous.

beat it on the very next try. gently caress that race, never again.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 04:32

Zuzie: Jun 30, 2005; I got this for a Ratatta on GTS.

Neddy Seagoon posted:

What part of the course are you having trouble with?

A few hours after making that post I managed to get it after a few more tries. Now I'm back to mopping up the last few moons in each of the worlds. The Koopa races are similarly painful and I'm really not looking forward to the Jump rope one.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 06:41

Tayter Swift: Nov 18, 2002; Pillbug

I still find it ironic that Pauline will be Mario's 1-Up girl in a game with no 1-Ups :colbert:

# ? Nov 11, 2017 07:02

Over There: Jun 28, 2013; by Azathoth

Holy poo poo just finished the last level in post game. They really know how to send you off. Best game ever

# ? Nov 11, 2017 19:01

Macaluso: Sep 23, 2005; I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG, BROTHER!

So a little just QOL thing they have in this game, is when you come out of a pipe or warp to a checkpoint, and you are underwater, the breath meter won't start ticking down until you start moving. That way if you look away or do something else as it loads, you won't die of running out of breath while idling

# ? Nov 11, 2017 19:06

Electromax: May 6, 2007

That's smart because otherwise kids could walk away and come back with 0 coins from a death loop.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 19:12

magimix: Dec 31, 2003; MY FAT WAIFU!!!
She's fetish efficient; Nap Ghost

Electromax posted:

That's smart because otherwise kids could walk away and come back with 0 coins from a death loop.

Out of interest, does anything happen if you run out of coins in a death scenario?

That aside, finally got round to seeing credits. What a bonkers end-game! Very glad to keep playing it. This is my first mario game (ZX Spectrum kid), and it was, and continues to be, a real barn burner.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 19:29

Over There: Jun 28, 2013; by Azathoth

Why the gently caress are goombas the hardest enemy in the game?

# ? Nov 11, 2017 19:29

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

magimix posted:

Out of interest, does anything happen if you run out of coins in a death scenario?

If you have single-digit, you drop whatever you have, if you have zero you just don't drop any. No penalty at all.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 19:53

Frankston: Jul 27, 2010

magimix posted:

Out of interest, does anything happen if you run out of coins in a death scenario?

Nope, just stays at 0.

# ? Nov 11, 2017 19:54

Zuzie: Jun 30, 2005; I got this for a Ratatta on GTS.

Over There posted:

Why the gently caress are goombas the hardest enemy in the game?

While Goombas are easily manageable in 2D, 3D ones are a bit harder since players need to be more precise with their jumps. This is the reason why most 3D Mario games give Mario another attack (punches in Mario 64, F.L.U.D.D in Sunshine, the Spin attack in the Galaxy games and the Cap attack in Odyssey).

# ? Nov 11, 2017 20:16

magimix: Dec 31, 2003; MY FAT WAIFU!!!
She's fetish efficient; Nap Ghost

DACK FAYDEN posted:

If you have single-digit, you drop whatever you have, if you have zero you just don't drop any. No penalty at all.

Interesting. I'm glad this game eschews 'game over' screens. To be sure, part of this'll be down to my relative lack of experience with 3D platformers, but I found the main campaign to be nicely balanced. I died a handful of times to bosses (due to my playing badly), and the end-game stuff had my pulse racing nicely. That said, I feel like it *has* also trained me reasonably well for what comes after. I don't know that I'll 100% this game, but I'll enjoy chipping away at it. They couldn't be more different, but it puts me in the mind of stuff like Trials and Spelunky, inasmuch as regardless of how well or poorly I'm doing, the raw mechanical act of playing the game feels intrinsically good.

magimix fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Nov 11, 2017

# ? Nov 11, 2017 20:26

Tayter Swift: Nov 18, 2002; Pillbug

Over There posted:

Why the gently caress are goombas the hardest enemy in the game?

You Speak the truth brother

# ? Nov 11, 2017 22:51

Vikar Jerome: Nov 26, 2013; I believe Emmanuelle is shit, though Emmanuelle 2, Emmanuelle '77 and Goodbye, Emmanuelle may be very good movies.

goddamn i thought new donk city was the peak for 2d sections and then i get to that bowser's castle section in the samurai room. :eyepop:

# ? Nov 12, 2017 00:01

MisterBibs: Jul 17, 2010; dolla dolla
bill y'all; Fun Shoe

Over There posted:

Why the gently caress are goombas the hardest enemy in the game?

In addition to the increased precision needed in 3D as noted, I think it's because if you're already Camp Goomba and in a pile, your jump isn't that much higher than the height of a goomba. I've taken scads of damage from my 6-tall Goomba Pile smacking facefirst into a single goobma.

magimix posted:

Interesting. I'm glad this game eschews 'game over' screens

Bit of a crosspost from the Dragging Down thread in PYD, but this game has kinda ruined me on some other games I've been playing. I got really used to not giving a poo poo about dying in SMO because death is trivial and there's no downside to throwing solutions at a problem and see which one sticks.

MisterBibs fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Nov 12, 2017

# ? Nov 12, 2017 00:11

Calaveron: Aug 7, 2006

How many of you were having a conniption watching the Previously Recorded episode seeing that bitch Rich Evans messing up the Cappy long jump and other simple maneuvers

# ? Nov 12, 2017 01:07

Zore: Sep 21, 2010; willfully illiterate, aggressively miserable sourpuss whose sole raison d�etre is to put other people down for liking the wrong things

Calaveron posted:

How many of you were having a conniption watching the Previously Recorded episode seeing that bitch Rich Evans messing up the Cappy long jump and other simple maneuvers

lol at anyone who watches RLM

# ? Nov 12, 2017 01:10

Calaveron: Aug 7, 2006

Holy gently caress normally they�re on point but boy a lot of the poo poo they�re saying is plain wrong

# ? Nov 12, 2017 01:14

raditts: Feb 21, 2001; The Kwanzaa Bot is here to protect me.

Is there anything worth collecting past 500 moons for besides personal / Toadette achievement? If not, I feel like it's about time I put this game down for a while after 2 weeks of not playing anything else, I can come back to do 100% after I knock out a couple other games.

Zuzie posted:

A few hours after making that post I managed to get it after a few more tries. Now I'm back to mopping up the last few moons in each of the worlds. The Koopa races are similarly painful and I'm really not looking forward to the Jump rope one.

The rope jumping is trivial if you do it while riding the scooter. You can get more consistent jumps that way.

Over There posted:

Holy poo poo just finished the last level in post game. They really know how to send you off. Best game ever

Did that one last night too, the last bit with the pecking bird jumps ruined me a couple of times because if you gently caress that up it's all the way back to the beginning :negative:

I was on the verge of just saying gently caress it and putting on assist mode when I finally pulled it off. And yeah, that sendoff was totally worth it.

raditts fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Nov 12, 2017

# ? Nov 12, 2017 07:30

Neddy Seagoon: Oct 12, 2012; "Hi Everybody!"

raditts posted:

Is there anything worth collecting past 500 moons for besides personal / Toadette achievement? If not, I feel like it's about time I put this game down for a while after 2 weeks of not playing anything else, I can come back to do 100% after I knock out a couple other games.

The rope jumping is trivial if you do it while riding the scooter. You can get more consistent jumps that way.

Did that one last night too, the last bit with the pecking bird jumps ruined me a couple of times because if you gently caress that up it's all the way back to the beginning
I was on the verge of just saying gently caress it and putting on assist mode when I finally pulled it off. And yeah, that sendoff was totally worth it.

You can actually skip that part if you're getting stuck past the Pipe in the post-game level; Waggle when you're gliding in the updrafts and you get enough altitude to soar aaaaall the way to Bowser's painting.

edit:

And I've now finished SMO. Loved every moment of it :unsmith:

Neddy Seagoon fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Nov 12, 2017

# ? Nov 12, 2017 07:47

DACK FAYDEN: Feb 25, 2013; Bear Witness

raditts posted:

Is there anything worth collecting past 500 moons for besides personal / Toadette achievement? If not, I feel like it's about time I put this game down for a while after 2 weeks of not playing anything else, I can come back to do 100% after I knock out a couple other games.

There's a teeny tiny aesthetic thing if you buy enough to get the counter to 999, but beyond that no.

# ? Nov 12, 2017 08:24

Futaba Anzu: May 6, 2011; GROSS BOY

# ? Nov 12, 2017 09:44

Mr Phillby: Apr 8, 2009; ~TRAVIS~

Calaveron posted:

Holy gently caress normally they�re on point but boy a lot of the poo poo they�re saying is plain wrong

Yeah when rich opened with 'isn't platforming in 3D just plain awkward' i knew i was in for a bad time.

# ? Nov 12, 2017 11:43

American McGay: Feb 28, 2010; by sebmojo

https://twitter.com/zh_switch/status/929711663149805568

So it wasn't until AFTER I tried this 20 times that I realized you're just supposed to possess a fireball and swim back there and get it. Oops.

# ? Nov 12, 2017 15:06

THE AWESOME GHOST: Oct 21, 2005

FYI if you're holding off on doing the final level because it's a huge pain in the rear end

Just turn on assist mode. The level is awesome enough that everyone should experience it but you probably don't have the patience to slowly learn it over 5 hours because it has 0 checkpoints and is full of instant death jumps.

You still have to figure out how to beat it on Assist Mode it just basically gives you checkpointing (and it's actually still possible to die in parts)

# ? Nov 12, 2017 15:29

Over There: Jun 28, 2013; by Azathoth

But then you would miss out on feeling accomplished for beating a difficult task. Keep working on it and you'll get there imo

# ? Nov 12, 2017 15:37

Neddy Seagoon: Oct 12, 2012; "Hi Everybody!"

Cobalt Viper posted:

https://twitter.com/zh_switch/status/929711663149805568

So it wasn't until AFTER I tried this 20 times that I realized you're just supposed to possess a fireball and swim back there and get it. Oops.

Never be ashamed of achieving something simple in a clever way. I nabbed the extra-tall Seed moon in the Seaside Kingdom with a combination of a triple-jump, wall-kick and dive.

It was only afterwards I remembered I could've possessed a Gushen.

# ? Nov 12, 2017 16:31

Macaluso: Sep 23, 2005; I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG, BROTHER!

Neddy Seagoon posted:

Never be ashamed of achieving something simple in a clever way. I nabbed the extra-tall Seed moon in the Seaside Kingdom with a combination of a triple-jump, wall-kick and dive.

It was only afterwards I remembered I could've possessed a Gushen.

I did the same thing. I didn't even think of those squid things until after I passed by one later. I assumed the wall jumping was just part of the deal.

Likewise there's a few moons in caves around that area where you can do some wall jumping and some hat diving to get them. Turns out, you're supposed to use the squids.

It's super super cool how Nintendo awards you for trying out other ways to get moons and for "breaking" the game so to speak by going out of bounds or sequence breaking

# ? Nov 12, 2017 16:41

Mia Wasikowska: Oct 7, 2006

Mr Phillby posted:

Yeah when rich opened with 'isn't platforming in 3D just plain awkward' i knew i was in for a bad time.

i hate this meme!! its everywhere now

# ? Nov 12, 2017 17:14

Mia Wasikowska: Oct 7, 2006

at the very least smo has disproven every commonplace assumption people had about 3d collection platforms, its time to update our notion about what is and isnt awkward

# ? Nov 12, 2017 17:18

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# ? Apr 19, 2024 23:20

Calaveron: Aug 7, 2006

Also them saying that playing as captured enemies isn�t fun. I thought that was going to be the case as well but playing as Pokio and tropical weedfiend and the like is super fun

# ? Nov 12, 2017 17:39

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Super Mario Odyssey - I'll Be Your 1-Up Girl.

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