MIDI Week Singles: "Creative Exercise" - Mario Kart: World (NS2)

 

"Creative Exercise" from Mario Kart: World on the Nintendo Switch 2 (2025)
Composer: Hirokazu Tanaka, Ryoji Yoshitomi, & Kazumi Totaka
Arranged By: Atsuko Asahi, Maasa Miyoshi, Takuhiro Honda, & Yutaro Takakuwa
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo EPD

 I wasn't expecting to hear music from Mario Paint last week when I was playing Mario Kart: World with the Squire.  He was browsing through the various character costumes I had unlocked, trying to decide which one to choose, which on average takes anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.  I don't know what song was playing, but then I started hearing "Creative Exercise" from Mario Paint, and with a similar MIDI-like tone, taking the melody.  But then! a harmonica comes in after the first stanza, at 0:26.  Now I'm a decent fan of John Popper, but I never would have pegged this song in particular as one that would sound good headlined by a harmonica, but holy hell, they pull it off!

AND THEN! the song takes on a big band form at 1:05 and somehow makes the melody ten times better!  I'm not really a big band person myself, but this arrangement is brilliant.  The part that the saxophone plays at 1:33 really feels like something out of The Price is Right, so it equally hits in the nostalgia feels.

But then we arrive at 1:57.  I get that by this point in the song, we've heard the main melody twice all the way through, so there could've been a desire to throw something into the mix, but this solo by the harmonica, I just don't really dig.  It's got that 'ridin' a train in a happy-go-lucky' manner, but it doesn't really fit with the "Creative Exercise" vibe.  I don't know how else to explain it.

Thankfully, at 2:26, we get back to the main melody again, performed by the whole band to restate the "Creative Exercise" theme and close out the song.  I have yet to hear this song while playing any of the tracks, so I'm not sure where this would play outside of character select, or maybe at some point during Free Roam, but I'll be excited the next time I do hear it crop up.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Red Lights Here Mean Stop If You Want To