Publication Date
10-2-2024
Abstract
Player interaction has largely defined video games and their concomitant music. Since Pong (1972), players have exercised agency over both in-game events and, by extension, the sounds that accompany them. In this paper, I explore ways in which the “authorial agency” of the player is reflected musically in Nintendo’s Super Mario (1985–) and The Legend of Zelda (1986–) series. Through earcons and other interactive audio, players are able to influence the musical architecture of video games. I begin by considering the indeterminacy of video games as a medium and their consequently indeterminate musical elements. I then examine earcons and the manipulation of musical modules in Super Mario Bros. (1985) and The Legend of Zelda (1986), specifically in terms of the precedent they set for later installments in each series. Using The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2002) as a case study, I then consider the use of earcons and the effect of player strategy on the game’s musical structures. With the agency to interact with and influence game mechanics and the music and sounds that accompany them, I argue that the player is able not only to pave their own paths within the game world but also compose and perform within a given game’s musical architecture.
Recommended Citation
Nelson, William
(2024)
"Link’s Sword is Mightier than the Pen: Composing and Performing in the Super Mario and Legend of Zelda Series,"
Venture: The University of Mississippi Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 6, Article 10.
Available at:
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/umurjournal/vol6/iss1/10
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