:16 was the backing pattern to the SMB3 underwater music, not Toad's House.
:37-:55 was indeed the first 7 notes of that source melody of that same theme stretched out.
SMB3's my favorite game, and I know the music like the back of my hand, so I'm actually going to co-sign on Cain's detailed breakdown. He knows what he's talking about.
That said, even though I heard the connections, I can also understand BGC concluding the arrangement isn't recognizable enough. I've passed some VERY liberal track where I've made the A-to-B connections, but given very scant melodies & patterns being worked with, I thought the transformation was too drastic. The usage of the backing pattern of the SMB3 Underwater BGM, which was the arrangement's foundation, was incredibly devoid of energy. If it wasn't for the rhythm being similar, I wouldn't even recognized it as source usage, and even now I'm on the fence, because it manages to strip the character of the original to where it now just sounds like a generic beat pattern. Side note, the light usage of the Toad's House music from 3:40-3:50 was totally pointless.
The production was also too cluttered & imbalanced. I also thought the arrangement, as far as the overall writing just was not that interesting to merit 4 minutes. On that level, I don't feel like we heard the same track at all. I'd lop off the first 1:16 or give it more direction. If the arrangement were less drawn out and reworked to pay more overt homage to the sources, and the sounds balance was tweaked, this could hang.
Sorry, Marcellis, I hate to be a downer on your material; there's potential with the idea, I like the Mario 64 arrangement stuff and when the SMB3 Underwater theme was more overtly recognizable later on, I liked the ideas. But everything lacking here makes this a non-starter.
NO (resubmit)