OCR00126 - Super Mario Bros. "Dancehall Ragga"

[Jivemaster]

Super Mario Bros. 'Dancehall Ragga'

McVaffe with another Mario Bros. tune. This time, the classic Mario song is done here. Very minimal, quite wide with not too many instruments and a variety of classic little SFX thrown in near the end. Now I did like this, but it's nowhere near as good as some other McV mixes, and he doesn't do much with the tune here. I was hoping for a little more.

[mDuo13]

This mix is a bit disappointing compared to other Mario Bros mixes because it's so similar to the original, even in terms of instruments (the main melody sounds almost as if it was ripped from the NES). It's not bad, though. There's some nice percussion and background that sounds pretty good, but should've been given a bit more attention.

[Coucou]

I like this mix, I tell you.

What I prefer in it:

-the "8 bit" intro

-the stereo lead (nice sound!)

-FX @ 01:40

What I find less good: the ending is a bit "sudden".

[Liontamer]

Doesn't do anything interesting with the theme at all, but it's got a nice minimalism to it. Can't help feeling though that after about 30 seconds, you've basically heard the whole thing. Mike's got some much hotter works here.

[OceansAndrew]

sounds like a super early WIP to me; not really what i'd expect for McV.

[DemanusFlint]

Just curious-- what's with people harshly reviewing ReMixes from nearly seven years ago? The community was new, as was the "art of remixing videogames," whatever that may be. Can any feedback really be considered helpful or necessary?

I can see some of the point of Liontamer's message, where he points out that McV has better songs on the site. But OA's reference to the "super early WIP" is just sort of unfounded. In some sense, it was a work-in-progress-- as was OCReMix in general at that point.

There's plenty of stuff out there where constuctive (or not) criticism is welcome. Check it out!

Oh, and the cool thing about these reviews is that it shows that OCR truly is longevous. Hooray!

[OceansAndrew]

Good point, I wasn't trying to offend, just compare it to some of his other work. McVaffe kicks ass, so he has set his own standards pretty high, and as such, I didn't feel like this had the same attention paid to it as some of his other early mixes.

Perhaps "super early WIP" is a bit terse on my part, but it does sound like something is distinctly missing.

[DragonAvenger]

Not the best of McVaffe's works, as pretty much everyone's mentioned, but it has it's enjoyable moments. A little too close to the source for me, (melodically and stylistically)I would have liked something else going on.

Decent, but McVaffe has better.

[Rozovian]

This strikes me as a great example of how to structure a remix. In today's standards, it wouldn't get far, but there's a lot of interesting stuff going on in the background, all the elements are fairly clear so even the complete n00bs can hear how the different elements, lead, backing, bass, rhythm, percussion, how they mesh together. Yeah, it's not the best of McVaffe, it's not the best of OCR.

The minimalism makes it feel better than a lot of the tracks from 2000. It's got a timeless simplicity to it, imo. And that's strangely impressive.

[Bahamut]

Man, such an old song from the annals of OCR history.

This sounds pretty coverish though. Not much going on, and doesn't really vary that much. Can't really say I dig it terribly much due to its simplicity and not really adding much as opposed to the original or the gazillion variants by Kondo and others.

[Emunator]

Yeah, this one isn't really clicking with me. The opening synth really grated on my nerves, but I actually like the sound of the synth that you ran with for most of the song Some of the sound effects later in the song gave it a bit of variety but I can't really recommend this because it basically loops the same style/notes over and over.

This would have served as a great introduction to a more fleshed-out electronic remix, but it doesn't really stand on its own.

[42]

Oh wow... this piece has not aged well. At all.

It's pretty much... actually no, it IS a Mario theme cover.

Granted, it's OK, but it's absolutely nothing you haven't seen before.

Nothing to see here, move along.

[Holy Land]

Haters gonna hate.

This certainly wouldn't be up to today's standards, and the idea itself for the mix is gimmicky, but I wouldn't say this is a bad remix. It IS a throwaway, however.

[Crulex]

Yet another ReMix that doesn't go too far from the source besides some arrangement style choices. I get the idea behind some ragga Mario here, but it just doesn't seem to get far enough to where I'd like it in that style until the very end, and even then it sounded like the tip of the iceberg for where Bob Mario-ly could have gone. I can't complain much, because I liked it for what it was, but McVaffe has better in his collection that I can enjoy more.

[Metz77]

Definitely dated and not up to the modern site standards, like a lot of pre-2002 mixes, but given that it's McVaffe it's still a lot more enjoyable than most of its contemporaries. It's got a great gimmick and it's a decent track to chill out to once you get past the harsh intro.