On this trailer I handled sound design and audio post, and this one was a total gear-shift. When you work on Mario, you don’t get to “be experimental.” You play inside a world that everyone already knows. If you change the coin sound too much, someone on the internet will notice. So the job wasn’t to reinvent anything, just make it feel fresh and modern without breaking the nostalgia.
The classic stuff is all there: coins, pipes, jumps. But I didn’t just drop them in as fan-service. I used them to hit emotional beats, tiny sonic punchlines. Every bounce, slip, and slap had to feel fun and safe for kids, but also clean and punchy for modern ears. Lots of cartoon impacts, comedic whooshes, and bouncy textures that feel like they belong in a candy-colored world.
Bowser got the big treatment, of course. Fire, roars, heavy footsteps. That’s the only moment where I could go full “Hollywood.” Everything else stayed playful and bright. Basically: nostalgia with a new coat of paint.
It’s funny, I’ve worked on horror, thrillers, superheroes… and suddenly I’m polishing coin sounds. Welcome to audio post.
