One of my favorite things about Super Mario Galaxy is its wondrously upbeat soundtrack. Its orchestrated tracks in particular are amazing, and none of them stand out as much as Gusty Garden Galaxy.

Gusty Garden Galaxy opens up with an emphatic burst of energy, and never stops moving from there. It immediately settles into a basic rhythm governed by a combination of strings and drums that has an almost Latin flavor to it. It’s a catchy, fast moving beat that I find very exciting. Flutes and violins come in shortly to introduce the primary melody, which is a sweeping combination of beautiful chords that do a great job at mimicking the windy nature of the level itself. They’re intermittently joined by various horns, producing an intricate display of instruments and sounds that seems both chaotic and unified at the same time. This seems to represent what it feels like on a windy day; the wind can gust in all directions at any given moment, but the net result of it all is generally in one decisive direction. Gusty Garden Galaxy represents this direction during its pinnacle section (first occurring around 1:20 in the video). This segment is a wonderful culmination of everything the song has done thus far, but is much bigger and bolder. It’s a fantastic way to further highlight the song’s primary melody without deviating from what made it so great in the first place. This section is the heart of the entire song to me.

Despite the rich combination of sounds on display, there’s nothing super complex or complicated about Gusty Garden Galaxy on the whole. This is Nintendo at their finest, putting on a big, exciting, yet straight forward production that’s incredibly fun to get caught up in. It’s great that it mimics the windy nature of the actual level, and that it manages to remain distinctly Mario at the same time makes it even better. Nobody does whimsy like Nintendo, and when they do it with a full symphony orchestra at their back it’s a sight to behold. That makes Gusty Garden Galaxy one of my absolute favorite video game songs, and one I’ll never get tired of listening to.

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Thanks for bringing this out. Since I don't have a Wii and my DSi is filled with Layton, I hardly get to listen to some recent Mintendo music.

@nyv: No problem! Both Mario Galaxy soundtracks are fantastic, if you like this one you might be well served looking into those :)