Abstract
Nintendo’s Mario Kart 8 Deluxe brings players into vividly creative virtual places in which they race in tiny go-karts through enigmatic racecourses and across disparate Nintendo universes using objects, including bananas and turtle shells, to derail competitors. It is imaginative, fantastical, and outright nonsensical. In contrast to the virtual environment and gameplay, music participates in establishing a sense of normalcy. This chapter investigates how sound and music engender coherence in incongruent virtual environments. The focus of this research is on the experience, indeed the sonic experience, of digital environments and situates them as sites of profound experiences: video games can embed sense of place. Sound and music play a central role in building the fictional environment and promoting sense of place. In this respect, it is not so much that sound is part of world-building but place-building. By examining several of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s racing environments, this research explores how sound and music are intrinsic to transforming digital spaces into ludic places. The sound and music of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe play an indispensable part in implementing the game’s wondrous joy and transports us to places in which we unconditionally accept abnormality to the point of becoming fearful of walking mushrooms, overgrown plants, and, indeed, bananas.