According to Tyler, he wanted to "incorporate the music that I heard in that 8-bit form and along the way bring it into the world of a big epic, emotional film score."

The album featured most of Tyler's original score along with two songs for the film, which includes "Peaches" performed by Jack Black as Bowser, released as a digital single.

It's orchestral, it's got choir, and it's got bands, it's got Italian instruments, accordions, live drums, mandolins, and whistling human voices.

During an October 2022 Nintendo Direct presentation, Meledandri confirmed that Brian Tyler was set to compose the score for the film, in his first full-fledged animated feature.

Tyler worked with longtime Mario composer Koji Kondo to incorporate themes from the video games into the film's score.

[8] The film featured numerous easter eggs of melodies for the characters, as Tyler admitted that "There are retro references sonically, but I thought the movie would require an emotional depth — the hero's journey and all that — that it should rely on instruments that could be more aggressive.

[9] The Mario video game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto said that "the goal was to create something instantly catchy that would grab the ear of someone walking through an arcade".

I think a lot of people, when they start a new game, want to do something new and different, but at this day and age, I feel very happy and proud that we stuck to our guns and made sure that the core fundamental aspect is something we maintained through all these years.

[11] He and Miyamoto did not give specific instructions to Tyler, except for some cues that were not used appropriately but provide a list of suggestions that would work in the film.

Lyrical Lemonade released a music video of Jack Black performing "Peaches" on the same day, directed by Cole Bennett.

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter commented that the score cleverly riffs on Kondo's themes, that provided a suitable accompaniment.

"[25] Filmtracks.com gave the album four stars out of five, closing out its review with: "As a coordination effort, Tyler deserves significant praise for his care and attention to this franchise's music.