Maestro! Jump in Music, developed by Pastagames and Neko Entertainment, and published by BigBen Interactive, is a Platforming Rhythm Game released for the Nintendo DS and later for iOS. It stars Presto, a pink bird off to save his Love Interest Bellissimo from the evil spider Staccato, after the latter creates a worldwide Fog of Doom that makes everyone mute. Presto must collect the lost sounds along the way and defeat Staccato.
The gameplay consists of using the touch screen to strum strings that make Presto jump in the air. There are also additional elements, such as a mandolin string that can be strummed infinitely, a wormhole that needs to be circled on to keep Presto in the air, and various enemies as percussion instruments.
There are five worlds, each of which has 4 stages, the last of which is a Simon Says Boss Fight against Staccato himself. Each world has four songs: two from the Public Domain Soundtrack, one "popular" song, and a traditional song for the boss fight.
Maestro! Jump in Music has the following tropes:
- Animated Actors: After beating the final boss, it is revealed that the entire game is a musical performed by Presto, Bellissimo, and Staccato.
- Big Bad: Staccato, the Giant Spider.
- Book Ends: Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th Symphony is the song for both the first level and the final boss.
- Bootstrapped Theme: "Fame" from Fame is used as the credits theme.
- City of Canals: The third world, "Yellow Allegro", with Italian feel to boot.
- Easy-Mode Mockery: You need to complete easy mode first before you unlock the normal and hard modes.
- Everything Is an Instrument: The collectibles make a note when collected, enemies make percussion sounds when defeated, and even eels that sing!
- Giant Spider: Stacatto, as well as the spider minions in Green Groove.
- Haunted Castle: The second world, "Purple Sontata", styled around Baroque/Classical era music.
- Hard Mode Perks: Playing on normal or hard lets you play extended versions of the easy mode tracks.
- Jungle Japes / Prehistoria: The first world, "Green Groove", with the dinosaurs appearing in the background.
- Musical Gameplay
- Musical Pastiche: Each world remixes their songs into a style commonly associated with that world:
- Green Groove is very drum-focused and "jungly".
- Purple Sonata is based on baroque and classical music, with harpsichord and lots of string instruments.
- Yellow Allegro has mandolins, guitars, and claves.
- Indigo Flow is calm, slow, and otherwise "underwatery".
- Black Out Beats has electronic synths and theremins.
- Red Hot Tempo is a big nod to the soundtracks of Spaghetti Westerns, with their trumpets and electric guitars.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: Everywhere in this game! The Other Wiki has a full list of songs
. - Space Zone: The fifth world, "Black Out Beats", with Moon Rabbits and The Man in the Moon.
- Shout-Out:
- The cover art for Purple Sonata is a reference to Castlevania's box art.
- There are several pre-level quotes that reference various Arnold Schwarzenegger movies.
- Spaghetti Western: The sixth and final world, "Red Hot Tempo", electric guitars and sombrero chickens and all.
- Theme Naming: All over the place.
- Colourful Theme Naming / Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Each world is assigned a color (green, purple, yellow, indigo, black, red).
- Musical Theme Naming: Also everywhere. All the world names have some mention to a genre or other part of music, and all the characters are named after terms ("presto" means "very fast tempo", "bellissimo" means "beautifully", "staccato" means "short and punctuated").
- Under the Sea: The fourth world, "Indigo Flow".
