VGMaps
General Boards => Gaming => Topic started by: JonLeung on January 27, 2007, 10:05:17 pm
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The Video Games Live concert is a concert event featuring game music performed by a live symphony orchestra and a choir, and it has been touring the world since 2005. Tommy Tallarico (you know him from game review shows The Electric Playground, Judgment Day, and Reviews On The Run) hosts it; and he himself is a game musician. He created the show with his partner, the conductor Jack Wall (composer of a number of games, including Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation). It was certainly an event not to be missed. It finally came around to Edmonton, with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Kokopelli Choir performing, and I had a chance to see the concert on the second night here (Jan. 23).
At each performance, there is a pre-show festival. The events and activities vary depending on the locale. My group (my brother, five friends, and two friends-of-friends) and I arrived over an hour after the start of the pre-show festival (which apparently started at 5 PM) so I'm not sure if we missed a lot or not much at all. Unfortunately, I'd wager it was the latter. This is Edmonton. Not a small town, but not a huge metropolis...certainly no one would expect the kind of celebrities of the kind that show up when they play at the Hollywood Bowl. There wasn't much, really. There were a few tables set up with merchandise; my brother bought a Video Games Live T-shirt and two friends bought Halo and Halo 2 soundtracks. There was a Guitar Hero II competition; one of my friends is a big fan and competed in that. And there were some Xbox 360s and PSPs set up. Upon receiving an Xbox 360 sticker and a PlayStation 3 lanyard, one of my friends who had accompanied me down to E3 last year made a joke about collecting "swag". Where was Nintendo? With Mario and Zelda always on the playlist, you'd think they'd have some presence here. Oh, well. I filled out a couple ballots to win an autographed poster and an Xbox 360 and then got a $5 coupon towards the purchase of any video game or PC game from Future Shop. Overall, this pre-show festival was not very exciting. But that's okay, I came for the music. When the doors finally opened, I grabbed the program on my way in.
The playlist changes, depending on the location. Here in Edmonton, we got these:
Classic Arcade Medley
Metal Gear Solid series
God Of War
Space Invaders
Myst series
Medal Of Honor
Civilization IV
Final Fantasy VIII
The Legend Of Zelda series
Frogger
Kingdom Hearts
Sonic The Hedgehog series
World Of WarCraft
Final Fantasy series (piano solo)
Jade Empire
Advent Rising
Super Mario Bros. series
Super Mario Bros. series (piano solo)
Halo & Halo 2
Halo 3 teaser
Final Fantasy VII
I pocketed the program and we went to find our seats: main floor, center, row C...not too shabby! A large screen above the stage showed the Video Games Live logo: a Space Invader with headphones. With a few minutes left until the show would start, a woman walked on stage with a six or seven people who had dressed up for the Costume Contest. I suspect the turnout would've been better if this was the first night (which I suspect has more of the hardcore gamers) or if this wasn't Edmonton. Anyway, the best dressed were already chosen in the pre-judging, so the woman asked for applause in deciding who of the three finalists would win a prize. The finalists included a girl dressed as Aeris from Final Fantasy VII, a woman dressed as Ms. Pac-Man, and a boy dressed as Cloud, also from Final Fantasy VII. Well, he could've been the character Zack as he hadn't dyed his hair blonde, but you couldn't ignore the cardboard-and-foil sword that was as big as he was. Unsurprisingly, it was unanimous, and Cloud (or Zack) won. I didn't hear what the prize was here, but at another concert it was a video card.
The lights dimmed at 7:32 PM and the familiar sound of a codec echoed through the auditorium. A voice claiming to be Solid Snake roused the crowd. He introduced the conductor, Jack Wall, who also pumped up the crowd by running across the stage and raising his arms to get applause and cheers from each side of the audience, as if to outdo the other. Then, the performance began.
The Classic Arcade Medley was a great way to start off the concert, and I believe it's one of the pieces you can expect at every show. It began with a game of Pong on the big screen, with beats pounded out when the square "ball" bounced. Then there were early classics like Space Invaders, Asteroids, Robotron, Joust and more set to a classical tune (the name of it escapes me now). The orchestra then continued with their symphonic renditions of in-game music. I recognized Front Line, Donkey Kong (which got a lot of applause), Frogger (a definite favourite, it was longer than most tunes), Elevator Action, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, the arcade versions of Duck Hunt and Punch-Out!!, Ghosts 'N Goblins, Gauntlet, Rastan, OutRun, and ending with the arcade version of Tetris.
Tommy Tallarico came on stage, dressed in a suit with a Spider-man T-shirt clearly visible underneath. He thanked the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and then he made some statements about video games and their music. Upon saying that some people think that video games are just for kids, people jeered. Then he said that some people think that video games are just for nerds and geeks - which got many cheers, probably the whole "proud to be a geek" kind of response. So he went on to say how this concert was meant to show how "artistic and culturally significant" that video games and their music are, and then thanked the audience for making video games the "entertainment of choice for the 21st century". And this evening we would be entertained by game music, but in a different way.
Following an introductory video with Hideo Kojima, the theme from Metal Gear Solid series was the first whole segment, and for us in Edmonton, the only one with live-action (other than the volunteers playing the "Interactive Symphony" games later on). The video cycled through various scenes from the Metal Gear Solid games (including Twin Snakes, but excluding the Game Boy Color game) - I noticed that scenes from the trailer of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots were added since the version I'd seen on the Internet. Spotlights scanned the stage as a guard walked by. Someone followed him in a cardboard box, Solid Snake-style. At some point, something caught the guard's attention, and an exclamation point popped up above his head, causing laughter from gamers who recognized the expression. (But being in Row C, it was pretty obvious to us beforehand, as the exclamation mark was not exactly hidden.) It would've been more interesting if they could've done more than just having the guard walk back and forth...the box just sat there after it reached the other side of the stage. I guess the Jubilee Auditorium's stage isn't large enough for chases and/or fancy "climbing-up-ropes" stuff I'd seen in the trailer on the official Video Games Live web site. But anyhow, the Metal Gear Solid theme was still pretty rousing.
The person under the box turned out to be Tommy himself, and he joked that he was the only one that would fit in there. Seeing another introductory video from someone (unfamiliar to me, and I don't remember his name) who worked on God Of War, we journeyed into a montage of that game. Not having played the game, I couldn't tell if God Of War II footage was included, but I was interested to see if I would enjoy it. I wanted to recommend this concert to everyone I knew, but some of them not being gamers, I wasn't sure if they could appreciate it without the nostalgia or the understanding of a particular game. So, would I enjoy God Of War, since I've never touched the game? It was certainly not unenjoyable, at least. The epic music matched the epic scenes...the character of Kratos taking on beasts or deities or whatever they are, multiple times, some maybe hundreds of times, larger than himself. Since the concert is for all ages, the bare-breasted women were obviously blurred and the fight scenes tried to avoid showing direct hits or blood-spilling. While the visuals were memorable, I can't say I remember the music, other than that it wasn't bad at the time.
To mix things up a bit, we got a segment with Space Invaders, which I've seen called the "Interactive Symphony". Tommy asked for a volunteer, and he picked out of the crowd a large guy near the front who vaulted up onto stage in excitement. Tommy gave him a shirt with the Space Invader ship-cannon thing on the back of it, which I suspect allowed his movements to be tracked. Yep, movement was involved. The participant was given a button to fire, but he had to run across the stage in order to move his ship. Tommy told him that he would win the dollar amount equal to the point value of the bonus mother ships that he shot down, if he could clear the first stage within 90 seconds or two minutes (one of the two, I don't quite remember). The audience cheered the volunteer on as he clomped across the stage, (the orchestra played the music to match the action) and Tommy repeatedly shouted that shooting up the sides would've been a good idea. A mother ship was finally shot down when time was almost up, but the stage was not completed. After being given a consolation prize, Tommy made an amusing remark when the guy decided to use the stairs this time.
The Myst series is a series I finally got around to totally playing a couple years ago, and is one of my favourite game series, period. Of these games, my favourites are Myst III: Exile and Myst IV: Revelation. Whether by coincidence or not, those two games were composed by the conductor, Jack Wall. The video was a montage of scenes of the five main Myst games shown in order: Myst, Riven, Exile, Revelation, and End Of Ages, with music from each of the games matching the current game montage. The choir was particularly impressive here, and I got chills when they got to the theme of Revelation, the tune from the Myst series that I find the most powerful and memorable.
The Medal Of Honor montage was not made of game footage. Instead, it was a montage of black-and-white historical wartime video. Tommy mentioned something about Steven Spielberg. I was never interested in any of the Medal Of Honor games, or nearly any game that takes place in World War II. That's not to say I lost interest here, as some of the footage was pretty moving, especially that of children that you assume might be orphans because of the war. I suppose given the tone of the music and the family-friendly nature of the concert, showing game footage would've been out of the question anyway.
After that, Civilization IV was next to please the history buffs, and it was certainly less heavy. The epic score was emphasized with the game's building animations...lots of them. The Pyramids, Babylonian Gardens, and other wonders. My brother is a fan of the Civilization games; he certainly loved this segment.
Tommy brought up an interesting problem...Square-Enix would not allow the use of footage from their games in this concert. (I remember their booth at E3 last year...they wouldn't allow pictures or videos of their theatre or the screens of their games on the floor.) Final Fantasy VIII's operatic opening theme, "Liberi Fatali", didn't need it, as Tommy pointed out. We didn't need to see the opening scene with Squall and Seifer dueling, or other scenes from FF VIII to enjoy it. And I really noticed the orchestra now, without the big screen to distract me. And of course, the choir was involved here too. Where we sat, it was really difficult to see the choir in the back, but we certainly heard them in this piece. Both the orchestra and the choir were certainly working together well.
Before the intermission, we had to hear something else that was big, especially coming off of Final Fantasy. So of course, it was The Legend Of Zelda series that was next. In the same format as the Hideo Kojima and the God of War guy introductory videos, Koji Kondo appeared, credited as the composer of "Mario Bros. and Zelda". He emphasized his pleasure of showing footage from the "new" Zelda game, Twilight Princess. Well, having finished the game over a month and a half ago, it wasn't really "new" to us, in fact, it was footage from an old trailer, showing scenes that did not end up in the final version. There were large humanoid creatures, some Moblins, and also an Armagohma chase, which are not in the game. But I digress; I should be reviewing the music. There's nothing bad to say about the recognizable Zelda overworld theme! My only beef is that they should've stayed on that one theme a bit more instead playing other pieces from the series. The footage didn't just show Twilight Princess, it cycled through many of the Zelda games. I'm pretty sure some of the footage is the same as the retrospective found on The Legend Of Zelda: Collectors Edition Disc that Nintendo Power gave out a couple years ago. (I also really noticed the lights here...they showed off patterns of yellow triangles, no doubt a reference to the Triforce.) All in all, very enjoyable, if I'm let down at all it's only because I'm such a Zelda fan and expected more of the theme and for it to be longer overall.
The intermission was twenty minutes long and a meter like that of a game's loading screen appeared on the big screen. It read "Video Games Live - Loading Act II", and slowly filled up with green as time passed. There was a dash to the bathrooms and back, of course. Anyone who was still in the theatre enjoyed geeky music like "Dragostea din tei" (the "Numa Numa Dance" music), a track from PaRappa the Rapper, and other tunes played softly and just barely audible over the chattering of the excited nerds in the audience. The meter filled up when the twenty minutes were up, and the screen read "Press Start (or clap) to begin." After some applause, the lights dimmed and the show resumed.
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Frogger gave our group something to be excited about. It was an "Interactive Symphony" game, like Space Invaders, but this was a game for two players, and one of them was Clint, one of my friends. He was up against a larger guy named Roy, and they were playing Frogger to win $100 worth of gift cards for Future Shop. Roy was up first and got a score of about 3000 or so. Clint (whose name Tommy must've forgotten, because while he kept referring to Roy by name, he seemed to avoid saying "Clint") clearly played better than his opponent. Even after overtaking Roy's score, the crowd got more excited when Tommy pointed out that the highest score ever was over 5000. When Clint got over 6000, that clearly beat that, and there was much applause. They were then given their prizes. They both got a goody bag, which included an autographed program booklet and a volume of manga (Clint got a volume of Ragnarok), and while Clint got the four Future Shop gift cards, Roy was given a home version of Frogger (one of those plug-directly-into-the-TV thingies) as a consolation prize.
The audience got immediately excited for the next segment. As soon as Tommy asked if there were Disney fans, it was pretty obvious, and then he asked if there were Square fans. Some people were already shrieking the title of the game, so Tommy asked everyone to do it in unison by the count of three. "One, Two, Three, Kingdom Hearts!" Because of Square-Enix's insistence that their footage not be used, it was pretty much a montage from Disney movies. There were clips from Aladdin, The Beauty And The Beast, The Lion King, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Winnie-The-Pooh, some shots with Goofy and Donald, and it ended with a shot of Mickey from Steamboat Willie. Watching it made me think of Fantasia...it's good orchestra music with matching visuals, but unless you were a huge Kingdom Hearts fan, you wouldn't think this had anything to do with video games if you saw this anywhere else.
The video for the Sonic The Hedgehog series was similar to the Myst montage in that it took music from the various games in the series, and played them in chronological order. This was made very evident with the title screens included in the montage, as most people would have trouble telling the first few games apart. The lights showed patterns of yellow circles, meant to be like the Rings that Sonic collects in each game. Everyone got a laugh at the opening when the choir sang "SEGA!" as normally chanted at the beginning of many of Sega's own games, especially in the Genesis era. The music was a medley of stage music from Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Sonic The Hedgehog 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Spinball, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes. I remember thinking "why won't he run?" as the Sonic The Hedgehog video showed Sonic running into things just as often or more than just plain running. I was hoping for Chemical Plant music when it came to Sonic The Hedgehog 2, but alas, it was not performed. Sonic Spinball's inclusion was a surprise to me, as it must've been for others, as it got some chuckles and applause when the title screen came up...same with Sonic 3D Blast. Sonic CD was absent; or else I must've missed it. While I don't mind the later games' J-pop, I know there are many of you who do mind it, but thankfully then, none of that was included. The final shot was of Sonic Heroes, where Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were in their "Mission Clear" poses. Now that's how you do a montage!
I'm not a big fan of World Of WarCraft. I know that many people are, though, including one from our group. Again, it was booming, epic music, fitting for a fantasy setting. If memory serves, I think some of the footage was actually from trailers of WarCraft III. And if I am mistaken, most certainly a WarCraft fan will point that out. I would've liked it more if it were a WarCraft montage spanning the whole series, actually...I do have fond memories of the music from WarCraft II.
The Final Fantasy series (piano solo) was next, and performed by Lee Ann Leung. As far as I know, there's no relation to myself, however, she is the sister of Martin Leung, the "Video Game Pianist" made famous on the Internet for playing tunes from the Mario games while blindfolded. Martin performs at many of these concerts, but not this one. He was mentioned as having arranged this medley, and the original composer Nobuo Uematsu was also credited. This piano solo began with the Final Fantasy theme (you know, the one that goes up-and-down the keys) and went through the various games. There was applause when she played the ones I also recognized instantly, including the opening theme of Final Fantasy VI, "One-Winged Angel" from Final Fantasy VII (if I'm not confusing this with the finale), "Liberi Fatali" (again) and Waltz For The Moon (the dance scene) from Final Fantasy VIII. The applause she got at the end was thunderous.
Tommy got the crowd excited again when he shouted, "Have you played...Baldur's Gate? Have you played...Neverwinter Nights? Have you played...Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic?" He made the point that BioWare developed these games, and BioWare is based right here in Edmonton. The upcoming performance was from Jade Empire, a game that they developed and that Jack Wall himself composed for. Because the show changes depending on the location, this was actually just added, and it was the second time ever that this was performed (the first time was at the first Edmonton concert on the previous night). Unfortunately it was not memorable to me, probably because I hadn't played the game, but I do remember enjoying it at the time, like some of the earlier pieces.
Jack took the microphone here and joked that he does speak too, as up to now he had been pretty silent. He said that after playing something that he wrote it would only be fair to play something that Tommy wrote. So up came music for Advent Rising. I had heard that this game was very cinematic, and it certainly looked that way, and had the music to match. The game footage looked interesting, but it felt longer than the other pieces, and even included a scene with spoken dialogue in the middle. Considering that the game didn't sell as well as hoped I almost wonder if it was only this lengthy because of Tommy's involvement in the soundtrack and intended as a push to sell the game. One of my friends made a comment after the concert that he was interested in this game, so I guess it might have worked, at least to get our attention.
What's a video game concert (or anything about video games) without Super Mario? Tommy joked that this was the other "short Italian" that we were all looking forward to seeing. The video for the Super Mario Bros. series was introduced with another clip of Koji Kondo, remarking that he didn't think that twenty years later, people would be enjoying a full orchestral performance of the Super Mario Bros. theme. That, along with the underwater and underground themes of Super Mario Bros. made up the music for this sequence. The video showed off not only the "main" Mario games, but also Donkey Kong, Dr. Mario, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Golf, Mario Power Tennis, Super Smash Bros., Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, and possibly others. There certainly was a lot of variety here. The synchronization between the music and the video was really impressive here.? I had seen a video of this on YouTube, but seeing it again live seemed so much better.
After that, Lee Ann Leung came out and performed a Super Mario Bros. series (piano solo), much like the one that made Martin Leung famous. She didn't do it blindfolded, but she also has lightning-quick fingers. The close-up of her playing was as impressive to watch as it was to hear. She received a standing ovation.
Halo & Halo 2 have a recognizable theme, even one that I can appreciate despite only playing the first game on the PC once through. With clips from both games, the powerful theme seemed to energize the audience. Probably many Halo fans were present.
Once that was finished, Tommy came out in more casual attire and a guitar. Screaming "finish the fight", the Halo 3 teaser played. The Halo theme came on again, and Tommy joined in with his guitar. I suppose if I was a Halo fan that would've been a nice encore of sorts, but I found it to be somewhat redundant considering we'd just heard the theme. At least it was really short, but that made it seem a little more out of place.
To finish off a video game concert, you have to have boss music, right? Final Fantasy VII's "One Winged Angel" was the final tune. Again, lack of footage meant that we couldn't see the evil Sephiroth doing his thing, but hey, the music was still pretty moving. No doubt the audience was excited as the choir chanted "Seph-i-roth!" The concert ended with more thunderous applause, right at 10:00 PM.
I didn't stick around for the meet-and-greet post-show (despite being invited by Tommy himself at the NintendoWorldReport (formerly Planet GameCube) forums). Tommy Tallarico, Jack Wall, Lee Ann Leung, and probably some others were signing posters and the like. The line-up was already really long by the time we got there, and so we didn't bother. Oh, why did the concert have to be on a Tuesday?
Jack and Tommy did say that they hope to be back again next year. It was the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra that wanted Video Games Live to come here in the first place, and as the home of BioWare, they said they'd be happy to return here. Since the show changes a bit each time, I would also be happy to see the show again. Maybe next time they'll play some Castlevania, which is one of the game series they do perform, they just didn't do it here. Pretty much my only major gripe.
I'd recommend this show to gamers, obviously...but what about other people? Well, good music is good music, no matter what it is originally composed for or where it came from. The visuals make it more exciting than most other orchestral performances. So, yes, non-gamers will have a good time too, but clearly, gamers will have the most fun.
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I can't believe I read all of that.
It sounds interesting, despite the fact I haven't played practically half the games on the list. :P Maybe I should go to it when I have the money/time/transportation.
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Dot? Dot. Dot!
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I'm glad someone read it. Admittedly, it is kind of long. I don't know how to review music (other than saying "I like it") so I just went with a recap approach.
As they change it up each time, even if you did remember every nuance of my review/recap, you might see a different show if you went to this when it comes near your town or city.
You can see videos of the concert at various locations on the Internet (including several clips on YouTube) but it's still different than actually being there. Seeing a couple clips may help you decide if it's worth the $50 (US) or $60 (CDN) to see live.
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Hehe nice review Jon, brought back some good ole memories of the nite. I had no clue Tommy invited you to meet him. Man if that was the case we should have stayed so you could have met your hero! :P
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Cool! I just checked their website and apparently they're considering a concert in Montreal sometimes this year (date to be annonced) which means I'll finally be able to attend!
(Not owning a car because it would really be a waste of money in my case is really a handicap sometimes)
I also finally read your entire report on the event. It would seem that less than half the music played will actually mean anything to me since I'm always behind on the times in terms of playing modern games. Still, good music is good music, and the energy of an enthusiastic crowd can make you have a good time even when the music doesn't particularly appeal to you.
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me
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Turns out the show is coming back to Edmonton next month, so I'll be purchasing a bunch of tickets tonight. :D
Did it ever come around to Montreal, and did you go, Terra?
Since Edmonton is the home of BioWare, they're going to have some Mass Effect music this time around. Not that I've played that...
As I said, I really hope there's some Castlevania this time around!
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It comes to London about once a year and is crazy expensive (I think it was about £60 (~$120 US or Canadian) last time), and very quickly sold out, every time.
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I have never had the desire to go to this, even though I'm a fan of VG music. I'm just not a big fan of VG music played with a symphony orchestra. Don't get me wrong, there are some good orchestral arrangements of non-orchestral songs, but I think it's over or under done most times.
Now if they did stuff from Last Blade 2, that might be worth going to. But then again, there's already an arranged orchestral sound track for that game.
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To be honest, I completely forgot about this thread so even if they came to Montreal, I wouldn't have been aware of it.
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Current projects: Mega Man IV (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Sonic CD (Sega CD)
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Terra, you should go! There are TWO shows in Montreal on Feb. 7 and 8...and tickets are already available! You would see it before I see it again!
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Woohoo, now that is *definitely* good news! Thanks for looking for me. I don't know how I managed to miss things like that (oh wait, I know: through laziness)...
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Current projects: Mega Man IV (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Sonic CD (Sega CD)
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Too lazy to click on a couple links and then go "Ctrl + F" "Montreal"? :P
Anyway, I'll be seeing it on Feb. 17, on the Family Day long weekend (for those of you who don't know, Family Day is a day off in mid-February from work/school, and I think it's specific to the province of Alberta and was designated as a day-off since only like 20 years ago or so).
Too bad there's only one show this year - with two last year, we got good seats despite waiting a while to buy tickets, since we went for the second one. Now this year we have seats on the first balcony, which isn't bad, but isn't great. Hope you get good seats, Terra; if you're on the main floor near the front you'd at least have a chance to be picked to play Space Invaders or Frogger with musical accompaniment to win a prize, like my friend Clint did. He set the record for Frogger at that point, at least according to Tommy. It was certainly entertaining to have someone we knew on stage.
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Ctrl+F to find? How quaint :)
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No. My kind of lazines is more like "Hm, sounds interesting. I'll check it out a bit later..." and then I never do.
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Current projects: Mega Man IV (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Sonic CD (Sega CD)
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Well, you didn't miss your chance, and you have the relevant links.
It would be interesting to see if you enjoyed it as much as I did (or as much as I will the second time around).
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Despite the site claiming that there were tickets still available both for February 7th and 8th, a quick check at the theater's web site indicated that only the 7th still had available places.
This is a bit of a pain since I'll have to take Friday off and take a 2 1/2 hour bus trip right after work on Thursday to reach the concert in time (but thankfully, the theater is right next to the bus terminal). Also, my ticket places me right behind the light operators' booth; hopefully the view won't be completely blocked >:(
I'm really looking forward to it though, even if my best friend won't be able to attend because his finances are a bit tight. I'm also a bit worried since I'm not familiar with the music from most modern games even though I'm confident that the energy during the show will compensate for that, just like it did when I had a blast at an Iron Maiden concert despite not being that familiar with the group.
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Current projects: Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Sonic CD (Sega CD)
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I'll say right out that I *really* enjoyed the concert and I wish my friend had been there too so I could have talked about it with someone else. Anyway, here's the approximate listing since I wasn't equipped to take notes throughout:
Classic Arcade Medley
Metal Gear Solid series
God Of War
Space Invaders (live playing)
Beyond Good And Evil
Myst series
Medal Of Honor
Final Fantasy series (piano solo by Martin Leung)
Civilization IV
The Legend Of Zelda series
Intermission
Frogger (live playing)
Kingdom Hearts
World Of Warcraft
Starcraft 2
Super Mario Bros. series
Bioshock (piano solo by Martin Leung)
Namco Medley (piano solo by Martin Leung)
Tetris NES (piano solo by Martin Leung)
Super Mario Bros. series (piano solo by Martin Leung while blindfolded)
Sonic The Hedgehog series
Halo & Halo 2
Halo 3 teaser
Final Fantasy VII's "One Winged Angel"
Don't expect a detailed account like JonLeung's :P. From what I can see, most of the pieces are the same down to the images and whatever antics they play on stage. Where things differ, I'll note it.
The final vote for the cosplay contest took place just before the concert started. There was a Snake, an Aeris, a girl dressed like a commando, and a young Link. Unsurprisingly, Link won. Aside from that, I didn't get a program because there was only a 20$ one with lots of generic pictures but seemingly no actual content.
Classic Arcade Medley: I only recognized some of these but it was cool nonetheless. I especially enjoyed their rendition of the arcade Tetris and Ghosts 'N Goblins.
Metal Gear Solid series: I've never even played a single game in this series nor do I ever want to, but the visuals alone were enough to keep me engrossed. I'm the kind of guy who will enjoy most games for the story and the game universe than for the actual gameplay, and in fact I often take great pleasure in seeing a friend skillfully playing through a game. Anyway, the video and music complimented each other very well and were very epic.
God Of War: Again, the gorgeous visuals of this warrior facing classical giant gods with a thunderous score. Great.
Space Invaders: The chosen player got made fun of a bit by Tommy for being, er, 'massive' and barely fitting inside the shirt, but he took it well. Better than his playing though, which wasn't that good. He barely shot half the ships before losing, never got the UFO and didn't start shooting the sides before the end. In his defense though, the motion tracking was atrocious.
Beyond Good And Evil: They included this since Ubisoft is based in Montreal. The music was nice, but not that epic and since the gameplay footage showed a lot of low-poly models and low-res textures thanks to the game's age, it didn't really grabbed my attention. A typical fantasy game with ugly monsters.
Myst series: Nice animations and music. Very entertaining, and made me want to actually play the games, which I haven't so far.
Medal Of Honor: I'm actually glad they used real footage for this, because I'm really tired of this type of game. I mean, how many times do we really want to play through World War II against Nazis? This way, it really felt like they were denouncing the horrors of the war instead of glorifying it like the games usually do. Really touching, and I almost had tears in my eyes.
Final Fantasy series: We were lucky enough to be treated to the real Martin Leung, who performed a medley of ten or so themes from the Final Fantasy series. I must admit I didn't recognized any of theme except of course for Terra's lament ;) Martin received a big ovation, yet still the smallest one he'd get for the evening.
Civilization IV: I really liked the music for this. I don't know how to describe the style, but 'tribal' might apply. Seeing all the animations of those famous monuments being built was inspiring in a historical way.
The Legend Of Zelda series: A good tune, but one I had already heard from downloading an mp3 of it described as 'John Williams plays Zelda'. Ironically, it doesn't sound like any actual tune from a Zelda game except for the basic Zelda theme with some variations.
Intermission
Frogger: Nothing major here. The first player tried to go too fast and only managed to get two frogs across, while the second took his time and got five of them across, finishing the first level but he didn't get more than a few seconds on the second level.
Kingdom Hearts: When Square was mentioned along with Disney, everyone yelled the name of the game. I felt the classic Disney footage didn't go with the music at all; the song hinted at some epic storytelling but it was wasted with the typical sweet Disney scenes.
World Of Warcraft: Easily one of my favourite parts. First, the music with all the chorus was gorgeous, and the cinematics from Warcraft III are amazing. I can't wait for that rumoured Warcraft movie if Blizzard can managed that level of quality.
Starcraft 2: This is the tune that was played when Starcraft 2 was first announced in Korea or something like that I believe. The footage consisted of concept designs and a few bits of actually gameplay footage. I really liked the first Starcraft, but I can't say that I ever noticed the music and this piece didn't impress me either.
Super Mario Bros. series: Not really impressive but cute and fun anyway. Basically a medley of the first Super Mario Bros. game.
Bioshock: Martin Leung came back to play the Bioshock piano theme; the guy really puts a lot of energy in his playing and it shows! The song, if you've never heard it, sounds a bit like the main part from Saint-Saëns' Dance Macabre to me.
Namco Medley: Martin continued with a first for Video Game Live, a Namco medley. Personally, I didn't recognized anything except when he ended with Pacman's intro tune.
Tetris NES: At this point, I must point out that Tommy had to bring Martin back to the piano after every piece be he kept trying to escape the stage in a hurry (the guy seemed quite shy). It was a nice piece, especially since the only Tetris whose music I knew was the NES version. He played the three tunes and kept going faster as the stack got higher in the video until it reached Game Over.
Super Mario Bros. series: The last tune by Martin Leung, and also his most popular one which can be seen on YouTube. He played blindfolded at first but only did the overworld theme instead of following with the underground and underwater. He did make everyone laugh when he played the Pause tune and stopped playing for a few seconds before un-pausing. He then played it faster like when the countdown is almost expired. He finally ended the part with a tune form Super Mario World, the one he also ended with on YouTube.
Sonic The Hedgehog series: It seems that this medley was different than what JonLeung saw. While we saw footage from almost every Sonic game (excluding Sonic CD), what was actually played is the ending theme from the first Sonic game where we hear the songs from every zone, except they looped each zone completely instead of just playing a small part of each. Marble and Starlight sounded great but I was surprised at how good Scrap Brain was with an orchestra.
Halo, Halo 2 & Halo 3 teaser: Never played it, never plan to but just like Metal Gear Solid, the music and the cinematics complimented each other well, giving off a 'epic space opera' vibe that was probably a lot more interesting than the actual games.
Final Fantasy VII's "One Winged Angel": I didn't know the tune itself, but when Tommy said "Final Fantasy" and "Seven", I just knew it had to be this song. From browsing the Internet at random, I got the feeling that this song is loved by untold masses of Square fanboys (and girls). The actual song was probably good, but I couldn't really tell thanks to Tommy's awful electrical guitar drowning out the orchestra. I don't know you call the actual sound an electric guitar sound at any particular time (there are hundred of different sounds it can make) but this one was awful, *awful*, *AWFUL*.
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Current projects: Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Sonic CD (Sega CD)
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Thanks for sharing your impressions, Terra!
But shame on you for not having played Beyond Good & Evil! (I assume this when you say "A typical fantasy game with ugly monsters." >_<) Sounds like they're still using beta version footage of that game again, which is considerably different from the final product! >_< (I could go on a rant about how there's no excuse to have not played that game, but that can go in another topic. :P)
I don't get why they still have that Halo 3 teaser (the game is already out and the theme is the same as in the first two, pretty much).
I'm sure it'll be a great time again but I hope they'll mix it up more when I see it on Sunday since Edmonton was already treated to most of that last year.
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Well, that's the impression I got from the video which featured sub-N64 level graphics, and it definitely paled compared to what we saw of God Of War for example.
As for not playing Beyond Good And Evil, well I always had a crappy computer barely capable of playing games made 3 or 4 years earlier. And now that I have a somewhat recent computer, I don't have enough time to play the games I want to, some of which are already quite old. For example, I'd like to play both Fallout games which could take a while to do properly. Then I'd like to find and play the new Prince Of Persia games, try the PSX Mega Man X games and hopefully still have enough time to do some mapping (especially since I've been wanting to push Sonic CD to the forefront of my project list). No excuse my ass mister :P!
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Current projects: Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Sonic CD (Sega CD)
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That reminds me, I started Mega Man X 8 on the PC a while back, but obviously I've put that on hold for now, and I really should find the PC version of X 7 first...
If you like the Prince Of Persia games, the recent Tomb Raider games are good too (Legend, Anniversary). Yes, the franchise has apparently stopped sucking, though I never really played the pre-Legend ones...
The Prince Of Persia games (Sands Of Time trilogy) are awesome (I still have to play the third). But that's part of why Beyond Good & Evil might not have done so well...it was released alongside Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. UbiSoft wasn't helping their own game by putting it against a bigger one of their own.
The "no excuse to have not played Beyond Good & Evil" logic comes from the fact that it was on all three of the previous consoles (GameCube, Xbox, PS2) as well as the PC (ie. everyone except diehard Mac fanboys could have played it), and though it's really good, it's just short enough to finish on a rental (12-15 hours) so if someone started it, there's no reason to have not finished it as it's not long enough to get bored with. I'd call it the best Zeldaesque game that isn't Zelda.
It's truly a good game. That and Psychonauts are two of the most commonly referred to as "Why the eff (YTF?) haven't you played this" games of the last generation. Psychonauts has a lot of collecting, is considerably longer, and wasn't on the GameCube, but I'd really recommend that too if you like the same games I do.
'Course, now we're going off topic...I'll be seeing VGL tomorrow, hope it's as good or better than last year's!
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Well, I saw it, and it was incredible! And they did mix it from last year, with new segments (like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix...huh?) and new footage (like Super Mario Galaxy footage edited into the Mario segment).
I'm not going to write as detailed an account of it all like last time (enough of it was similar), but I'll recount the new bits and highlights...
1) Last year, Tommy hid in the cardboard box (used in the Metal Gear Solid segment). But this year, the guy under the box turned out to be Martin Leung! Of course you've heard of him, and most people who ever saw Video Games Live has seen and heard him live. Last year in Edmonton, we got his sister Lee Ann, who is also a really good pianist, but it was cool to see the guy who has the legacy.
2) As a surprise to everyone, before Zelda, Tommy introduced a segment that was "the most requested" ever since Video Games Live began. He said tonight was its premiere and was a surprise to everyone...because it wasn't Edmonton-based BioWare stuff, I was surprised that they would've chosen here to be the first showing. But to the deafening roar from everyone (including my brother beside me), the Metroid segment premiered. It began with the title screen and opening text from the first Metroid game, and then after some footage from of it, went into a montage of all the other games in the series. I believe they covered every single game (including the handheld ones - unlike the Zelda and Sonic segments - they had some Zero Mission, Prime: Hunters, Fusion, and even a brief glimpse or two of Prime: Pinball. Least represented was II: Return Of Samus). Finishing off with all the various in-game images of suitless/Zero Suit Samus in mostly chronological-by-release-date order (except they finished off with Prime, which had the most realistic Samus) and then Fusion's "Mission Accomplished" screen was a nice touch. No Ridley music in there, but of course Ridley did show up a couple times in the montage.
3) Richard Jacques, who has worked on some Sega games, flew in from England. Here he played music from OutRun 2 on the piano - the camera was focused on him but the orchestra did join in - and while I haven't played that game, I do have to say that medley was one of the most energetic pieces of music I've ever heard.
4) Mass Effect music was the premiere that everyone was expecting. While I haven't played it yet (it's yet another one of those Xbox games that will eventually make its way to the PC, I'm sure - I'll catch it then), it was interesting to see that they didn't go for the usual "John Williams space opera" vibe. As Jack Wall and the technical director on the game mentioned on stage a few times before the segment, they were going for a "Blade Runner/Tangerine Dream/'80s ultra-futuristic soundtrack" or something, and I think they got it. To mix things up, the second half of it was played and sung by local band The Faunts, who apparently did that song in-game as well.
5) Jack Wall pointed out that it was Tommy's birthday, so he had all of us sing "Happy Birthday" to him - with the orchestra and choir joining in, of course. That was neat. Not a huge deal, but obviously that can't happen every show!
6) After Halo 3, they obviously came back for an encore. It was FF VII's One-Winged Angel (again). But then there was a second encore. They said they just learned it recently, and it was what me and a friend wanted to see, the Castlevania segment! I thought they played it before - pretty sure actually - just not here in Edmonton. Maybe when they said they "learned it a few days ago" it meant with Martin Leung on the piano and Tommy on the guitar as well. Love that Castlevania music!
I still didn't wait around long enough to meet Tommy Tallarico. (My friend volunteered to help with the costume contest, so he did.)
Awesome night. Now I'm sure I'll go again each year if they can keep adding new stuff and have some surprises.
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Man, this sucks! That means you got all the segments that would have been my favourites (Mass Effect, Metroid and Castlevania). They better drag their asses to Montreal again next year or else >:(
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Current projects: Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES), Sonic CD (Sega CD)
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By the way JonLeung, thanks a lot for the MP3s :) The sound quality is a lot better than I would have expected from a recording made in the audience, and it's great to listen to those songs they didn't perform in Montreal like Mass Effect and Castlevania!
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Current projects: Sonic CD (Sega CD), Mega Man V (GB), Mega Man Zero (GBA), Battletoads (NES)
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Just got back from the concert - yup, Video Games Live again, for the third time in Edmonton. I'll eventually write up something about what was new and etc., though with a quick glance at what I wrote last year, there probably wasn't as much.
Still a really good time, though. And clearly better than PLAY!: A Video Game Symphony.
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Last night, to finish off the Victoria Day long weekend, I attended the Video Games Live concert. This was the third year it was performed at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, and also my third time attending.
As always the hosts were Tommy Tallarico (co-creator of Video Games Live, a video game music composer for nineteen years, and also the writer, co-host and co-producer of The Electric Playground and Reviews On The Run) and Jack Wall (conductor of Video Games Live, as well as a video game music composer for thirteen years). Also, as usual for the Edmonton performances, the music was performed by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and sung by the Kokopelli Choir.
Unlike the past two times, I didn't make a big deal about arranging to see this with a dozen friends and their friends and going for dinner before the show. And perhaps I should have, to add to the whole experience. I had almost forgotten about going, since in past years the Edmonton concert was in the winter (looks like they wanted to avoid the snow this year, though ironically it started snowing last night and the forecast for the next couple days show more snow - Edmonton isn't always frozen...honest!) - and I even told co-workers I wasn't doing anything interesting for the Victoria Day long weekend since it had almost slipped my mind. Also, originally I wasn't going to go, since PLAY!: A Video Game Symphony came to town this last winter, which was going to be my one annual game concert I would attend, but since PLAY! was incredibly lackluster (you can read about it here), my brother immediately bought tickets for Video Games Live after that, as if to say that we need to see at least one GOOD video game concert a year.
So we got there with a half an hour before the show and I almost wonder if we should've come earlier. I remarked in the past that pre-concert events at VGL while in Edmonton seem rather lacking. I know I said in 2007 that it was lacking probably because I attended E3 2006, but I'm pretty sure now that there could've been more. Still, the lobby at the Jubilee isn't exactly huge and it was crowded enough with all the attendees. Someone was playing some Super Mario Bros. music in the background as we looked around at what there was. There was a Guitar Hero competition, some Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 set up in the corner for people to try out, and a VGL merchandise table, from which I bought two program books and the Video Games Live - Volume One CD. I saw one of my good friends, Jason Chow, who was volunteering for the show a second time, here he was manning the table for the draw for a PSP, and then, like last year, just before the show, he was leading the cosplayers to where they had to go.
What was an improvement on past years was the number of people who dressed up. And this time they didn't have pre-selected finalists, though I don't know how fair it is to select from two dozen people based on applause alone, especially since there were many good ones. There were a couple of obscure ones (looking back on it, I think one guy was dressed like the lead guy in Ouendan - why didn't I realize that at the time?) and a few I wouldn't call video game characters per se (there was a Captain Kirk, a Jedi, and the red, yellow, and white Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) A younger boy dressed as Shinboi was pretty good (isn't he a bit young to be playing Shinobi?), there was a girl dressed as Luigi (she called herself "Lui-she"), three Links - one accompanied by Zelda, a couple characters from Team Fortress 2, and either Spider-Man in his black alien symbiote costume or Venom (he was introduced as Spider-Man). There was someone dressed as Frank West from Dead Rising who was in turn wearing a Servbot mask (just like he can in the game, a reference to Capcom's Mega Man Legends), however the announcer called him "LEGO Man". Sheesh. The winner was one whose costume was initially bizarre...she wore a black hoodie with white markings on the sleeves and had a white ball above her head. When asked what she was, she explained that she was dressed up as the game Pong - and rocked her head, with the ball above it, holding up her arms, with the markings resembling the paddles - simulating Pong in action. Creative. Rather simple, though, considering the work many of the others put into their costumes, but apparently the audience applauds creativity so she ended up winning some stuff (probably from Future Shop, as they always sponsor Video Games Live).
In the midst of so many gamers, many with portable game systems pulled out and in use, I also tried to mess around with my DS (my DS Lite is currently undergoing repairs), and joined a PictoChat session where I spammed a bit about VGMaps.com before realizing how futile any real conversation was.
Before the show officially began, the video for LeetStreet Boys' "Yuri The Only One", filled with video game and anime references, played upon the main screen. You can see it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=189QSTKC5no
When the lights dimmed, we were treated to a video by The Go! Team (the same video as last year's, but still amusing) of Ms. Pac-Man running around New York, avoiding her nemeses, the Ghosts. You can see it on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQg7qOB5Heg
Anyway, on with the actual show.
Some pieces are mostly unchanged from previous years; these are the ones we've seen every time:
Classic Arcade Medley (always first)
Metal Gear Solid series (always second)
Final Fantasy series (piano solo)
Space Invaders ("Interactive Symphony" - this time the player, a guy named Wes, actually managed to hit the flying saucer at the top)
Kingdom Hearts (still with only Disney footage, no Square-Enix footage)
The Legend Of Zelda series (before the intermission each time, if I recall correctly)
World Of WarCraft
Super Mario Bros. series
Super Mario Bros. series (piano solo)
Halo & Halo 2
Halo 3 (but this time it was not just the teaser, but a fuller piece)
Final Fantasy VII (but this time with images of cosplayers on-screen instead)
And also, since the game developer BioWare is based in Edmonton, for whom Jack Wall himself has composed music for, we're always treated to at least one composition from one of BioWare's epics. This year it was Mass Effect, which premiered last year.
So it's a bit of a letdown that most of the show was a repeat, though surely some gamers would lament if any of those major series were cut. Anyway, you can read my impression of those in my really long 2007 review/recap, as for the most part my opinions of them haven't changed the third time around. The remainder of this recap will mostly be about the material that wasn't performed in Edmonton previously.
Beyond Good & Evil is a game I'm almost tired of recommending to people. As I've always said, there's no reason not to have played it if you like games at all: it appeared on the three major consoles as well as the PC (so fanboyism is not a reason, if it ever was), it is - though also unfortunate - short enough to finish on a rental (so not having enough time is not a reason), and because it didn't sell too well, I'm pretty sure you could've found it for cheap in a bargain bin somewhere (so being a cheapskate is not a reason). Do you have two hands, at least one eye, and a pulse? Then why haven't you played this game? Play it now. Go. This review will still be here, 15 hours later, when you've finished the game. It's been so tiring recommending it to people, and I'm not the only one who does the recommending since most people who have played it do too, that I almost think it's becoming the most overrated underrated game. And yet, people still haven't played it. At least Video Games Live got around to playing its music - it has for as long as I remember, but this was the first time they did so in Edmonton. Briefly introduced in video by Michel Ancel, the creator of the game (he is also known for the Rayman series), we were then taken into a game montage with an epic medley. My only complaint is the overuse of beta footage, though, Jade didn't look right not wearing green, and seemed downright emotionless in many scenes. The final version of the game looks better...and here it sounds great.
Mass Effect was the requisite BioWare game featured this year, though it premiered and was performed last year with local group The Faunts, they did not return for this year. I liked it better this year than last year's from what I vaguely remember, though I don't think that had to do with their absence. Maybe the footage montage was different? I'm not sure, but as I am a more visual type of person, that might have been it if it had changed.
At one point, Tommy mentioned that they found footage from 1968 of Ralph Baier - the creator of the home video game console - and showed us the video, where Mr. Baier is showing off his Pong-like video game prototype. The so-called "Brown Box" became the Magnavox Odyssey, the first game console which would be released in 1972. It was neat to see history, but it was particular cool when videoconferencing via Skype, to talk with Ralph Baier himself, still alive and apparently fit and sharp for an 87-year-old. He and Tommy talked briefly about his contributions, and the audience cheered and thanked him for creating the games industry which we all love. When Tommy asked for a question, someone asked him what his Xbox Live gamertag was. Mr. Baier said he didn't have an Xbox or a Wii, but he did show off one of his favorite toys, the classic electronic Simon memory game that he had developed.
Tron was an interesting segment. Though I didn't find the music particularly memorable, I recall that it was good, and the video footage of the Tron games made me want to see the movie again. Though Tron is probably better remembered as a film and not its tie-in games, it seemed a bit more fitting than last year's performance of Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, in my opinion. At least the Tron segment features music from a game spun off from a movie about computers and games, rather than the Order Of The Phoenix segment which features music from a game spun off from a movie based on a book that doesn't have anything to do with computers or games.
I'm of the opinion that games should be featured in Video Games Live if they are representative of gaming by being a stand-out franchise. And to me, Need For Speed isn't really major enough of one. But I guess the music from Need For Speed: Undercover was decent. Tommy introduced the group Splitting Adam, who performed their song "On My Own", which sounds like it would fit well with the game. The footage of cars from the cutscenes in the game speeding around was exciting, but I found it odd juxtaposed against the footage of actors in the live-action segments kind of standing around not doing anything. Oh, look, there's Maggie Q. Oh look, there's a bunch of not-very-big-name actors. And there's Maggie Q again. And then there are those other guys. They're standing around, they're hanging out, they're sitting around cars. Great. EA Black Box probably didn't actually have these actors racing the cars and left that to their game counterparts - or else the choice of footage wasn't the greatest. But I digress.
At some point in the second half, they brought onstage a guy named Jeff Orum (I think), an attendee who competed in the Guitar Hero competition. He was challenged to play "Sweet Emotion" in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith on Hard difficulty and get over 220,000 points to win $100 of Future Shop stuff. He was so confident that he played it on Expert difficulty. Confidence is warranted if you've got it, and he certainly had it, getting 302,005 points (best streak was 398 notes and he got 97%). Tommy remarked that that was the best Guitar Hero performance he'd ever seen on Video Games Live.
This year also featured Martin Leung, the video game pianist. After doing the Super Mario Bros. themes blindfolded (I think I mentioned that in last year's recap) as well as a bit of Super Mario World, Jack Wall asked the audience if they'd like more, and so he played the more familiar Tetris theme from the Game Boy version...which probably pleased all those who cheered for Tetris when it was featured in the arcade medley only to realize the arcade version's music isn't what most people think of when they think of Tetris.
Towards the end was Final Fantasy VII's "One Winged Angel". As I briefly mentioned above, it's actually been featured every time. This time, though, they made no mention about not having the rights to use Square-Enix footage (apparently PLAY!: A Video Game Symphony has the rights, how sad), and they still couldn't, but this time they used the screen to show a slideshow of various Final Fantasy VII cosplayers. There were a lot of shots of Sephiroth and Tifa. Oh, and Cloud and Vincent. It seemed like there were more of the Turks than the other characters. As for the music, it's the same as it has always been. When it comes to popularity, there's no denying this one's impact, but personally, I wish more Final Fantasy music was better represented.
The Halo series, too, has its share of fans. This time, along with the usual Halo & Halo 2 Suite, they played a full piece for Halo 3, which was now more than just a trailer like it was the last couple times (since the game's been out for a while now). However, they began with music to the trailer of Halo 3: ODST. Personally, while I thought the Halo 3: ODST composition was short and essentially just advertising an upcoming game (let's be blunt, it's just a trailer), altogether with the Halo & Halo 2 Suite as well as Halo 3, it just seemed to be a bit too much time devoted to one series. Considering not many people were cheering until the main Halo theme (you know which one I mean), I'm thinking if they ever trim it down they should just do that.
The encore included Castlevania, which was also included in the encore last year. Unlike many of the other game franchises, I'm glad to see the portable games actually got a lot of screen time. The songs of "Vampire Killer" and "Bloody Tears" were well done, and any Castlevania fan would have recognized those.
The encore also included Chrono Trigger & Chrono Cross, apparently the most requested games. Again, lack of footage. Both Jack and Tommy played guitar here, and while Frog's theme and what I recall was probably the main theme of Chrono Cross were well done, it wasn't a long enough medley to do Chrono Trigger justice. I was hoping to be "rickroll'd" by Robo's theme (I hope you get that reference) or hear Trigger's battle theme or Cross's boss theme, but alas, they were not part of that too-short composition.
My favorite part? Probably still The Legend Of Zelda theme. Of course I'm a fan of the series, so I certainly get that out of it, but not many of the other segments are quite as rousing. I still wish they wouldn't use that beta version footage of Twilight Princess, though...and no Game Boy games are represented...so it's not perfect, but still very well done. For whatever reason the woman sitting next to me left her seat right before the Zelda segment started (it was just before the intermission so maybe she just needed to step out early) but of all the things to miss, that was probably the worst choice to skip out on. But then again, she might see it one day, as they play that every year, and who isn't glad that they do?
Though I wouldn't want them to play too much of the same material if I go every year. The third time around for a dozen of those medleys is wearing thin. Though I love Zelda, someone else is bound to like Final Fantasy or Halo just as much, so I can understand that it'd be hard for them to cut them out. But if two-thirds of the show is always going to be the same every year, I may not feel as obligated to go continuously. But for anyone who hasn't seen it and likes games at all, I would still highly recommend it at least once. Perhaps I'll consider taking people with me again next year? Events are always more fun with more people - and that might bring back part of what I felt was a bit lacking this year - a larger group experience.