If you’ve ever gone to Video Games Live, you might have gotten the vague feeling that something was amiss, namely the woeful absence of Yasunori Mitsuda’s name in the program notes. Fortunately that should no longer be a problem in future concerts, as Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall debuted their new Chrono segment with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony back on March 14th. Be on the lookout for the segment, as it will likely be a part of most (if not all) of their upcoming performances.
How do you think VGL’s medley compares to PLAY!’s? Has Jack Wall unintentionally jeopardized his career by demonstrating the orchestra can get along fine without a conductor? And how many “Scars of Time” arrangements is too many?
Takenobu Mitsuyoshi is back for more, just as we promised in our Derby Owners Club 2008 review. Can you believe that Daytona USA has been around for fifteen years? Wave Master has released the Let’s Go Away The Videogame Daytona USA Anniversary Box to celebrate this event, and I bet you’re dying to find out what’s inside.
The 4-disc collection features all the music from across the series, as well as a couple bonuses. What kinds of bonuses? No, not stickers and posters and the like (although these would have been cool), but rather a few arranged tracks that are tacked on to the beginning and end of the first disc. With the box due out tomorrow in Japan, is it worth your hard-earned money?
A good Sonic the Hedgehog soundtrack? Well, I know a lot of people enjoyed the peppy soundtracks featured in the Sonic Adventure titles, but I miss the old days of catchy melodies and memorable musical moments. I think the huge team at SEGA delivered this with Sonic Unleashed, which I told everyone I loved in our review last month.
Well, I loved it so much that I looked into getting some time with Sonic Unleashed lead composer Tomoya Ohtani, and he has some interesting comments about the soundtrack. He acknowledges that the team took a different approach with Sonic Unleashed in terms of both scale and style, and even say she prefers having fewer vocal tracks in the game. Here’s hoping that they kept this up with Sonic and the Black Knight which was just released!
Hit the jump for our interview with SEGA’s Tomoya Ohtani. (more…)
I’ve been meaning to post about this for a very long time. Everyone knows that Kikuta-san is relatively accessible via his website, and around the time we reviewed his amazing Concertoalbum, we were talking to him about his work in the hentai game realm. He was all up for us writing about his music in these games, so we figured he’d be sending us the bonus soundtracks that were shipped with the games. Boy were we wrong!
Instead, the package we received at our office contained the actual hentai games themselves. Because it was my duty to tell you about the music, I proceeded to install the games on my laptop, but unfortunately had no luck getting them running to check out the surely awesome tunage within. Sakura Relaxation was kind enough to include a sound test in the game menu, so at least I was able to get a peek at that. Anyway, I figured it was time to post about this funny incident as we’re expecting to run reviews in the coming weeks of the actual soundtrack albums that were released late last year, so stay tuned!
Would you be more than happy to receive hentai games from one of your favorite game music composers? Would you be willing to admit that you tried playing Sakura Relaxation or any of Kikuta’s other hentai titles?
The horror shooter Dead Space made quite a splash when it made its appearance in 2008, and went on to win the G.A.N.G. Award for “Audio of the Year” just two weeks ago. Following a mature trend in the gaming industry it tickled gamers in the right way. Playing the protagonist Isaac Clarke, you are out on a routine space mission where things go, unsurprisingly, hella wrong.
Fans of easy listening or soft sensual RNB will surely be disappointed. These are not songs for lovemaking or a replacement for your new age cassette Songs of the Whales Vol 3. This is an uncompromising and extremely dark and vivid orchestral score. If that is what grinds your gears then look no further.
Are you scared yet? Hit the jump and read more, and I bet you will be. (more…)
Among the various things that happened during GDC, Satoru Iwata delivered his keynote detailing the development process used at Nintendo when making games, citing an upcoming title as an example of this process. The game was Rhythm Heaven (known as Rhythm Tengoku Gold in Japan), and at the end of his presentation, everyone who attended the event got a free copy of the DS title that is hitting stores on Monday.
Since then, I’ve played through the game enough to get every stage unlocked, and almost all of them completed at a “superb” rating. Why is this the case? It’s not like the gameplay is deep in any particular way (as almost all actions are done either with tapping, releasing, or flicking the stylus across the touch screen), and it’s not like the stages offer any variations when replayed. So what is the reason for this addiction?
Find out in our Rhythm Heaven review after the jump. (more…)
I think the title says it all. It turns out that film and television composer Bear McCreary will be scoring Capcom’s Dark Void, which I’ve been watching pretty closely. Now, most of you are probably saying to yourselves, “Yeah, so what?” Well, I was surprised to hear about this bit of news because I actually met Bear a couple years ago and asked him why he wasn’t scoring games, and now here he is.
It was at the Composer Expo in Los Angeles in 2007, and Bear was sitting on a panel with Mark Mothersbaugh and other composers, and a question came to the panel asking how they spent their free time. Bear mentioned that he was really into videogames, so naturally I stood up and asked if he’d consider scoring games in the future. His reply? “If they can pay me enough, I’ll work on anything.” Not really the answer I wanted, and not the most open-minded attitude, but interesting now that he’s now working on Dark Void. He’s apparently been “waiting for the right one,” so I guess Capcom had just what he wa$ looking for.
Read the official press release from Capcom after the jump. (more…)
