Kenji Yamamoto

Doujin, Game Music

Pixel Mixers Release Metroid Tribute Album

August 16, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Pixel Mixers Release Metroid Tribute Album Share this

The VGM community group known as the Pixel Mixers have released a large, 30-track tribute album that celebrates the music of the classic Metroid games, titled Huntress.

Hey good people, i have the pleasure to present you the result of the hard work we put in the Metroid Album! Once again i’m thanking you guys for participating to those projects. I really hope you’ll enjoy this album, i can’t wait to know what you think about it ^^ Feel free to share this album anywhere you can as much as you can!

Huntress focuses exclusively on the classic Metroid titles, giving us the possibility to make a Metroid Prime album in the future. – Hashel, Album Director

Huntress features tracks spanning all of the “classic” Metroid game titles, including the original game, Metroid II: Return of Samus, Super Metroid and Metroid Fushion, arranged by musicians within the game music community.

You can download the entire album for free on the Pixel Mixers website. You can also check out many of the other free albums the group have released, such as The Legacy (Final Fantasy I), Harmony (Rayman 1) Backup – A Tribute to MS-DOS and more, with additional free albums scheduled for the future.
Film, Game Music, Indie Music

Fan Film Metroid The Bounty Hunter’s Judgment Official Soundtrack Available Now

April 10, 2017 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on Fan Film Metroid The Bounty Hunter’s Judgment Official Soundtrack Available Now Share this

On March 30, 2017, Spinnup records released the official soundtrack to Metroid: The Bounty Hunter’s Judgement, a fan film currently in production by OutPort Studio which is part of The Project Pack. According to the artist, this project was developed to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Metroid, as a tribute to Hirokazu Tanaka, Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano for composing music for this franchise, and to Toby Fox for composing and developing Undertale. You can listen to the entire album which runs around 20 minutes below.

This is the result of months of research, composing, arranging, playing and recording, and with the huge support of thousands of talented people, this 8 track album was possible. Music, as any other form of art, exists to protect and sustain a way of expression, and with It, protects a way to experience and approach a theme.

Fan art is now protecting both of them as hard as ever.We want to thank all of the Metroid community for keeping the franchise alive and relevant. From the speed running community, to the modding, hacking, illustration, music and game developing community, all of you are the ones who keeps us believing that Samus adventures are not over.

We want to thank Milton Guasti (DoctorM64) for creating the perfect fan game with AM2R, and making the ultimate gift for the fans on the exact 30th Anniversary of the Metroid.

Zest

The album is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and purchase an official digital copy of Amazon. Although a release date for the fan film has not been announced, OSV will keep you posted?

Have you been following the development of this Metroid fan film?
Game Music, Reviews

Super Metroid Symphony (Review)

September 22, 2014 | Richard McDonald | 6 Comments Share this Super Metroid Symphony (Review)

A while back, I wrote an article on Blake Robinson and his Symphonic Orchestra albums. Specifically, I had issues with the branding of his albums; that of “symphonic.” You can read the article HERE. I felt that his albums played on people expectations of orchestral game music and capitalized on its popularity. All his albums include orchestral instruments and the word symphony on their covers, which lead you to the impression that this is orchestral music. Considering that all the albums use samples, Blake does use the term “synthetic orchestra,” I find the premise of his music to be, at best, troubling, and at worst, outright deception. However, this is not to say that I haven’t found enjoyment in his full orchestrations of Chrono Trigger and Banjo Kazooie, although, they are overly long. I have also never played a Metroid game and there are few orchestrations out there to listen to, a track here and there. So; I am very curious about this album and how it will measure up, in terms of quality, with Blake’s other albums, with the original compositions by Kenji Yamamoto, and whether re-creating the entire soundtrack actually works. Find out what I think after the jump.

(more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Who’s Bad? Metroid Arrange 25th Anniversary (Review)

December 19, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 4 Comments Share this

While The Bad Dudes announced their 25th anniversary tribute to the Metroid franchise back in August, we haven’t heard a whole lot about it leading up to its December 20th release date. I felt there was much more hype behind CHRONOTORIOUS, which I loved to death, but I admit I actually preferred having this album a little more nebulous before I was finally given the opportunity to listen to it.

The album is out tomorrow, and we’ve checked out all it has to offer. Will it hold your ears in captivity with each and every piece?

Find out in our review after the jump. (more…)
Game Music

Donkey Kong Country Soundtrack Coming From Club Nintendo Japan

June 2, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

Nintendo is once again making their fans outside of Japan jealous with their latest run of Club Nintendo goods. Along with some cute Kirby Epic Yarn pouches, Nintendo made the Donkey Kong Country Returns soundtrack available to Club Nintendo members. It will be available for 400 points, or 250 if you happened to have purchased the game.

I have nearly 800 points, and I’d give them all up for one of these Club Nintendo Japan CDs. While the soundtrack looks rather incomplete with only 25 tracks (some game rips going around have around 83 tracks), you can be sure that Nintendo has probably combed the soundtrack for the best of the best, and that a lot of the remixes of previous DKC material will be here. I really want this one for the groovy “Sunset Coast” and the Metroid-esque “Storm Beach,” however.

With music provided by Kenji Yamamoto and others, it should be worth checking out if you can ever get your hands on it. Guess I’ll have to wait until next time I’m in Japan! Are you interested, and are you still scratching your head as to why Zelda never gets this kind of treatment?

[via VGMdb]
Featured, Game Music, Interviews

A Blast From The Past: Metroid Prime 3 With Kenji Yamamoto and Retro Studios

August 24, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 7 Comments Share this

I’ve been intentionally holding on to this one for awhile now. For those who don’t remember, “A Blast From The Past” is an interview series that revisits interviews I conducted while at Music4Games. We’re republishing them here on a somewhat monthly basis as they’re not longer available online. This time I thought it would be fun to celebrate the upcoming release of Metroid: Other M next week by posting the interview I conducted with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption composer Kenji Yamamoto and Retro Studios sound supervisor Scott Petersen.

In the interview we discuss the series’s transition from 2D into the 3D realm, the audio technology behind the Wii and the Prime series in particular, the interactions between the Japan-based Kenji Yamamoto and the Texas-based Retro Studios, and Nintendo’s lack of official soundtrack releases. This is the interview that I’m probably the most proud of, and I want to thank Nintendo once again for coordinating it and allowing us to republish it along with both Kenji Yamamoto and Scott Petersen for providing such thorough responses.

Re-reading this, I’m curious to hear how Yamamoto’s collaboration with Retro Studios is going for Donkey Kong Country Returns!

Check out the interview after the jump and let us know your thoughts. (more…)
Game Music

Expansion Pack Acquired! A New Metroid Metal EP to be Unlocked at PAX

August 17, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on Expansion Pack Acquired! A New Metroid Metal EP to be Unlocked at PAX Share this

I just realized that Expansion Pack can be abbreviated as EP… that makes it the EP EP?

“…a capsule containing an unknown life form that had just been discovered on Planet SR388. This life-form is in a state of suspended animation, but can be reactivated and will multiply when exposed to beta rays for 24 hours…”

So yes, Metroid Metal is at it again. We loved their full-length album, Varia Suite, and Expansion Pack will be serving up 6 new tracks (27 minutes of music) that didn’t make up the cut for the album. The CD will be available at PAX in early September, and will feature some of my favorite tracks from the series, including “Prime Theme,” “Brinstar,” “Norfair,” “Crateria,” “Tourian\Mother Brain,” and “Prime 3 Theme\Bryyo.” Yeah, lots of early Metroid represented!

Check out the trailer above, and be sure to check out Expansion Pack on Metroid Metal’s Bandcamp page and in physical CD format coming soon!