Video Games Live Review

Sorry I'm late with my personal take on the Video Games Live experience. It's been really busy at work.

First off, the hands down best part of this Video Games Live was Koji Kondo's appearance in person. Everything else at the concert paled in comparison. I would have loved it if he performed more than the Mario theme on piano, namely the Legend of Zelda theme.

This brings me to my biggest gripe about the VGL. While it's not VGL's fault and more fault of the audience (and American culture), I found it very difficult to hear the music itself due to the cheering throughout the pieces. Yeah, I'm sure you're totally stoked about hearing music from popular games but wouldn't it be nice (not to mention respectful to others in attendance) to keep quiet and hear the music that is to be enjoyed? It's not that hard really. Clapping and cheering after the piece is done is fine (though aren't you supposed to wait until the end of the entire concert to applaud?).

With that said, let's move on to the music itself. (I won't go piece by piece or in order of appearance, just the stuff that stood out.)

The VGL started off with two pieces that can be found on IGN Insider in HD quality (click on links for low quality versions), the classic games medley and the theme from Metal Gear Solid 2. They were both very nice, but it was nothing new to me thanks to seeing them on IGN Insider. The MGS piece stands out solely because of Tallarico creeping onto the stage in a box while the genome solider is on alert mode. Funny stuff.

Koji Kondo is invited on stage to introduce the VGL's rendition of the Mario Bros. theme.

Lucasarts' old audio team is formed on stage to play some of their classic themes.

Martin Leung, The Video Game Pianist, came out to play his Final Fantasy medley and various Mario music. This guy has talent. I think it'd be nice to see him play his own scores, if any, someday.

Another very talented musican, VertexGuy, comes out to play the Contra theme. His solo performance was one of the highlights of the night. (I was sitting next to the guy that made this recording.) Kudos.

A very well performed piece was that of the Civilization IV main theme. Another highlight of the evening.

Tallarico also exposed the audience to his work for Advent Rising. Apparently it was rewritten to be an opera. It was very well done, but the music itself was not very memorable. I only remember this piece because my friend said "what the fuck was that crap?"

The Legend of Zelda theme was played, but I would have much rather heard it being performed by Koji Kondo himself.

There were several pieces on SquareEnix titles, FF8's Liberti Fatali, the Kingdom Hearts theme, and FF7's One Winged Angel. For reasons unknown, SquareEnix didn't allow the VGL to show video from the games. For Kingdom Hearts, clips from Disney movies were shown. It's a scary day when Disney allows rights and when SquareEnix does not. It could have been a technical glitch or something, but the chorus could not be heard at all. This made the piece suck, as the chorus is the main focus of Liberti Fatali.

The concert ended with One Winged Angel. The group of guys in front of me were begging for this music piece to show up all night. Once it did, they were very into it. Now I don't know why One Winged Angel is so popular. Is it just because it's attached to the game that many people consider the best RPG of all time? (FF7 is not the best RPG of all time nor is it anywhere close, but that's for another post.) I personally think there's far better music to play to end the concert. Another problem with this piece was that Tallarico and VertexGuy both came out to play it. The problem isn't that they came out - it was that they couldn't be heard at all.

One Winged Angel ended the concert in a very unsatisfying way.

The last piece that I'd like to mention is the Halo theme. I believe that the VGL faked a bit on this one, as the chorus and synth music was being played off a synthesizer and not being performed live. (Some of the chorus didn't even look like they were singing.) I'm sure they'd dispute my claim, but I know what I heard, and it sounded too close to the original score to be performed live. I'd be disappointed but I'm one of those people that can't understand why Halo fans are, well, Halo fans.

Overall, I'd have to say that my VGL experience was enjoyable, but not worth the $77 priced I paid. Sure there's music that I would have preferred to hear, but that's my preference and they're just trying to appeal to the masses. It'd be nice to see the VGL perform pieces that are not main themes from popular games, but rather selective tracks from a game with good music.

(For another blogger's take on the VGL concert, read this article.)