So where did I go last week? You may have heard of Video Games Live. The show was on a tour around America for a good part of last year and now the show had come to London for one night only. I couldn't miss an opportunity like that so I was on my way to the Hammersmith Apollo with some other people. Once we finally got there, we waited in an increasingly long queue until the doors opened after a surprisingly short amount of time.
The front of the Apollo
Heading inside, we were automatically given a Ubisoft CD for free which supposedly contained music from some of the French developer's latest releases. Unfortunately, mine didn't have any CD inside it >_>. After buying some peanuts, we headed upstairs to find that there was quite a lot of activities going on. Looking around, I saw a large crowd gathered round someone or something. For a second I thought it was a famous developer or something but peering over the crowd I realised that in fact it was none other than the Wii! And not only that, the staff were inviting people to give the console a play. And that's exactly what I did. Yes, I played the Wii, albeit tennis from Wii Sports.
This guy actually just walked in front of my photo, but he's obviously very happy on making an appearance on Someblog. By the way, check out his shirt. "Somebody set up us the bomb."
No, that dude's not me but the white thing is a Wiimote! He sure is setting a good example with the wrist-strap. No flying Wii-motes here thank you very much.
Also on display was Guitar Hero II so I gave that a go and as per usual with Guitar Hero games it was insanely fun. There's nothing more satisfying than pulling off a crazy guitar solo on that game, let me tell you.
Of course, at gaming conventions, there's bound to be some cosplayers. I didn't see that many to be honest. I think I saw some lame attempts at Cloud, Reno and Squall but these two were my personal favourites.
"Stay away from the summoner!" Yuna certainly stands out from the crowd, that costume is down to a tee.
It's Manny Calavera! My personal favourite cosplayer of the evening - so simple, but yet so effective. He even gave me a holepunched card! You'll know what I'm talking about if you've played the game.
Hanging around outside was great and everything, but where it was really at was inside the auditorium. Bare in mind that when I talk about the game music played, it probably won't all be in the right order considering the show was a week ago and I have the memory of a retarded fish. Loads of people were playing wireless Mario Kart DS and talking on Pictochat on their slick, shiny DS Lites before the performance which really made me rue the time when I left my DS Heavy in my bedroom. After we had settled down and waited a fair bit considering we were slightly early, the orchestra settled down, the composer came on stage to a raptuous applause and then, silence. And so the show began with a stroke of genius. A left and right pong paddle was displayed on the screen with the orchestra making beeping noises as the "ball" hit a surface. That kind of start is bound to get laughs wherever you go. The majority of the opening section comprised of classic arcade games, some of them even too early for me to remember. What?! I'm only 21 O.K.!? We went through classics like Donkey Kong, Frogger, OutRun, Tetris, Defender, Ghouls 'n' Goblins and others which I can't quite remember. There were lots of "whoops" from the audience when a new game came on though. Nostalgia can really get to ya.
How many reiterations have there been of this game?
Next up was one of my favourite sections of the night. After the conductor and host introduced themselves, Hideo Kojima appeared on the screen and introduced none other than Metal Gear Solid. The main theme from the game was played at the beginning but then, the infiltration music kicked in and, on the stage, a cardboard box started moving. Cue many laughs. A real-life guard stood nearby and when he heard the box, an actual exclamation mark appeared above his head! A cardboard one, granted but I still lol'd.
"You've been playing Super Mario Sunshine haven't you?" - Psycho Mantis
Observe the box on stage. "You can't see me, I'm Solid mother****** Snake!"
The footage completely went in hand with the music and it was a great start to the show. Next up was cult classic Beyond Good & Evil which had some amazing music in it - although I've never played the game it did look fantastic. Designer Michael Ansel came on stage after and admitted that there is a possibility of a sequel to the game. I'll definitely have to give that a look if he is actually telling the truth.
Next was a big disapointment, as we had to sit through five minutes of "Headhunter". Both the music and the game sounded and looked pretty bad. Bad choice of game there guys. A bit of Tomb Raider came on as well which, in all honesty, wasn't that bad. Let's see, what else...Ah yes, Civilisation IV. That's right. Civilisation. Rather average. I know the game has great music and it looks amazing but the orchestra didn't necessarily do that justice. My girlfriend liked it but that's probably due to the fact it was one of the only games which didn't consist of badass individuals smashing stuff up.
A stunning looking game and one of the best RTS's out on the market, if not of all time - Civilisation IV.
Right before the interval, Tommy Tallarico announced that come Final Fantasy music was to be played. WOW! Totally unexpected! All the fanboys screamed when he announced that the piece would be One Winged Angel as the orchestra burst into a Latin-fuelled rendition of the most famous piece of video game music. However a BIG disapointment was that Square had refused to allow Video Games Live permission to use footage from their games so there was no Sephiroth turning around in the fire as it played. Gee Square, could'ya have a heart for one second at least?
After the interval, they really started pulling the big guns out. The Legend of Zelda's main theme started playing, Mario games had an orchestrated version of their theme and Sonic's music sounded rather weird orchestrated but funnily enough, it worked perfectly. The main problem with Zelda and Mario was that only one piece was played from each - the main theme. Surely they could have got a few more tracks and fused them into a medley? Some Myst and World of Warcraft tracks were thrown in there as well but, it might have just been me, but Myst's music sounds almost identical to Civilisation's. World of Warcraft was impressive in terms of both footage and music but I'm afraid it still won't persuade me to buy the game. I WILL NOT BOW IN!
As much as I love the main Zelda theme, there is more music in the game y'know?
The famous dwarf from World of Warcraft.
One of the best events of the evening was when Martin Leung a.k.a. the "Video Games Pianist", who you may have seen around the internet playing the Mario theme blindfolded on a piano. Well yes, he was present at the show and as a sort of way to make up for the lack of Final Fantasy footage, the organiser's got Leung to play a Final Fantasy medley on the keyboard. While many people will tell you this was a fantastic performance, I don't think he was that good. He tried to sort of add his own unique twists on the Final Fantasy theme's but it ended in him really not doing justice to Uematsu's work. Leung played all sorts from FFIV to FFX and for the most part, it was good. Near the end however, the sound system inside the auditorium began to produce a lot of static which effectively ruined the end of his performance. British presentation at it's best. Still, props to Leung for the most part. In fact he returned later on in the show to play the Mario and Tetris themes, yes, blindfolded. Now that was impressive. Funny how he plays better blindfolded than without a blindfold. No doubt he's practiced it many, many times but the speed on which his fingers hit the keys was astonishing.
That's just some guy playing the piano blindfolded.
Another very enjoyable part of the evening was when Tallarico called up people from the audience to participate in a video game based competition. The first featured a guy who "went by the alias of T-Bird" playing Space Invaders. If he completed the level he would receive the amount of points he had scored in money. Apparantly, whilst holding the controller, when he moved, the ship on the screen would too in relation to his movements. But it was pretty obvious to me that there was just some guy controlling the ship behind the scenes according to T-Bird's movements. Nice try though guys. T-Bird failed by the way. The second challenge was a two player game of Frogger. Unfortunately it was a male vs female contest and this certain female didn't do any good for the reputation of female games. Yeah, she lost without crossing the level once. The male in question won a nice laptop.
After a rather dull showing of a game that I think Tallarico has worked on before - Advent Rising - was played, the show was coming to a close. So what better way to close off the evening with Halo?! Yes, Master Chief in full green suited glory was seen shooting some alien dudes on the screen while Halo's main theme was played, which sounded very nice indeed, especially so with a live choir. Not that I'm an expert of Halo's music mind you, since I don't own either of the games. As a sort of encore, some more Halo was played right at the end but this time, there was footage of Halo 3. Nothing new mind you, just old trailer footage.
Lots of cheering when this one came on, let me assure you.
To sum up, the evening was a blast and I certainly think that the events that have been put on as a part of this London Games Festival is a step in the right direction for the UK industry. I still had a few quips with the evening however. Firstly, the outside-of-concert features were not well put together. An example: Guitar Hero II was on demonstration on a walkway hardly 2 metres wide. In the actual show, I fell that while it was a great performance, they still need some spit and polish on some of the features. For instance, play more music from each game, explore each one's music more than they are at the moment. Also, it's important to get a good sound balance between video footage and music which was not quite there on the evening. Even so, if Video Games Live comes round your area, I highly recommend giving it a go.
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