Anybody else go to this last night? I took the wife as part of our anniversary and we really enjoyed it. If you've never been it's basically a concert covering some of the most popular video game soundtracks old and new performed by various symphonies around the world (in this case it was the Houston Symphony). It's a whole interactive experience. Last night they performed arrangements from Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Metroid, Zelda, Bioschock, Warcraft, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Brothers, Harry Potter (OotP game), Halo 3, Castlevania as well as a preview for Starcraft II and Guitar Hero Aerosmith. I will say I was a little bit disappointed in the first Act; Metal Gear was ok but could have been better...would have been bad ass if they played the theme song to SnakeEater or something. And Zelda and Metroid; man i was expected greatness put the arrangement represented such a broad stroke over the whole franchise that it seemed lacking...they stuck primarily on the main theme the whole time...the latest scores to these games (Twilight Princess and the Metroid Prime series) are some of the best game soundtracks out there but they didn't seem to touch on it much. The second Act blew me away though. I've never played Bioshock but the music was so haunting. And Warcraft...wow. That and God of War were my favorites (they nailed God of War); both were such sweeping, epic arrangements...not only was the orchestra amazing here but the Houston Symphony Chorus as well. Super Mario Bros was well done; what I liked about this is they covered all the classic themes from the series and they timed it well to the game footage too. They of course ended with Halo and they covered all three games and what was cool is they concluded with one of the trailers from Halo 3 and they transitioned into it perfectly. And I'm not a Final Fantasy fan both both the arrangements they played were well done, especially the piano solo. Anyways, if you're a gamer or even just appreciate good music, I'd recommend checking it out. They don't have any more shows in Houston this year but the tour stretches all over the world. And if anybody else did go...those guys that played Frogger and Space Invaders on stage sucked! Btw...don't ever sit in the balcony at Jones Hall. Those seats are terrible.
I would be interested in hearing this for myself, although it sounds like there would be wall to wall neckbeards in that hall.
You'd be surprised...it's actually a pretty eclectic group of people. But be prepared...they have a costume contest as well...so yeah.
I went last year and found it VERY entertaining. Yeah, everyone who gets on stage that plays frogger sucks. But think about it. They're staring at a huge screen trying to play. I bet everyone would suck at it. I wanted to go this year but felt the show was going to repeat alot of the songs they did last year (which they did). Glad to hear the Houston Symphony is still having a stellar performance, and I'm glad you had a great time. I'll prolly go to next year's show.
As far as the guy who played Space Invaders, you could tell the synch between the object he was holding to the actual gameplay was off. The guy would move right and about 2 seconds later the ship on the screen would move right. He tried but just couldn't pull it off. All I"ll say is it's a lot tougher being up onstage in front of 2500 people playing a game using controls you're not familiar with and doing well straight off the bat. The guy who played Sweet Emotion on Guitar Hero did excellent, though.
Well see I was up in the balcony and could barely see anything on stage, so I had no idea the motion controls weren't in sync. But Frogger...now I don't expect them to necessarily light it up, but that first guy didn't even get one across safely!
They don't give much advance notice for these things. That guy knew he'd be playing Frogger 10 minutes before he went onstage and when I talked with him he only played the game once in his life, so it was kinda unfair when I beat him To his credit he's a really cool guy and was just excited to even be up onstage.
I went the first year they were here and had a blast. For the most part, the show hasn't changed all to much from what I can tell, but I will try and go to another one sometime in the future. Maybe Resident Evil 5 and the new Final Fantasy will have great music and Video Games Live will include them.
Ha...well kudos to you for the win! And I guess you can't fault the guy if he's played it but once. I just naturally assumed everyone's has played it plenty You know the thing that strikes me, especially with today games, is that there are so many scores you can draw from. You could essentially make a whole show from one single game. Obviously it might take a bit more work, but it'd be pretty cool if they made different arrangement's each tour. Then you could really focus on a specific title and specific track from Metroid or Metal Gear or Zelda or Final Fantasy or Halo. You'll always have to have the favorites and the classics, but it's good to mix things up too.
