VG Frequency

Shawn Galway, the Nostalgiaholic (and I’ll guess Martin Galway’s lost lost cousin), conducted an interview with me at Nostalgiaholic.com! I really enjoyed it, so of course I’m gonna share it with you guys.

We discussed what game soundtracks roped me into video game music, my responsibilities at OverClocked ReMix, and how game music connects with its fans. There’s also a mention of how OC ReMixers are now bringing it to video games as professional musicians, including a pimp of the upcoming Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. All that, AND I poop on Captain N!

Do me a favor a rate the article at the bottom of the page and/or throw Shawn a comment just to let him know you stopped by! Let’s get nostalgic, y’all.

A few days back, jeriaska messaged me to introduce his new VGM news site: Nobuooo. Initially I was skeptical, as (silly name aside) VG Frequency seemed to be filling the same role. However, after closer inspection, I realized that this was a promising new site with some good Digg-like features. Most importantly, jeriaska and the other contributors have been regularly updating the site multiple times per day with some quality VGM info.

Of note to VG Frequency is the newly posted “Nobuooo Toootorial“. Anybody recognize the site at 0:13? I personally think it was respectful of jeriaska to give that nod to VGF, so I have no qualms about reciprocating. Check it out. — [K(G)

Staying with the gravy train of Video Games Live concert reviews, indie game developer Eric Rhea attended the recent Fort Wayne, Indiana performance by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic at the Embassy Theater and had a glowing review of the proceedings (along with a grainy photo :-D).

Rhea’s thoughts confirmed a lot of things that I’m sure concert co-founder Tommy Tallarico loves to emphasize in his zeal for Video Games Live, namely that the event does a great job playing to areas that don’t normally receive video game music performances and not discriminating on location, and that the event has broad crossover appeal.

Have you attended yet? If VGL hasn’t come to your town, you can always contact a local orchestra and see if they could explore the option of holding a concert in your area. Dunno your local orchestra? Do some research and become more cultured!

Following up on Kenley Kristofferson’s Calgary Video Games Live rundown, it’s time for some more Canadian heat courtesy of Christina “Faith Naked” Winterburn, who detailed her experience at the concert’s February performance in Toronto, Ontario.

Before you go brushing this off as another typical account of the concert, Winterburn got to hang with Messuirs Tallarico and Wall at a local pizza joint where hilarity ensued. You trust her, right? Take the plunge.

Joshua Morse (while not busy classifying OC ReMixes or bringing Ragnarok Online arrangements stateside) recently got the ball rolling with his latest pet project, NBA ROCK, dedicated to his thoughts on the NBA.

He’s got some interesting predictions up on the blog regarding the potential trade of Jason Kidd from the New Jersey Nets to the Dallas Mavericks, and I’m sure there’s more observations from Josh on the way.

If you’re a basketball fan (I’m a fairweather fan, i.e. I’ll watch the playoffs when they’re hot) and a game music fan, NBA ROCK is a unique destination to hear an experienced arranger’s insights.

I’ve probably said this several times around here, but Andrew Aversa is perpetually busy. Making music, helping other artists, initiating contests, attending classes, and judging OC ReMix submissions.

zircon’s recently relaunched his domain, SoundTempest, as a sounding board for his views on the music industry, putting his music business major at Drexel University to some good use.

Check out Andy’s thoughts so far on Last.fm, Qtrax, music surcharges on your internet bill, and the Rhapsody/Yahoo! Music merger. He should try freelancing. They’re all interesting articles given the volatile, evolving nature of the music industry in today’s internet-dependent economy, so keep an eye out for more blogs from Aversa as they come in.

Matt Green, creator of Press the Buttons, linked to OCR in his latest old-school soundtrack review, which caught my attention. He’s been reviewing some pretty obscure cuts under his Beyond Beeps series, including Aero the Acro-Bat and Rockin’ Kats.

His latest one though covers A Boy and His Blob, with the caveat that the soundtracks he covers don’t have to be good. Coincidentally not linked was Mazedude’s 2002 OC ReMix from the game, “Cybrog Blobby,” which has its own crazy backstory related to how poorly regarded the in-game music is.

Definitely follow Matt’s series of soundtrack reviews for some good, under-appreciated game selections. I remember seeing Aero in ads from every gaming magazine I read in the early 90s, but I’ve never played nor seen the game. Meanwhile The Rockin’ Kat only came onto my radar when Polo submitted a sprite of Willy for our avatars over at the OCR forums. With the power of YouTube and TASvideos, it’s easier than ever to check out older games in action while not needing to be able to play them well. Go retro, son.

After I read Alex Rowe’s interview with SGX over at Tales of Shadows, I let him know that he should talk with other OC ReMixer fans of Fumito Ueda’s games, including Sephfire and Binster. But before Alex ever heard from me, he already had his plans in motion to interview Daniel “Sephfire” Floyd.

Released yesterday, the interview discusses Sephfire’s plans to arrange material from Sony’s recent blockbuster hit Shadow of the Colossus. Floyd’s arrangement, entitled “Snowfall on Forbidden Lands,” was also his first released collaboration with his wife Carrie “ceili” Floyd, which made for an excellent pairing, resulting in a whole that, in my opinion, was greater than the sum of its parts.

Floyd also provided background on how he got into video game music arrangement as well as his own take on the artistic merits of the Fumito Udea series of games. It’s a quick but interesting read for fans of all types that you should check out. Let’s hope Alex goes for the OCR trifecta down the line!

Alex Rowe (not to be confused for this OTHER Brit) of the ICO and Shadow of the Colossus blog Tales of Shadows interviewed Danny “SGX” Adler yesterday as part of the blog’s ongoing series of “Player Interviews,” where celebrity fans of the two Sony/Fumito Ueda hits discuss their own expressions of fandom.

SGX was questioned on his love of ICO, as brought to life by his arrangement of the soundtrack’s “heal” and “continue” known as “Save Me”. (”Save Me” is freely available in an edited form at OverClocked ReMix, while a wholly original track comprised of the non-VGM bits of the arrangement called “Saved” is available for purchase on SGX’s fourth album Synesthetic.)

Danny shed light on how arranging video game music was responsible for building his fanbase, and even suggested that he may not be entirely done with video game arrangements. Always good news to me. Check the interview out for a good read.

OneUp Studios co-founder and OC ReMixer Dale North has a new post up at Destructoid on America’s history of crappy video game art and animation. Clearly the Mega Man series is in there. The video accompanying the post is tough in some cases (EarthBound? It’s different, but what’s wrong with that one?), but the gist of it is that Japanese art that’s much more relevant to games is passed up for oftentimes non sequitur art, usually resulting in cases of “fail.”

Best moment of the video for me, an iconic picture of Pac-Man is shown midway through: “Oh man! How are they gonna fuck that up???”
Seconds later, the Atari box art: “Dear LORD!”

Oof. I also don’t believe I’ve ever seen anything as comparatively anti-septic and bland as the American box art for Breath of Fire III after the vibrant Japanese art.

And say what you will about the US-based cartoons being poor. You still watched them. Never ever heard of that DarkStalkers cartoon until now. Don’t forget though that the Super Mario Bros. Super Show cartoon segments and Mario 3/Mario World cartoons by DiC were really strong all things considered.

One thing that could be noted for the present is that, with the foothold that manga and anime have on pop culture nowadays, a lot of the showcased art deemed unpalatable to American consumers back then is significantly more permissible. It remains to be seen what that’ll translate to for future releases, but hopefully the days of Mega Man’s American box art are basically behind us.

A long-time gamer, Dale’s been really active at Destructoid, so be sure to check out his regular updates.