The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses Concert Review

Concerts based on video game soundtracks have been a staple of entertainment in Japan but have only recently been gaining in popularity in the West, mainly due to the hard work of Tommy Tallarico and his Video Game Music Live concerts which have been going strong for many years.  The soundtracks to games are gaining prominence and airplay on the radio too and a wider audience is being reached. Bands like Anamanaguchi, who use old video game sound chips to help score their music, have further brought the video game sound to the mainstream and so people from all walks of life are developing a taste for video game music, in fact 3 out of the top 20 Hall of Fame tracks on Classic FMs poll last year were from video games!

This diverse audience for video game music was reflected in the Zelda concert where the audience ranged from early teens to people in their 40's and 50's. Most of the Arena was full and there were many people out in cosplays from the series. 

I was extremely excited as Zelda: Ocarina of Time is my favourite game ever and the series holds a special place in my heart. Joining me was my older brother, we had fond memories of working through Ocarina of Time and Link's Awakening in our youth.

Before the concert started there was a moments silence for Prince and then the concert began.
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra were amazing, bringing alive Koji Kondo's scores. The music was accompanied by stunning video footage of the various games in the series on huge screens and this made for a sense of synaesthesia, a real overload for the sights and sounds.
At just over 2 hours the concert went through a lot of classic tracks but my favourites were the Zelda Title track, Dragon Roost Island, Song of Time and Gerudo Valley.


What made the night even more special wad that there were pre-recorded interviews spliced in of people involved in the Zelda franchise including Miyamoto and Aonuma. This broke up the wonderful music and gave us an insight into the thoughts and feelings of the Nintendo staffers. Overall the evening was highly enjoyable and it has made me determined to finish Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, taking over 100 hours getting me motivated to do that the gig must have been inspirational!

Pixel Art and Nostalgia

Pixel art was born out of necessity, this economy of design came about due to the various technical limitations. The most famous example is Nintendo giving Mario a moustache to clearly separate his mouth from his nose. 

Miyamoto, creator of Mario, stated that the moustache was put in place so players could see the different parts of the characters face.

Waves of nostalgia abound!

Gamers like me have an affinity for pixel art as we grew up with it, nostalgia is a wonderful thing and we don't need to apologise for it. Many indie developers are accused of being cynical and preying on my generations nostalgia and there is a debate to be had here. On the one hand there are A LOT of pixel art games out there right now and it can almost seems like a game isn't "indie" if its not pixel art or "retro" but that's a very cynical viewpoint. Pixel art can be really good and there are different levels within the medium, someone can make something visually very simple like Flappy Birds or  Spelunky, but then someone can really take it to another level, giving it a modern visual twist in amazing games like Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP or FEZ , which adds simple 3D polygons that mimic an 8-bit style to the scene. 

The maturation of my generation combined with the ease of access to technology and a booming indie scene has created a wonderful time for pixel art and expression. This current gen of consoles promises amazing lifelike graphics but the game I'm most looking forward to is Hyper Light Drifter, a pixel art based game which looks astonishing.

Enjoy the feeling of nostalgia, don't fight it... learn from Sheldon!