My Opinion to Video Game Music and Story

I am one of the few people that appreciates the story of a video games as well as the gameplay and music. The stories of video games makes me feel like I am playing an interactive novel. And depending on the story, the music that accompanies with the scene can make all the difference. For example, In Kingdom Hearts 2, The track, Darkness of the Unknown plays during the final boss battles. The tune presents a deep dynamically epic feeling to the battles that Sora and Riku go through. It makes the battle worthwhile from start to finish.

Inception Lost to "The Social Network"?

How could a "Micheal Cera" wannabe movie like The Social Network lose to a blockbuster movie like Inception in Best Music Score in the Academy Awards?! Don't get me wrong. To me, Inception was a mind screw for me, but the music was so great that deep and emotional couldn't describe it. It's seems that some committee members of the Academy Awards needs to get their ears checked if they think the "music" of the origin movie about Facebook has better music that this: (click video below)

Mass Production of "Mediocre" Trading Cards

As some popular franchises, like Star Wars and Mario Bros, become more popular, they soon release merchandise for said franchise. One of them could most possibly be trading cards. The thing is that these "trading cards" are far too useless other than being for decoration. I have no clue why they bother to release these cards if it will not clearly sell. Personally, I will stile with Pokemon and Yugioh cards at the least.

Pokemon Black and White too dark for kids?

First of all, I want to say I can't wait for Pokemon Black and White, which is coming next month. I am a big fan of Pokemon since the first games. From what I can tell, the fifth generation of Pokemon will be a bit more darker than the other past games, and I might have found one evidence to confirm that fact.

A special area will be exclusive to each version of the game. For Pokemon Black, an area will be available called Black City and for the White Version, White Forest. The Black City will represent the advances of technology while the White Forest will represent the purity of nature. It seems that one theme of the fifth generation of Pokemon will be a figurative battle between nature and technology. But in a more dingy perspective, it could be a secret debate of religion and atheism.

I might be just throwing darts in the wind, but if this "battle" is the intention purpose of the game, then I fear for the kids playing the games when it comes out March 6th

Thoughts about Movie Rebots

Whenever I hear about the release of a movie remake or a movie reboot of a franchise, I tend to have mixed feelings of the fact. One movie reboot that I know that worked was The Dark Knight. It make the world of Batman more dark than the previous movie and especially the 4 Batman movies from the 90's. Another movie reboot that was not as successful was 2010 version of Clash of Titans. The movie focuses only on the CGI rather than the story which makes for a sub-par plot.

My guess is that movie reboots comes the older the original source material is, but I think there are some movies that just needs to be left alone.

Video Game Music as a Genre

Video game music has always been known as childish or minor. Most people, gamers or otherwise, have noted music in video games as secondary to gameplay and story. However, ask anyone what their favorite video game music they can remember and the answer would be either Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme or the Title Theme to Megaman 2. Despite people only paying attention to the games, they remember the music that goes with those gaming moments. But the question is if video game itself can be a sustainable music genre.

Video games, in themselves, are very significant to today’s culture. Video games provide entertainment to young and old, from family friendly games to role-playing games. Music from video games however is a different story. While it is praised by some gamers, it is not something that most people would listen to unless it had the respective game accompanying it. The only known ways for people to even hear video game music is by finding the music rips from YouTube or the soundtrack of the game. Since people can easily get rips from the internet, it is easily assessable for free, and which is why game companies usually don’t bother with releasing soundtracks, unless it is a big title game.

Video game music are not only limited to just the music from video games, but also remixes of said music and even other music inspired by video game music. To give an example, Video Games Live is a concert series which have a live orchestra performing segments of video game music. This series is created and produced by Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall, both of whom are veteran video game composers. Another example is a chiptune punk band called Anamanaguchi. They use unusual synthesizers for their music; the synthesizers being a hacked Game Boy and a NES. Even though their music is usually punk, it is obvious that their music is inspired from retro video games. Ironically enough, they recently did music for a downloadable game, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Research questions that would be asked about the subject would include how is video game music a surviving genre, how has it developed in its own culture, and how it has connected to other types of music and culture.