In one of my previous posts I talked about how Video Games Live is a video game concert that left a lot to be desired. It had its good points, but overall it didn’t seem like a show dedicated to video games and those who love them so much as it seemed like a commercial for new video games (they even performed music from Age of Conan….Which hadn’t even been released at that time and once it was released it didn’t leave much of an impression on anyone). I recently went to another showing of Video Games Live (after the last day of E3 to be precise), and while Video Games Live may still not be the “perfect” video game concert, I will say it has greatly improved and it left a strong impression this time around. Like I said, there’s still room for improvement, so I’ll get the bad parts out of the way first.

First off, there was an unfortunate absence of Sonic the Hedgehog this time around. I know they change up the lineup every now and again, and only a certain number of games get billing on every show, but the lack of Sonic the Hedgehog music left something of an emptiness to the show. It just made it feel like something was missing. I understand that Sonic’s recent track record hasn’t been too good, but you can’t deny the quality and influence of the classic Sonic games, not to mention how great the music was. *Begins humming the theme music to the Marble Zone* That’s quality stuff!

Also, the fact that Halo and FFVII’s One-Winged Angel still get near the top billing (although something else took the main event spot this time, thankfully) of the show still just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s not that Halo has bad music or that One-Winged Angel isn’t cool (though it is heavily overrated), but I still just don’t think they’ve earned to be placed above the like of Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda,  Tetris or any of the other Final Fantasies.

I just don’t see Halo as the series they should promote above all others and hype it as though it is the be all end all video game. I’m sorry but the Halo segment seemed like it went on for twenty minutes and probably took time away that could be spent in other places. For example, the Super Mario Bros. segment, as delightful as it was, seemed considerably short and only consisted of the most basic themes from the original Super Mario Bros. (not counting the piano solo by “the video game pianist” which also included a piece from Super Mario World). Not that there were any problems with the Mario themes they played by any means, but it would be nice to hear some more music from Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island or Super Mario Galaxy or something (especially given the fact that Galaxy’s music is already orchestrated it seems like playing it would be a simple matter of reading the sheet music). Once again I have nothing against Halo, but the fact that they give it such a “grand performance” almost seems to demean the other game music on the card.

And then after the Halo performance, the lights go out and the host (Tommy Tallarico, who composed the music for Earthworm Jim don’tcha know) leaves the stage for roughly two minutes. Then the lights come back on and the host returns and they build up a “special encore” performance. The encore ends up (just as last time) being One-Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII, which is by no means a bad piece, but the fact that they make it out to be something that special for the sake of the Final Fantasy VII fanboys (most of which are terribly annoying) is slightly disheartening, especially if one were a fan of the series before said entry (who seem to be unfairly ignored by most of these kinds of things these days).

Thankfully this time around neither Halo or One-Winged Angel were the final act on the show, as they performed the music of the Castlevania series (for the first time in the show’s history) to close the show. This was an interesting (and pleasant) surprise, I honestly wasn’t expecting Castlevania to be the final performance, but I was happy it was.

Unfortunately the other downsides to the show were the absence of  Super Mario RPG and the Donkey Kong Country series, both of which have rightfully earned their places amongst the finest of video game music. Hopefully one day they can add these two to the lineup. I honestly have no clue why Donkey Kong Country hasn’t been played already given the popularity of its soundtrack. To hear the music of the Donkey Kong Country series and Super Mario RPG fully orchestrated is something of a video game music based dream of mine. For now it seems I will have to keep dreaming.

But now let’s move back into the good points.