austin360.com

Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > July > 12 > Entry

Review: Video Games Live

By Omar Gallaga | Saturday, July 12, 2008, 03:21 PM

Video games are primarily a visual medium, but at a performance Friday night of “Video Games Live” at the Long Center for the Performing Arts, players of all ages were reminded of how much impact the audio side packs.

Beginning with the opposing bleeps of 1972’s Atari classic “Pong” and continuing to so-new-it’s-still-shrink-wraped game “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith,” it was a nostalgic night, even for gamers who don’t remember anything older than what was on the PlayStation 2.

The touring production, which on Friday night was played by the Austin Symphony, a choir, a vocal soloist, video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall and one very talented piano player, was made up of wonderfully realized moments. Many of the games spotlighted are not individual games at all, but long-running series like the “Mario Bros.” games, the Japanese epic “Final Fantasy” or “The Legend of Zelda.”

What was clear from the gasps of recognition and loud applause from the audience is that moments in video games they lovingly played are hardwired to musical cues. A particular song from “Final Fantasy VII” was enough to get some audience members emotional, while the Russian theme from “Tetris” earned a chorus of clap-alongs.

The production was enhanced by a large screen that showed clips from the games that were being spotlighted. Some were put together like movie trailers, while others merely cobbled together memorable moments from games old and new of a series like Nintendo’s “Metroid.”

As the clips played, the audience was treated to a history of video games, from crude sprites to the lush, motion-captured digital animations of today. It’s one thing to reminisce about “Asteroids” — it’s another to hear its throbbing score played by an orchestra and its stark black-and-white gameplay projected on a giant screen.

The performance, one of about 60 planned worldwide this year strived to be interactive: audience members were invited to whoop it up. A “Guitar Hero” player from Austin wowed the crowd by playing “Sweet Emotion” to a high enough score to earn himself an AMD/Dell laptop.

Another segment featured an audience member being invited to play a live version of “Space Invaders.” His movement on stage corresponded to the endangered, laser-blasting ship on screen.

Inside jokes abounded: while playing selections from the “Metal Gear Solid” games, a spy walked on stage, followed by a walking cardboard box. If you get the joke, you just might be a video game fanatic.

And a standout performance from pianist Martin Leung (video below) earned one of several standing ovations from gamers who are used to consuming their medium of entertainment sitting down.

Lasers lit up the concert hall, and disco balls added to the sensory overload. The audience was made up of video game players pushing 40, hipster twentysomethings and quite a few kids. Were they bored by the trip down memory lane to the coin-op attractions of the early ’80s? It’s hard to say, but one teen sitting near me said wearily during music from “Frogger”: “Oh yeah, I have that on my cell phone.”

Amid some truly gorgeous arrangements for epic games like “God of War” and “Halo,” there were some indulgences that proved less than organic. “Mass Effect,” a well-reviewed game that debuted late last year and had music composed by Wall, was shown, but received a subdued reaction despite great music and strong visuals: it’s very likely few in the audience had played the game.

Contrast that with Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft” music, which was sweeping and thundering: it received some of the most enthusiastic applause of the evening.

Much of the the indulgence was due to the showrunner, however. Host Tallarico, who never missed an opportunity to mention that he’s Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler’s cousin, increasingly inserted himself into the proceedings as the night went on, joining in on electric guitar. By the night’s encore, which ended badly on music from the good, but not iconic, “Castlevania,” Tallarico was jamming all over the stage, clearly more in love with this particular piece than the restless audience was.

Ending on “Castlevania?” Why? There were so many stronger pieces throughout the show that “Video Games Live” stepped on its own finale by focusing on a game that has a long history, but is not particularly loved by gamers.

And some of the video montages, as lovely as they were, didn’t seem to fit: music from the Square ENIX/Disney crossover game “Kingdom Hearts” showed plenty of scenes from Disney animated classics, but no footage of “Hearts” itself. It was a weird choice. And don’t get me started on a performance of music from the latest “Harry Potter” game. It was an orchestral performance based on a video game based on a movie based on a book, with appropriately diminishing returns. It felt like little more than an advertisement for a year-old title most gamers ignored.

Nevertheless, the show itself had enough killer moments to warrant recommending the second performance, 8 p.m. tonight. The symphony was in top form and the music itself was gorgeously performed.

I give it a solid 1Up.