Akira Yamaoka

Game Music, Reviews

Margaret is Greek You Geek: No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle (Review)

January 10, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 17 Comments Share this

‘Tis the season, I suppose. This holiday season brought both the Opoona soundtrack and the No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle soundtrack, both of which I thought would never see a release. We covered No More Heroes 2 pretty extensively with both a game review and an interview with composer Jun Fukuda and sound coordinator Nobuhiko Sagara which I highly recommend reading before digging into our review, as it covers a lot of the artists that are featured.

So, does the No More Heroes 2 soundtrack live up to the quality of its predecessor? Find out in our review after the jump! (more…)
Game Music

GHM Store Relaunch: Limited Pressing of No More Heroes 2 Soundtrack Available

November 16, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

This is exciting news. We loved No More Heroes 2 when it was released earlier this year, and even had the opportunity to speak with lead composer and sound designer Jun Fukuda and sound coordinator Nobuhiko Sagara about the soundtrack. We’ve known for some time that a mini-soundtrack would be included with the limited edition release in Japan, but GHM has now made the game’s entire soundtrack available via the revamped Gasshopper Manufacture Store. Yes, it’s available in North America and other regions around the globe, and you should know that only 1,000 copies have been printed, so get them while they’re hot!

Be ready for some excellent chip music from Fukuda along with tracks from numerous bands and Akira Yamaoka. Who knows, maybe they’ll officially credit him for his tracks, although it did seem somewhat obvious what his alias was on the soundtrack. The soundtrack features 3 discs of music and nearly every track from the game.

Will you be picking it up? Check out the official press release from Grasshopper Manufactuer after the jump! (more…)
Game Music

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn Not In Silent Hill 8, with Akira Yamaoka and Mikami

July 1, 2010 | Gideon Dabi | 3 Comments Share this

The soultry Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who has has appeared on all the Silent Hill soundtracks, has announced on her website that she will not be involved with Silent Hill 8:

“Hey Gang. No, as far as I know, I will not be in Silent Hill 8. But… I am doing new stuff with Akira, which for me is even better! I’ll keep you updated as we get closer to release dates of the projects. The stuff we’re doing may be my favorite songs yet. This one in particular… 😉 Thanks!”

Apparently, Yamaoka is involved with the Suda/Shinji Mikami project (an EA Partners collaboration). (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Extra EXTRA: Hyper Game Music Event 2007 The Live Album Vol. 1 (Review)

May 7, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

Man, where is EXTRA 2010 already? If you don’t know what the EXTRA – Hyper Game Music Event series is, you should! It’s only one of the most amazing gatherings of videogame music composers in Japan, where they perform live in front of thousands of fans. We reviewed the EXTRA –official compilation- album just last month, and Justin provided extensive coverage from the 2008 event. In 2009 the series was swallowed up by Video Games Live, and I have no idea what’s going on for 2010.

This album, however, is a partial archive of the 2007 event. You notice from the title, it was released as Volume 1, and while Volume 2 and a live DVD were planned, they never materialized, likely due to copyright issues. We do, however, have this fragment of history, featuring 7 different sets spanning 2 discs. They’ve captured some of the best performances of the evening, as well as some of the most… well, strange.

Find out what made the cut in our Hyper Game Music Event 2007 EXTRA The Live Album Vol. 1 review (whew, that’s a long one) after the jump! (more…)
Game Music

Turn That Frown Upside Down: Sadness “Soundtrack” Released

April 4, 2010 | Audun Sorlie | 8 Comments Share this

If you’re not familiar with Sadness, let’s do a short recap. When Nintendo announced their next console, then titled Revolution, a small Polish company named Nibris announced they were working on a new psychological horror game named Sadness. Nibris, who described themselves as being situated in the city of Krakow where East meets West (which sounds like a slogan for an anime convention where fat people cosplay), announced that Sadness would take place in Eastern Europe and be completely in black and white. This helped it gain some attention, and as Revolution turned into Wii, Nibris even released a live action teaser, showing no gameplay whatsoever. From here it all went downhill.

If the rest of that story interests you, N-Europe interviewed a staff member who revealed that all they did over the course of 4 years was create a 3D mining cart. And now another employee has come forth and voiced his frustration, this time the sound composer. His name is Arkadiusz Reikowski and he notes that that all these songs are works in progress, but his intention was to blend the styles of Akira Yamaoka and Hitomi Shimizu while keeping his own style. Apparently he also recorded some voice work, but the project went nowhere and therefore he decided to release the music.

The tracks can be downloaded here. At least the music isn’t as fake as the game turned out to be.
Game Music, Reviews

Kill or be Killed: No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle (Game Review)

March 20, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on Kill or be Killed: No More Heroes 2 Desperate Struggle (Game Review) Share this

While nobody I know outside of the gaming industry has played the original No More Heroes, it apparently did well enough to warrant a sequel. It’s one of my favorite games on the Wii, so I was understandably shocked but ecstatic at the news of a sequel. I loved the quirky otaku humor of the first game, and it looked as though there was more of the same with some improvements in the sequel.

The ending of the first game was so ridiculous that I had no idea how they were going to continue, but they’ve done it. Lots of things have changed in Santa Destroy, and for us here at OSV where we focus on music, Masafumi Takada’s departure left a huge question mark as to how the sequel would feel.

Well, let’s get on with our review after the jump! (more…)
Game Music

GDC 2010: A Whirlwind Tour of the Audio Track

March 18, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on GDC 2010: A Whirlwind Tour of the Audio Track Share this

This year’s GDC felt much smaller than previous years. Gone was the four story behemoth that is west hall, and everything was instead crammed into the Moscone Convention Center’s north and south halls. The audio track in particular took place in one of two rooms, both in north hall, which were often much too small, which led to sessions filling up and people being left out in the hallway without the chance to hear several panels (the Flower panel in particular was so popular that people lined up outside the room despite it filling up just to meet Vincent Diamante after his hour talk).

So, what were the sights and sounds from north hall? We checked out a number of panels, and rather than post about each one individually, I thought it would be more manageable for you guys if I simply gave a brief summary of each panel that we attended and focused on highlights from the session. There were definitely a lot of surprises, and even some information revealed about the composer of Metroid: Other M from a non-audio track session!

Hit the jump to check out our coverage. (more…)