Zelda

Game Music

E3 2011: Nintendo Press Conference Opens With Live Orchestra

June 7, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 5 Comments Share this

The biggest surprise of Nintendo’s E3 2011 press conference came right at the beginning as a live orchestral was lifted into the Nokia Theater playing a beautiful rendition of the main theme from The Legend of Zelda. Yes, they opened their press conference by paying tribute to the music of the franchise, and followed with some music-oriented announcements. I couldn’t help but feel that they were talking directly at me.

So, just what was performed and announced? In addition to performing the beautiful and mysterious main theme from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (due out this year) as well as a few comical jingles from the series, it was announced that two CD releases from the franchise are in the works.

And no, it’s not the Twilight Princess soundtrack. Find out what was announced after the jump! (more…)
Doujin, Game Music, Reviews

A Friendly Rivalry: OCR Vs. Bad Dudes in Heroes Vs. Villains (Review)

March 28, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on A Friendly Rivalry: OCR Vs. Bad Dudes in Heroes Vs. Villains (Review) Share this

There was a lot of buzz surrounding the OverClocked ReMix (OCR) versus Bad Dudes remix project, Heroes Vs. Villains. The concept is pretty awesome: let the OCR guys tackle the hero themes from various games, while the Bad Dudes respond with their remix of the corresponding villain. This creates a friendly competition not only between sounds, but between remixing communities, if you want to call the Bad Dudes their own community.

What you end up with are 20 remixes of some of our favorite tracks that the game industry has had to offer, and even a turncoat, as the leader of the Bad Dudes tackles a hero theme to counter his own Bad Dude!

Hit the jump for our review of the free OCR album. (more…)
Featured, Game Music

OSV Exclusive: Meet ZREO’s New Zelda Project, Twilight Symphony

February 3, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 16 Comments Share this

If you dig back really far, you may remember a post Gideon wrote about ZREO (Zelda Reorchestrated) arranging every piece of music from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. While that project did not feature a live orchestra, and was mostly a note-for-note transcription of the pieces using high-quality sample libraries, the result was still impressive. With that in mind, however, you will be completely blown away by what the team is working on next. As you can guess from the title of this post, we’re incredibly excited to be involved with the announcement of their latest project, Twilight Symphony, which will feature arranged music from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

But not only are we helping to announce this project. We also have something for you to listen to. Through this joint reveal with our friends over at Destructoid, you will be able to sample 10 tracks from the album, which aims to re-orchestrate nearly 40 tracks from the game totaling over two and half hours of music.

Hit the jump for our exclusive trailer and for more details about the album. (more…)
Game Music

E3 2010: Live Orchestra For Zelda Skyward Sword Confirmed?

June 15, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

While there was no mention of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’s soundtrack at this morning’s press conference, Nintendo held an evening panel featuring Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma, and 3DS team lead Hideki Kondo to cover some of this morning’s titles in more depth and to offer up a brief Q&A session.

The biggest thing to come out of this panel for us here was news about The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword’s soundtrack, and it wasn’t even a question from OSV! Find out what Miyamoto had to say about the game’s soundtrack that makes it appear likely that the game will feature at least some live orchestra.

Hit the jump for more. (more…)
Game Music

E3 2010: Nintendo’s Hardcore Press Conference

June 15, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

Nintendo’s press conference has come to a close, and it’s looking like 2010 and even 2011 are going to be big years for Nintendo fans. While half of the conference was dominated by the 3DS (which also had some amazing game announcements), the Wii and DS are getting a lot of love this year.

Nearly every classic Nintendo franchise was covered, from the upcoming Metroid: Other M that we’ve been excited about for months to newly announced Zelda, Kirby, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong Country, and even Goldeneye titles. While everyone is focusing on how these games look and feel (the 3DS is absolutely stunning), we were paying attention to how they sounded, and I have to say that I liked what I heard.

Hit the jump for our impressions of Nintendo’s newly announced titles directly from the press conference. (more…)
Game Music

Team Teamwork’s “The Ocarina of Rhyme” – Explicit Lyrical Content Ahead

March 18, 2009 | Patrick Gann | 5 Comments Share this

Mashups are always fun to listen to. Remember when everyone in the world was taking Jay-Z’s “Black” album and mixing it with other famous works? There was the Gray album (Beatles’ “White” plus Jay-Z’s “Black”), or Jay-Zeezer’s “Black & Blue” (using Weezer’s “Blue” album). Those were hip albums, right?

Earlier this week, a collaborative group called “Team Teamwork” released a ten-track digital mashup using music from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and a variety of mainstream and indie hip-hop artists. The results are surprisingly enjoyable. Replacing the original samples with newly-crafted sample loops from the classic 64-bit Zelda soundtrack makes these hip-hop works, which I would normally loathe, into something I can definitely enjoy. Artists represented include Aesop Rock, Common, Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z (of course), and many others.

Head over to 8tracks.com to check it out for yourself! But please take note, there is no censorship on this album, so be ready for some vulgar language mixed in with “Lost Woods,” “Goron Village,” “Great Fairy’s Fountain,” and others. Now if only they had mashed something up with Gerudo Valley. That would’ve been beautiful, ne? Or maybe not! How do you feel about having classic Zelda tunes “mashed” with a genre of music you may or may not like? Does it bastardize the value of the song, or does it show the power and versatility of music in general?
Game Music

More YouTube Doujin, Now From Sweden!

January 10, 2009 | Patrick Gann | 6 Comments Share this More YouTube Doujin, Now From Sweden!

A few months ago, we ran a story on episode 10 of Boy Friends, featuring “Stickerbrush Symphony” from Donkey Kong Country 2 as the background for a humorous hiphop parody. Today, we want to introduce you to one of the most impressive musicians out there. His handle is Freddie25.

Compared to the last video, which was meant for the sake of humor (though the music still sounded great), these fan arrangements are meant to be serious musical endeavors. And it shows. After the jump, check out Freddie do an incredible multi-instrument acoustic arrangement from The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, and a great electric guitar medley of songs from Mega Man 9!

(more…)