Video Games Live is a special musical concert envisioned by Video Game composer Tommy Tallarico. The purpose of it is to help people who cherish video games find an artistic outlet for them to appreciate it as an art form. As Tommy says during the concerts opening. “People think that Video Games are for Kids, People think that Video Games are unimportant, People think that Video games are responsible for violence… We’re here to prove them wrong!!!” Featuring a full chamber orchestra and choir the Video Games Live concert plays the music from over Twenty-Five games in a variety of ways, including interactive games and audience participation.

For me the journey began less than 24-hours prior to the show. My last video Game concert had been the “Final Fantasy: Dear Friends” concert at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra hall several years ago. My Friend and Partner in intellectual crime Alexander Burns informed me that this concert was in fact happening in less than a day. After a quick conversation with the wife it was decided to attend. Unfortunately my review of their web site failed to turn up one vital part of the event…. We arrived around two hours early to the event in the desolate wasteland that is Detroit. Once a shining crown Jewel of American economy, it is now the per capita poorest city on the planet, a billboard with a police sketch of a wanted criminal along the high-way signals what the city has become. But the DSO remains one of the still proud buildings along the riverfront holdout area that attempts to remain respectable.

THE EXTERIOR OF THE CONCERT HALL

Once our tickets were retrieved we made our way in. a bar with food and drink was set up in the center of the Lobby and an adjacent room featured Merchandise, competitions, and a sign up area for a Cosplay competition. Being at a symphony hall I was dressed relatively nice and the idea of bringing one of my costumes had not even occurred to me. Added to that few entered and I may have stood a very good chance of winning given the skill of my wife’s craftsmanship and the general awesomeness of my character. (DIZ from Kingdom Hearts). We milled around waiting for Al who arrived about 40 minutes prior to the show, purchasing the Soundtracks to the games Halo & Fable. A guitar Hero II competition was ignored, and instead I tried my hand at winning the Space invaders competition. The only rule was to achieve the high-score and win. Most people ahead of my clocked in at around 900 points, the High score was 1840, I walked away with 1760. Close, and with a decent enough score to feel like I still possessed the pre-N64 skills video gamers should always possess.

THE VIDEO ROOM ITSELF

THE SIGN UP TABLE FOR THE COSPLAY CONTEST

SPACE INVADERS

THE RPD STANDS WATCH, READY FOR POSSIBLE ZOMBIE ATTACK.

ME & MY BARTENDER

At 8:00 PM the Concert began, the conductor walking out onto stage and playing with the audience by signaling the start and stop of applause. The concert immediately began with a medley of music and montage footage starting at pong and ranging from classic games such as Missile Command, Ghost & Goblins & Dragons Lair. After this charged piece the voice of David Hayter appeared in the room and introduced a video from Hideo Kojima who set up the next Piece of Music, that being the Theme to Metal Gear Solid. As the piece played a guard stalked the stage with a box following him. A lit up exclamation mark popped up from a pack on his back and he raced off stage with the box following him as the music ended. Next came Sonic the Hedgehog with music and footage from across the series (Unfortunately the footage montage skipped over Sonic CD). The next installment was an interactive game of “Space Invaders” where a member of the audience raced back and forth across the screen firing shots trying to beat the level in under 2 minutes. The orchestra provided the sound effects of the game while the player attempted to win his score in cash. However the person playing was obviously not someone adept at the game and lost miserably. The next piece featured Music from “Medal of Honor” with footage from WWII which was bit depressing but without pause the band then went into Civilization IV with the choir singing a rousing piece. After a round of Applause the room swelled with Music from the Legend of Zelda. Unfortunetly this piece was exactly the same as what can be heard on the “Hylian Symphony” CD from ten years ago and featured primarily footage from Twilight Princess.

The concert went into intermission and a Loading screen appeared at the back of the hall. Music from several games including “We Love Katamari” played for about ten minutes. The halls were crowded so we stayed in our seats.

The Second half of the Concert then Began, once more introduced by Solid Snake and the sound of a Codec. Two children were selected from the audience to Play a game of Frogger with the highest scoring winner receiving a $2,400 Laptop. Both kids were 8 and claimed they had never played Frogger before. Once more the band played the music while the first child attempted to move Frogger to safety but was squished each time and scored only 280 points. The second child moved up and….. OBLITERATED the game! Within the 90 second time frame he scored 3 safe frogs and a fly bonus to earn a score well over 2000. The first kid was sent home with a collection of games, CDs, and the home edition of Frogger which he will probably curse till the day he dies. The second child got the Laptop and made his parents very happy I’m sure.

The concert now returned to Music with more introductions by way of video of the musical creators for each piece. Super Mario played followed by Kingdom Hearts. Much like the Zelda piece the Kingdom Hearts varied little from what you can get on a CD and was accompanied by footage from Disney Films as Sqeenix would not allow footage from their games to be played. They then went right into World Of Warcraft, a fine piece of music but hard to enjoy when it is a Game I have taken an ACTIVE dislike of. What came next though was the highlight of the concert. Pianist Martin Leung came out onto stage and played an unparalleled combination piece of music from all across the Final Fantasy track list. From FF VI “Terra” to FFIX “Melodies of Life” finishing with FFVII “One winged Angel” after a long round of applause he played music from Tetris and Super Mario. The Mario Piece especially amazing as towards the end his hands began to move so fast across the keys they became a literal blur and impossible to see clearly.

The final Piece of music was introduced by composer Michael Salvatori. That piece being the main theme to Halo. He sung a few notes from the chorus with members of the Audience joining in. The Song then went into the actual piece with the Orchestra and Choir performing. After about two mintes they moved into the heavier tribal version of the song from Halo 2 finishing with a moment of quite broken by Cortanas “I know you, your past…your future” and the concert was concluded with the music heard so far from Halo 3….. performed with MUCH more power than what is present in the current trailer. The house lights came up and a three minute Standing Ovation followed. The orchestra bowed and after the applause died down, the standard encore’ of “One winged Angel” was played. This featured the “Advent Children” version with concert creator Tommy Tallarico tearing away with his guitar at the front of the stage. Following this the applause was long and thunderous. A line formed outside in the lobby which Al and I stood in for an hour so that I could have my Halo Soundtrack signed by Mike Salvatori. We then went home. Overall a wonderful concert with incredible music, a few tracks lacked any distinctiveness to make it a true concert piece but the show itself was incredible and recommended for anyone along the concerts route.

FOOTAGE FROM DISNEY SINCE SQUARE-ENIX WOULD NOT ALLOW ANY

THE CREATORS OF VIDEO GAMES LIVE