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Video Game composers = Film composers


daltysmilth

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Okay, it's been said many times that famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu is the John Williams of the video game world. If that is true, then who, in your opinion, is famed Nintendo composer Koji Kondo's film score equivilant? Or let me put it this way:

 

Nobuo Uematsu is to John Williams as Koji Kondo is to...

 

Then you fill in the blank.

 

And while we're at it, try coming up with some other Video Game/Film composer equivilants.

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I personally think Uematsu is VERY overrated. From what I've heard, he had no real formal education in music, and it shows in his work. Yes, most film composers take a lot from classical pieces, but they do it more in spirit. Uematsu very obviously borrows from Sergei Rachmaninoff, and not in spirit, but in rhythms, piano flares, etc. It's fun, and I'm not really saying it's bad. I just think he gets more credit than he deserves.

 

Jack Wall, on the other hand, is probably the most unique game composer these days. Listen to his stuff for Myst 3 and be blown away. Likewise, I love Giacchino (who originally did the score for the medal of honor games, arguably much better music than williams' own Saving Private Ryan). And being an RPG nut, I have to love Jeremy Soule, though his latest outing with Elder Scrolls Oblivion is actually very bland, IMO. But hey, awesome last name, right?

 

Halo has never impressed me as a game anyway (I feel like it's an fps for elementary schoolers - poorly-executed plot, bland and ridiculous candy alien villains, and hackneyed setting... Half Life 2 blows it away, plus, games like Deus Ex and System Shock are INFINITELY more complex) and the music is no different. Like Uematsu, they're trying to say "hey, I'm good and complex!", but in composition you have to show rather than tell. The music in Halo is just overblown crap.

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I personally think it would be more valid to compare Koji Kondo to John Williams than Nobuo Uematsu. At least in terms of popularity. I mean, just about everyone knows the Super Mario Bros. theme, at least they'd recognize it if you walked down the street humming it. I would say that less than 1 in 5 people would recognize, say the Final Fantasy theme if you were humming it as you walked down the street.

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Yes, but does common knowledge equal popularity. I'm certain that more than 1 in five people would recognise the Cheeky Girls song if you hummed it whilst walking down the street (although if that's the case I'd suggest you run), but it's certainly not popular now is it? (although I'm in no way comparing the Cheeky Girls song to the Mario Bro's theme which is infinately better in so many ways, I'm just saying, it's not the best video game theme out there and probably not the most liked)

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It just means everybody secretly loves the cheeky girls.

 

Besides, I think the point is that you can whistle 10 notes of a John Williams theme, and plenty of people will know that it's Superman or Star Wars or Indy blah etc. Same applies to Koji Kondo with Mario or Zelda. They can both create memorable, catchy little pieces of music that don't become too irritating after you hear them for the zillionth time.

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It just means everybody secretly loves the cheeky girls.

 

Besides, I think the point is that you can whistle 10 notes of a John Williams theme, and plenty of people will know that it's Superman or Star Wars or Indy blah etc. Same applies to Koji Kondo with Mario or Zelda. They can both create memorable, catchy little pieces of music that don't become too irritating after you hear them for the zillionth time.

 

Yeah, and besides that, there's no denying that the Super Mario series is one of the most popular series of all time. In some places, I would wager that Mario is more widely recognized than Mickey Mouse. Another thing is that the critics of both Kondo and Williams say similar things, that all their themes sound alike, that they mainly stay in particular styles and rarely vary from them, etc. I'm not sure if anyone's accused Kondo of ripping off Gustav Holst in all of his scores, but you never know.

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