Saturday
Jan102009
PLAY! - A review
January 10, 2009
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So, just in case you haven't heard of play, or didn't realize it was in Edmonton last night, here is their Website:
http://www.play-symphony.com/
PLAY! is a symphony (in this case, from Edmonton) lead by Maestro Arnie Roth. They play a variety of video game scores and epics. This is my simple review:
Lets start with the pre-show. I had really high hopes for this "pre-show" which was seduled for about 2 and a half hours before the show was to start. Plenty of time for fun and games. Ticketmaster let me know that the pre-show "includes game competitions, demos, costume contest, prizes & more!" What ended up being there was Rockband, Power Rangers and Klingons in full costume, not exactly my idea of 2 and a half hours of fun. So that was a major let down.
Next, was the show itself, wonderfully preformed by local people. They started off with an amazing rendition of alot of classic ballads from Super Mario Brothers. Visually, the gameplay montage was on cue and seemed to cover every Mario game ever made. I was fairly impressed, and it was certainly a new experience hearing Mario being played by a live symphony. It was the same with all the rest of the music played, marvellous to hear games I've enjoyed all my life preformed so spectacularly. Everything from Sonic to Oblivion to Halo was preformed with such class. So when the concert was over after 6 or 8 games, it seemed rather disappointing. I don't know if it was because the show was so good and it left me wanting more or that i was simply just expecting a longer night of Video Game music. A lot of people seemed rather disappointed that they didn't preform any Final Fantasy music either.
Hopefully next time PLAY! stops in Edmonton they will have a better pre-show and a long list of songs to play. Those are my major complaints. The show itself was brillant though, and I recommend it to any Video Game fan. Young, old, new to the gaming scene or gaming veteran, everyone who I went with really seemed to enjoy it.
...
So, just in case you haven't heard of play, or didn't realize it was in Edmonton last night, here is their Website:
http://www.play-symphony.com/
PLAY! is a symphony (in this case, from Edmonton) lead by Maestro Arnie Roth. They play a variety of video game scores and epics. This is my simple review:
Lets start with the pre-show. I had really high hopes for this "pre-show" which was seduled for about 2 and a half hours before the show was to start. Plenty of time for fun and games. Ticketmaster let me know that the pre-show "includes game competitions, demos, costume contest, prizes & more!" What ended up being there was Rockband, Power Rangers and Klingons in full costume, not exactly my idea of 2 and a half hours of fun. So that was a major let down.
Next, was the show itself, wonderfully preformed by local people. They started off with an amazing rendition of alot of classic ballads from Super Mario Brothers. Visually, the gameplay montage was on cue and seemed to cover every Mario game ever made. I was fairly impressed, and it was certainly a new experience hearing Mario being played by a live symphony. It was the same with all the rest of the music played, marvellous to hear games I've enjoyed all my life preformed so spectacularly. Everything from Sonic to Oblivion to Halo was preformed with such class. So when the concert was over after 6 or 8 games, it seemed rather disappointing. I don't know if it was because the show was so good and it left me wanting more or that i was simply just expecting a longer night of Video Game music. A lot of people seemed rather disappointed that they didn't preform any Final Fantasy music either.
Hopefully next time PLAY! stops in Edmonton they will have a better pre-show and a long list of songs to play. Those are my major complaints. The show itself was brillant though, and I recommend it to any Video Game fan. Young, old, new to the gaming scene or gaming veteran, everyone who I went with really seemed to enjoy it.
...