Dragon Games

Before I start, if you've never heard of Video Games Live, then I suggest you check out the site. http://www.videogameslive.com/ Basically what they are is a group that goes around and preforms Symphonic Video Game Music Live. Yup you heard me right, Video Game Music.

Right about now if your a gamer, your probably thinking "Wow thats awesome, I want to see that" and if your not, you're probably wondering why anyone would want to see such a thing. If your thinking the second part, then you'd probably be pretty surprised to learn that most Video Games DO have symphonic music that is not just a bunch of blips and beeps. In fact most of the music that was preformed tonight was written for and originally recorded by a full orchestra's.

When I walked in, I was told that no camera's were allowed in at all. And there was a table where they were storing camera's from other people.

But as you can see, apparently they weren't really enforcing it very well because I walked in with my camera, in a camera pouch, attached to my belt.

The concert started with a little medley of classic video games, which was started with a Pong intro that was rather amusing to see the sound fx done with instruments. After a little intro of people they got right into the good stuff. When they played the Metal Gear Solid music they had a little stage show with an armed guard wondering the stage, and a cardboard box moving around behind him. Then they got into something I wish I could have a video of.

That would be a steller performance of the Metroid music. Followed by some scores from Civilization IV, which were backed up by a choir as well. Truly a sight to see.

Next came a competition. They invited a guy to come up on stage and attempt to beat the first level of Space Invaders on stage in under two minutes. However there was one little twist.

If you notice the guy on stage at the bottom left, the back of his shirt is the Space Invaders ship. HE was the ship on stage, and had to run back and forth on stage to move the ship across the stage. *laughs* it was rather amusing to watch and unfortunately he did not win. But did come very close with only one column of alien ships left.

After that there was a performance of the Tron music. Followed by my personal favorite.


Intermission!!

At the conclusion of the break they trumped up a performance of Kingdom Heats by showing clips Disney characters in the movies rather then game footage. Then another favorite of mine that I know at least one of my friends would have loved to see, several scores from World of Warcraft!!! Having the CD's of this music myself, I very much enjoyed the live versions. Creating a somewhat Blizzard theme, they followed the World of Warcraft scores with a score from an game that has not been released yet.


Next was a nice Super Mario medley that was immediately followed by something I would never have believed to be true if I did not see it myself in person. Those of you that are gamers might have heard about this and/or came across the youtube video of this. But they brought out on stage a guy who could not only play the original Super Mario music really fast on the piano, but he did it blindfolded!!! At one point his fingers were moving so fast across the piano that you would swear it was not even possible.


Competition time again!! This time it was Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. They brought up a guy to play a song on hard with the objective to score 200,000 points to win a brand new laptop!! Not only did the guy win the laptop but he did it on expert too!! I think they should have gave him something extra for that.

Not having really played these games myself, I was a bit surprised to watch them go into the music from Halo. But the music was definitely worthy and they ended the scores with the Halo girl coming out on stage, and a full Master Chief costumed guy coming on stage to wave a flag.


They wrapped up the concert with a chilling performance of One Winged Angel from Final Fantasy VII. Which some of you should remember as the final Sephiroth battle music. The Final scores were from the classic Castlevania

In the end I took over 120 pictures and left the concert hoping to see it again sometime. This is definitely something I would recommend any gamer to try and attend. You can check out their tour dates here http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=dates

With this being my first time at Comic Con, it was only destined that I would make a few mistakes. So I present to you the few things I've learned so far.

1. If you plan to drive into Comic Con, get there very early!! Parking within a 5 mile radius fills up fast.

2. Calling the dealers room a Zoo is an understatement.... It is more like a sea of people that flows in every direction but the one you want to go

3. If you want to get anywhere fast, do not cosplay or go with someone who is cosplaying. As you will stop and/or be stopped every 5 minutes.

4. Lining up one hour before a big event is still not long enough. In fact two hours is still not enough. If you want to see a famous person/show get to the room several shows before and expect to sit for hours.

So far I've missed all of the panels I wanted to see due to one of the above reasons. Right now I am sitting through an X-Box panel in hopes to catch the Venture Brothers panel that is next.

Pics and more to come later