Video Games Live 2007 in London

As I mentioned on Monday, we went to Video Games Live, which was in town as part of the London Games Festival. It was a good show. Completely sold out the Royal Festival Hall and worth it if you’ve played at least one game from each of the classic franchises. (Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy, Mario, Sonic, etc.) If you haven’t… well, it’s a bunch of mildly entertaining music played by a small orchestra, interspersed with geeky in-jokes and dodgy video. Just my sort of thing ;)

I shan’t spoil it for our overseas readers but here are a few safe comments, good and bad:

• The Video Game Pianist is, indeed, impressive.
• I love Nobuo Uematsu‘s music even more when it’s performed live.
• Volunteer for everything. You still get good prizes for losing.
• Performances definitely leant towards a mellow, relaxed interpretation and pulled it off surprisingly well.
• Video was… a bit pointless. Clips were synchronised in time but not content. Mashing up gameplay footage from PS1 and Xbox 360 games was more distracting than enhancing.
• Despite that, I was still disappointed that Square Enix wouldn’t let them use Final Fantasy footage. Their rendered sequences still look incredible.

Here’s a nice photo of the lit stage.

You have probably never heard Sonic’s theme played quite so soulfully. I barely recognised it. You should definitely consider the show if it’s in your area. See the official site (linked below) for the listings.

Before the show, there was also a cosplay competition. There were some truly great costumes there, including a fantastic Link in Wolf Form, a rather soggy-looking Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey, and Lulu from FFX-2. Sadly for the wolf, the stage was completely stolen by a diminutive yet undiminished Purple Tentacle.

Thank you, naive human. Now, I can finish taking over the world!

– Purple Tentacle, Day of The Tentacle

Related Links

My VGL London Flickr set – contains mild spoilers for some of the show’s surprises
E for All and VGL – Brinstar’s opinion of the show in LA
Video Games Live – The official site

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