Last night I went along to Nintendo’s celebratory concert for Zelda’s 25th Birthday.
Was it good? No. It was better than that.
Anyone of you that has played a Zelda game knows that the music is one of the key things that sticks in your mind and makes you remember the good time you had playing the game. Be it ocarina of time, link to the past, Majora’s Mask or any other the theme and background music stick with you.
The chance to see a one time performance of some of this music by the London Philharmonic orchestra then is not a thing to be missed. And thankfully I didn’t.
The whole event was drowned in Zelda memories. The upper circle before you went in to the auditorium had kiosks playing the latest title “Skyward Sword” on the wii. Can’t wait to get my hands on that come November! Then around the sides were green lit glass cases containing each zelda game and it’s corresponding console. Lovely touch.
The whole place was littered in huge banners – some depicting each era of zelda, some just a massive logo.
As we entered the auditorium we saw the setup for the orchestra with a large screen behind it displaying one of the iconic Hylian glyphs from the Zelda series. As the show began The Producer of the Zelda series (Eiji Aonuma) came on stage to introduce the show- and also to ask us nicely not to film the symphony as he felt that you needed to be there to experience it. Sweet. As he left- the music began.
Dear lord it was good. And the only way you’ll hear it now is on your CD player when they release the soundtrack with Zelda Skyward Sword. Trust me, it will not do it justice. I’ve never heard anything like it.
We got these cool little souvenir programmes too- free I might add. Thats right, Nintendo doing something for FREE.
By far the most exciting part of the night for me was when all was done, and you thought it was over- they roll on out Koji Kondo himself to play a solo piano piece from the Wind Waker. Just stunning.
So to close, it was every Zelda fan’s wet dream- the epic-ness of seeing your favourite moments from the games up on the big screen with a full orchestra and choir belting the tunes out at a volume that Bats would ask you to turn down. So was it a big marketing stunt for Zelda Skyward Sword? Probably, but honestly I couldn’t give two tosses if it was. I was going to buy it when I went in, Im still going to buy it now. And who can argue with an orchestral version of the “Milk Bar” theme from Majora’s Mask?
..Fucking Milk Bar!!