TINA GUO — Game On! (review)

Album · 2017 · Non-Metal

4.5/5 · 2017-02-16
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For her tenth album and major label debut Game On! (2017) Chinese cellist Tina Guo has put together a collection of renditions of video game music, mostly in the form of medleys. Games featured here include old school favourites such as Super Mario Bros. and Tetris as well as modern classics like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Being a multi-genre artist who has done everything from new age to thrash metal, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to find that Tina Guo isn't limiting herself to classical music on Game On!, though that is the main genre of this album. Quite often the songs on the album get flavoured with a symphonic rock arrangement or even feature full blown metal sections, something that is very prominent in tracks such as Final Fantasy VII, Super Mario Bros. and Halo. However there are actually guitars and bass in almost all of these arrangements, used in varying amounts. The only one that doesn't is Journey.

I've often thought that videos games had some great scores in them and there is a nice selection of tracks on offer here. I think with an album like this is the main appeal is going to be towards the music from games each listener has actually played and for me that's The Legend of Zelda, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Skyrim and last but not least the most nostalgia inducing of them all, Pokémon, which I also happen to think its one of the best medley arrangements on the album. Very epic stuff that makes me want to rewind the years and be making that agonising choice that every Red and Blue owner faced in the nineties: Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle. I digress – music! The Super Mario Bros. medley is another highlight from Nintendo games. Not a series that I personally was ever really into but the metalhead in me appreciates the epic metal section in the middle of the track. Tina does a similar thing during the Final Fantasy VII medley.

The most different track on the album is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as the game's music is styled quite differently to the usual score arrangements, and is the most vocal piece on the album as well. There's no metal in this one but there's still a connection to the metal world as the lead vocals are done by Einar Selvik who has had stints in bands such as Gorgoroth, Sahg and Jotunspor as well as folk band Wardruna and the collaboration Skuggsjá with Enslaved's Ivar Bjørnson. Rather than seem out of place the track offers up a nice little (it's quite short) deviation from the norm and it's nice to see this modern masterpiece included on the album.

There's actually a surprising amount of metal across the album for something that on the surface looks billed as a pure classical work from Tina Guo. The appeal of course is more limited for metalheads compared to her earlier fully metal album Cello Metal (2015), but if you're a fan of the video games included here it's well worth a listen. The metal parts are, if anything, a bonus.

more than 2 years ago
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TheHeavyMetalCat wrote:

more than 2 years ago

"makes me want to rewind the years and be making that agonising choice that every Red and Blue owner faced in the nineties: Bulbasaur, Charmander or Squirtle."

I loved those games. I never twigged it at the time, but the starter choices sort of repsented an easy, medium and hard mode for the games.

Bulbasaur was strong in the first two gyms and resisted the third (easy mode)
Squirtle was strong in the first gym, neutral in the second and weak to the third (medium mode)
Charmander was weak in the first gym, weak to the second, and neutral in the third (hard mode)