 |
Kenji Yamamoto | |
|---|---|
山本 健誌 | |
| Born | April 25, 1964 Japan |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, sound director, musician |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Employer | Nintendo |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | Video game music |
| Instrument(s) | Piano, guitar |
Kenji Yamamoto (山本 健誌, Yamamoto Kenji, born April 25, 1964) is a Japanese video game musician working for Nintendo, notable for composing music in many titles of the Metroid series, mainly Super Metroid and the Metroid Prime trilogy. Yamamoto also plays a role as a music director at Nintendo, overseeing audio for several of their games. He frequently collaborates with fellow composers Minako Hamano and Masaru Tajima.
Yamamoto's music utilizes heavy drums, piano, voiced chants, clangs of pipes, and electric guitar.[1] In development of Super Metroid, Yamamoto came up with some of the game's themes by humming them to himself while riding his motorcycle home from work.[2][3][4]
He was asked to compose the music for Metroid Prime to reinforce the series' continuity.[4] Developers from Retro Studios noted how the process of fitting all the sound effects for a world in Metroid Prime into 6 MB of space was crucial in producing a quality aural experience, as each sound had to be of very high quality. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption took advantage of the increase in the amount of RAM that took place when the series switched from the GameCube to the Wii; this allowed for higher quality audio samples to be used and thus a better overall audio quality.[4]
- ^ Mirabella III, Fran (11 November 2002). "Metroid Prime". IGN. Archived from the original on 10 December 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2008.
- ^ Yamamoto, Kenji (24 August 2010). "A Blast From The Past: Metroid Prime 3 With Kenji Yamamoto and Retro Studios". Original Sound Version (Interview). Interviewed by Napolitano, Jayson. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019.
- ^ Yamamoto, Kenji; Sakamoto, Yoshio. "Developer Interview, Volume 3" (Interview). Interviewed by Akinori Sao. Kyoto, Japan: Nintendo. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
- ^ a b c "Interview with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Sound Team at Retro Studios and Composer Kenji Yamamoto". Music4Games. 5 October 2007. Archived from the original on 28 February 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2008.