Kenji Yamamoto (composer, born 1964)
Japanese video game musician / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
Kenji Yamamoto | |
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山本 健誌 | |
Born | (1964-04-25) April 25, 1964 (age 60) Japan |
Occupation(s) | Composer, sound director, musician |
Years active | 1987–present |
Employer | Nintendo |
Musical career | |
Genres | Video game music |
Instrument(s) | Piano, guitar |
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]