Mahito Yokota

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Mahito Yokota

Mahito Yokota ( Japanese 横 田 真人 , Yokota Mahito ) is a Japanese video game composer best known for his work on the Nintendo video games Donkey Kong Jungle Beat , Super Mario Galaxy , Super Mario Galaxy 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword .

Work

Mahito Yokota initially worked as a sound director for Koei . As such, he worked on the game Kessen in 2000 and on its successor, Kessen II. He was responsible for the composition, the sound programming and processing, the sound effects, the voices and the localization. In 2002 he also worked on Crimson Sea , in 2003 on Dynasty Warriors 4 , for which he composed three pieces. The experiences he had at Koei represented his skills.

In 2004 he moved to Nintendo, where he works in Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development , an in-house studio in Tokyo that is responsible for successful video game series such as Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda . Here he composed dynamic musical works for the GameCube title Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (December 2004).

After working for Jungle Beat , Yokota was responsible for the music in Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, November 2007) with Kōji Kondō . Kondō has already composed successfully for many games, his compositions for the Super Mario and Zelda series are particularly well known. Yokota initially composed a work for Super Mario Galaxy that was influenced by Latin American music and was to be based on familiar melodies from earlier Super Mario games. Yoshiaki Koizumi , who was responsible for game development, agreed with the music, while Kondō declined it on the grounds that Yokota had seen a cute rather than a cool Mario while composing. Kondo accused him of having misunderstood the spirit of music in the Super Mario games, which demotivated Yokota to such an extent that he wanted to give up the project at first. In the end he did not give up and composed other pieces, with which Kondo agreed.

A total of 81 pieces were composed for Super Mario Galaxy, Yokota was responsible for all of them, with the exception of the melodies for the egg planet galaxy and for Rosalina's comet , which Kondo composed. 28 of the songs were recorded by a 50-piece orchestra, the Super Mario Galaxy Orchestra , with Yokota supervising the recording. The rest of the songs were created with a synthesizer as usual in previous games . In addition, some familiar melodies from previous Super Mario games were reused by Kondo, and Yokota arranged them for the orchestra. The composers chose an orchestra to represent the size of the universe in the game and to adapt the music to the tempo of the game, creating an epic atmosphere. Yokota also made sure that the sound effects in the game are played parallel to the background music, so that there is interactivity between the game principle and the sound. Overall, the music in Super Mario Galaxy received a lot of praise. The melodies, according to the reviews, support the game a lot. As the Super Mario Galaxy Original Soundtrack , the music from the game has been available on CD to Club Nintendo members since January 24, 2008. In addition to an edition with the 28 orchestral pieces on one CD (Normal Edition), an extended Platinum Edition is available, which contains all pieces on two CDs, total length over two hours.

In addition, some of the game's melodies were played by an orchestra at the PLAY! A video game Symphony and Games in Concert 3 played. An eight-minute arrangement was performed on September 23, 2010 in the Cologne Philharmonic by the WDR radio orchestra at the Symphonic Legends concert ( symphonic game music concerts ).

The success of the Super Mario Galaxy melodies allowed Yokota to compose several pieces for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess . With others he also worked musically on Wii Music .

In 2010 Yokota composed for Super Mario Galaxy 2 . He was again responsible for all works, except for eleven that Kondo composed, and nine that come from Ryō Nagamatsu . An orchestra recorded some of the melodies for this game too. On July 10, 2010, the album Super Mario Galaxy 2 Original Soundtrack was released with a selection of 70 songs and a running time of over two hours.

For the 2011 game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for Nintendo 3DS , Yokota was responsible for transferring the music from the original game to the new game. The individual pieces were not changed, but adapted to the new hardware. He only wrote an orchestral arrangement of the end credits. Yokota has also composed with others for Super Mario 3D Land (3DS, 2011) and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii, 2011). Many orchestral pieces were written for the latter game.

Play with Yokota's participation

Albums

  • Nintendo Sound Selection Vol. 3: Luigi B-Side Music
  • Super Mario Galaxy Original Soundtrack Normal Edition
  • Super Mario Galaxy Original Soundtrack Platinum Edition
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2 Original Soundtrack
  • Super Mario 3D World Original Soundtrack

References and comments

  1. ↑ Interview with Super Mario Galaxy composers Koji Kondo and Mahito Yokota from August 11, 2007 at music4games.net. Archived from the original on May 16, 2008 ; Retrieved January 2, 2011 .
  2. ↑ Super Mario Galaxy Review Part 4 at uk.wii.ign.com. Retrieved January 2, 2011 .
  3. ↑ Tracklists for Super Mario Galaxy Original Sound Track (Platinum Version) CD 1, CD 2 in the MusicBrainz music database . The entries were last changed in November 2009, accessed on January 4, 2011. (English)
  4. ↑ Symphonic Legends - information page at the WDR radio orchestra with program as a PDF file
  5. ↑ http://kyoto-report.wikidot.com/new-super-mario-bros-u

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Yokota, Mahito
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 横 田 真人 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese video game composer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th century