Game People

Wednesday 04/02/2009

http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/audio_ds_hellokitty.htm

Hello Kitty on DS falls prey to Rebecca's killer tones this week. The diminutive Japanese super brand woes Ms Mayes with an offensive of cute game play and portability. She counters with some her usual insightfully innocent prose and melodic storytelling.

This time around Game People team up with Games Radar to launch our Hello Kitty song. They loved the musical approach to reviews and we wanted to share our novice gamer's wares further than just Game People readers. So far so good.

I can't get away from the fact that songwriting is a craft I am deeply enthralled with, and yes I'm as interested in writing good songs as I am in writing good reviews. But essentially I want to create some kind of juicy fusion between the two. This is all new for me and I'm learning as I go along.

Still bubbling under for Rebecca, Hotel Dusk http://www.gamepeople.co.uk/audio_ds_hoteldusk.htm is turning up all over the place. Just two weeks after its release and she has been fielding interviews left right and center. Appearances in national games magazines is now confirmed along with some exclusives in the pipeline for the UK's top flight podcasts.

As if this wasn't enough from our young starlet, she's started a preference program. For a donation of any size you get to suggest her next song, along with early first listens of each new song she releases.

Rebecca Mayes Hello Kitty Interview

Are your audio gamer songs really reviews or just odes to the games?

They're certainly not classic reviews, and neither are they particularly thorough. I wouldn't recommend relying solely on my reviews if you want info on a game, but they are most definitely a critical response.

Calling what I'm doing a review has provoked some discussion about what constitutes a review, and it does depend on what you're looking for. There have been some perturbed voices about what I'm doing certainly.

From what I understand of the gaming community, games are not just games but an interaction with another world that somehow opens up something in the mind of the player. As such gaming is a truly creative experience, and my audiogamer songs are a reflection of the world I experience when I play the game.

Everything about the sound of ‘I'm a wolf,' the Okami song, expresses my interaction with the game. The feel of Okami's pounding feet coming through the controls set the rhythm of the song; the energy of the creature, the magical setting, the mythical element are all being expressed through the instrumentation and feel of the song. It's not all about lyrics for me - they are what come through on a surface level.

Some gamers confessed that ‘The Infuriating and Alluring Case of Mr Kyle Hyde' pulled unexpectedly on the heart-strings, and that's not just the lyrical content, it's the romance of the music itself, the arc of the melody etc.

So you are approaching these reviews primarily as a songwriter?

I can't get away from the fact that songwriting is a craft I am deeply enthralled with, and yes I'm as interested in writing good songs as I am in writing good reviews. But essentially I want to create some kind of juicy fusion between the two. This is all new for me and I'm learning as I go along.

Tell us about the next song, Hello Kitty

I wanted to capture the excitement that is inherent in this game. Whether or not you enjoy the game is in large part down to whether or not you ‘believe' in Kitty's dream of getting her penthouse apartment - without this motivating factor you will not be driven to play the same puzzles repeatedly. That is perhaps why some reviewers have confessed to ‘imagining being a little girl' in order to play the game - or perhaps that is some kind of excuse.

Everything about Hello Kitty's world is pleasant and hopeful and fun. I wanted to capture the element of ‘coming of age' in my song, which is a subject we return to again and again in books and films. In a sense the meta-narrative of the song is that this game is more than it seems - not just a sweet little game to make more money for the Hello Kitty franchise but a demonstration of an important human rite.

Notes about Game People

Game People [http://www.gamepeople.co.uk] started in 2007 to provide space for niche video game writers. Since then we have accrued a rag-tag bunch of interesting hacks (read: writers). We cover games for families, teens, fitness, sport, racing, for returning and even for eclectic gamers.

Our writers now contribute to the Game Pro network, the Wired Blog, Gamasutra and a smattering of local newspapers.

For more information about this or other press releases, contact our Editor in Chief [editor@gamepeople.co.uk]. He is more than happy to provide interviews, discuss advertising, or in fact any other ideas you have for us.