is a Japanese

video game music Video game music (VGM) is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was once limited to sounds of early sound chips, such as programmable sound generators (PSG) or FM synthesis chips. These limitations have led to t ...

ian working for

Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto. It develops, publishes, and releases both video games and video game consoles. The history of Nintendo began when craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi ...

, notable for composing music in many titles of the ''Metroid'' series, mainly ''

Super Metroid is a 1994 action-adventure game developed by Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is the third installment in the ''Metroid'' series, following the events of the Game Boy g ...

'' 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. 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. He was asked to compose the music for ''

Metroid Prime ''Metroid Prime'' is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Retro Studios and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. ''Metroid Prime'' is the fifth main '' Metroid'' game and the first to use 3D computer graphics and a first-person perspec ...

'' to reinforce the series' continuity. 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 Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

that took place when the series switched from the

GameCube The is a PowerPC-based home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, in Europe on May 3, 2002, and in Australia on May 17, 2002. It is the suc ...

to the

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America, and in December 2006 for most other regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major home game console, f ...

; this allowed for higher quality audio samples to be used and thus a better overall audio quality.

Works

References

External links

Composer profile
at

OverClocked ReMix OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-commercial organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs, both with new technology and software and by vari ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yamamoto, Kenji 1964 births Japanese composers Japanese male composers Japanese video game composers Living people Metroid Nintendo people