This week’s concert takes us to Play!’s tour through Norway, listening to a non-Nintendo video game theme. We’ve done non-Nintendo themes before, all the way from Final Fantasy VII to Metal Gear Solid 3, hopefully showing you that there’s more to quality video game music than just Koji Kondo.

The Halo theme, presented here in a special concert arrangement, was written by Martin O’Donnell with notable help from Michael Salvatori. O’Donnell has a Masters of Music Degree from the University of Southern California. You may have heard more of his work before, such as the Flintstones vitamins commercials. His kids sang in those commercials.

YouTube

Uncle Floyd made perhaps the biggest mistake a Wii owner could do: play a game of Wii Bowling with a strapless Wii Remote. As a result, his television suffered irreparable damage. Tom decides to send two Wii Remotes to their premature demise by throwing it in a blender. As always, the blender is victorious.

YouTube

As many of you know, I’m a music education major - meaning I have to be familiar with a lot more instruments than just my own clarinet. Interestingly enough, the double reed instruments (oboe and bassoon) have turned out to be my favorite among the instruments I’ve had to learn. It’s one of the main reasons I’m presenting you with a bassoon quintet tonight!

This video is of the Oberlin quartet, but they’ve gone ahead and added a fifth player on Contrabassoon. There’s a smothering of Super Mario music to enjoy here, so I think you’ll enjoy it. Plus, if you need something more than just five bassoons to impress you, don’t worry - there’s some beatboxing thrown in as well.

YouTube

If you’ve yet to get tired of hearing Nintendo themes recreated using bottles, then this video is for you. Three people took the time out of their busy schedules and patience to do their own rendition of the popular Tetris theme using various types of bottles filled with water. How the guy on the lower left didn’t knock his teeth out doing his back and forth motion whilst blowing into the bottles is beyond me.

CollegeHumor

One of the first things I hated in Kart was the POW attack; even though I knew it was coming the attack would still assault my mental well being. Shortly after playing, though, I discovered that if you were in mid-air you could dodge it. The video above shows how to dodge it using a well-timed hop, a tip that’ll definitely give people who master it an edge while playing Mario Kart locally or online.

For those of you that figured this out on your own, two points for you.

YouTube
via GoNintendo

To some people, the delicious combination of Zero Punctuation and Brawl has more comedic potential than another Robin Williams HBO special. To everybody else, having Brawl fall under the wrath of Yahtzee is something they would rather avoid. Unless your name is Portal, you know that it’s going to get quite ugly once you hit that triangular “play” button above this block of text.

I know how much Brawl is loved around these parts, which is why I’m reluctant to share my thoughts about the game (my attempts to do so have resulted in public ridicule. Thanks, world), but let me just say that I agree with most aspects of this review. Now excuse me as I prepare the comment section for the swarm of angry readers that is sure to come.

Oh, and like always, this review is very NSFW

The Escapist

Grand Theft Auto on the NES really isn’t too bad of an idea. Between the guns, dragons, drugs, and tanooki suits, it very well might be the perfect videogame. Heck, I’ll even be willing to look past the misused tanooki suit reference in the video…

College Humor
via TheBBPS

Some of you may have seen this video before. Heck, you might have even seen it on our site. Hopefully you never tire of the Super Mario Bros. 2 Overworld Theme, because it’s this week’s Friday Night Concert. (I’m finishing up percussion methods in less than two weeks, so I’m celebrating by giving you another dose of double-mallet marimba plus xylo. Tee-Hee.)

This is a senior percussion recital by Christine over SUNY Fredonia, which of course doesn’t strive for the same accuracy and precision as the University of Illinois percussion majors, but it’s still an impressive performance. What really throws me is the use of the same exact piece for the encore… but props for the impressive xylophone solo. Now just replace it with some quality vibraphones, and we’ve got ourselves an evening.

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We’ve seen some pretty creative arrangements of one of the most recognizable video game themes of all time, but this one takes the cake. Who would have thought wine bottles and an RC Car could come together and make music so well?

Break.com
via Gizmodo

Even though we’ve all seen Johnny’s work before, it’s great to take a look at the guy now that he is well known throughout the research and (especially) the gaming community. In this video, Johnny is giving the same basic speech seen in his previous YouTube demonstrations, but this time we get the feel of the crowd, and every once in a while he’ll drop some numbers on just how big of an impact his software has had. Our little boy is all grown up..

TED
via Wii Fanboy