| This article is written from the Real Life point of view |  |
Tommy Tallarico is the owner of Tommy Tallarico Studios, the executive producer and CEO of Video Games Live and a two time Guiness World Record holder. Tallarico has composed music for games such as Earthworm Jim. His company was hired as an outside contractor to create sound effects early in the development of Metroid Prime, and their work recurred throughout the series,[1] as well as the Space World 2000 demo.
Metroid Prime[]
Tallarico is uncredited in all of the games; allegedly this was because of an error on Retro Studios' part, and Tallarico claims to have received an apology for the omission. After major restructuring at Retro and the cancellation of their other projects (Car Combat, NFL Retro Football and Raven Blade), Tallarico's contract ended and Retro's internal audio department took over Prime, but retained his work in the game.[2] Contrary to popular belief at the time, he was not hired as the game's composer, and has never set foot inside Retro Studios.[1] Scott Petersen later asked Tallarico for his original sound sessions and high bit-rate and sample-rate mixes of all of his sounds, for archival purposes.[2]
According to Tallarico, Nintendo executive, Shigeru Miyamoto and Retro's president at the time, Jeff Spangenberg, approached him at a Nintendo party during E3 1998 and asked if he wanted to work on a "top secret" project. Tallarico claims he immediately accepted the offer since Miyamoto was involved.[1] Learning it was Metroid further excited him, especially as the series had never been developed outside of Japan.[3] Usually sounds are added in post-production, but allegedly Miyamoto made an uncharacteristic request that Tallarico create "really cool" sounds with no direction.[4] The opposite of this approach was done for the remainder of the project when Clark Wen came on: weapons first, sounds second.[5]
However, as later unearthed by gaming journalist YouTuber Hbomberguy in his video titled ROBLOX_OOF.mp3, Tallarico's claim of this request from Miyamoto to use a 'sounds first' approach turned out to be a falsehood perpetuated by Tallarico. There is no evidence to support his story. In fact, his entire contribution to the game is minimal at best.[6][7]
Trivia[]
- Asked by Shinesparkers whether he believes Metroid games are better suited to having an orchestrated score (such as that of Metroid: Other M, composed by Kuniaki Haishima) or a traditional, atmospheric and synthesized score, Tallarico said that he thinks it can work either way or with a combination of both.[1]
- Tallarico was featured in Shinesparkers' tribute video for the series' 25th anniversary.[8]
- Tallarico is a cousin of American musician Steven Tyler.[4][9]
Gallery[]
External links[]
- Official website
- Tallarico on LinkedIn
- Tallarico on MobyGames
- Shinesparkers interview
- Wikipedia article
- Tallarico on IMDb
- Facebook fan page
References[]
- ^ a b c d "Interview: Tommy Tallarico", Shinesparkers, 2011-01-20. Retrieved on 2018-01-31.
- ^ a b https://web.archive.org/web/20160215050756/http://www.tallarico.com/index.php?s=metroidprime
- ^ Metroid Anniversary Special: Tommy Tallarico (gamesTM), page 42, unknown issue
- ^ a b Joscelyne, Svend. "Interview: Tommy Tallarico", Spong, 2007-10-23. Retrieved on 2018-01-31.
- ^ "Interview: Clark Wen", Shinesparkers, 2018-06-02. Retrieved on 2018-06-02.
- ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0twDETh6QaI
- ^ Yarwood, Jack (November 18, 2022). "New Video Examines The Many Lofty Claims Of Tommy Tallarico". Time Extension. Retrieved November 22, 2022.[1]
- ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqOyhS8hLVI
- ^ Desrochers, Dan. "World-renowned video game music composer brings his music live to Springfield", The Westfield News, 2017-05-7. Retrieved on 2018-01-31.
