Street Fighter II: The World Warrior "Guile's Theme (Reflections Version)" 3:44

HAPPY 58th BIRTHDAY to the iconic Yoko Shimomura! Did you know that this year she became the only game composer to earn the prestigious BAFTA Fellowship in its more than 50-year history? Whether it's the Kingdom Hearts series, Super Mario RPG, or Final Fantasy XV, her scores have shaped gamers musical palettes for decades. Just getting started in her VGM career at the very tail end of the 1980s, Shimomura's the most prolific of the Japanese female composers of that era. (Nick Dwyer's documentary series Diggin' in the Carts shined a much-deserved spotlight on several of them, including Shimomura.) My personal favorite Shimomura soundtrack remains Street Fighter II, a series which eventually grew to have 17 character themes, all of them strong and memorable, with 11 of the 12 World Warrior themes created by Yoko herself. We're honored to reflect on her impact with scene veteran MkVaff engaging in his own reflections through one of Shimomura's standouts from Street Fighter II, Guile's theme, adapted for solo piano! For MkVaff, finally uncovering a way to approach this legendary theme led down the path of gratitude for the family that shaped him:

"Here is another piano arrangement from my "Reflections" project that I felt was different enough to submit to OCR. I know Guile's theme one of the most-covered tracks in all of game music, and it's such a perfect original that I avoided it for years because it almost felt too intimidating. Every time I tried to think about arranging this theme I always felt overwhelmed - but this version for some reason just felt "right." But, as I was considering piano covers, I couldn't stop thinking of the theme and decided to give it a shot. I sometimes enjoy slowing some classic songs down - it really lets you enjoy some of the amazing composition put into the originals.

My mom was the first person who actively encouraged my exploration into the world of music. She arranged for me to begin piano lessons when I was young, and supported my learning and practicing throughout the years.

As I was beginning this musical journey, I was also watching my older brother, Jim, who had been playing various instruments for as long as I could remember. He has always been a massive source of knowledge and inspiration in my life, even though a lot of our tastes and our approaches to music are quite different. He started a band during high school, and later continued to play covers of radio hits at local venues in various bands that he led throughout college and in the years afterwards. It was never a full-time job for him, but it was a passion that he devoted himself to fully, and spent a lot of time, energy, and resources pursuing.

Jim is eleven years older (and many years wiser) than me, and as I was growing up, he and his band would regularly practice in the basement of our old house in Queens. Not only did the music he played in his cover band Pursuit inform a lot of my early tastes in music, but I would get to "watch the magic happen" as their equipment setup became more advanced through the years. I became captivated by some of the synthesizers, workstations, and early computer setups that were suddenly in our basement between gigs.

If it weren't for my early exposure to this technology and the encouragement I received from my brother to tinker with it, I don't know if I would've continued my musical journey from such an early age. My brother and I continued to work on music, but on diverging paths. I continued learning about MIDI, synthesizers, computers, and digital recording, and Jim continued playing in various bands throughout the years. He played top 40 hits with his own band for a while before joining a wedding band for several years. But after a trip to Tennessee and spending a few days in and around Nashville, he returned home with some new musical inspiration from an entirely different genre - country music.

In a time when radio music was becoming increasingly dance-oriented and digital - which was absolutely my domain - Jim was instead looking to practice and perform music that was fun but still retained a deep appreciation for more classic musicianship and instrumentation. A few years after this trip, he started County Line - a local country/rock band - and began performing gigs in the area while at the same time learning and teaching line dancing lessons to adult students at a local high school.

Amid a myriad of other obligations and interests, my big brother still teaches dancing and performs in bands to this day. Though he and I still approach music very differently, we're quite similar in our deep love for music and in our passion for sharing the music we love for the enjoyment of others in different ways.

In the context of my project, the arrangement and video I created pays tribute to my older brother, without whom I likely wouldn't have gone so deep down the music creation rabbit hole. In looking through media for this project, I came across several videos of Jim performing throughout the years, and wanted to create a tribute not only to the hard work and dedication he has put into his musicianship and performance throughout the years, but also to how much he has inspired me on my own musical journey through game and electronic music. As soon as I came across some footage my dad took of Jim as a baby - laughing and smiling as he played with a tiny guitar - it was so obvious how the rest just became... history.

Guile's theme from Street Fighter 2 has always been one of those themes that I never knew exactly how to cover, but I felt that a piano arrangement could incorporate some of the sense of perseverance, determination, and a tiny bit of "rock star quality" that I wanted to capture in this story. Musically, I enjoyed trying to capture the beauty and the epic feeling of the original track in a way that felt different from the original composition. It's challenging to cover anything Shimomura does and not come up woefully short, but I'm hoping that this arrangement properly pays tribute to her musical genius, and one of the greatest themes she's given us in her incredible career.

For a while, I wanted to make at least some of this work a little more personal, I'm glad it's been resonating with some people. Especially in the days when AI can pretty much make anything, the stories we share with each other are helping to keep the music more human and connective, at least I'd like to hope so!

Thanks for listening! Please enjoy, and thanks for being a part of this journey."

It's as T.S. Eliot said: "For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business." Whether MkVaff feels worthy in his tribute to Shimomura, the attempt is what counts. :-) For us, it sounds like a lovely way to artistically show his love & gratitude for his mom and brother's influence as well as Shimomura's enduring legacy through her scores. Guile's theme goes with everything, so it stands to reason it would translate beautifully for solo piano, and that the approach would resonate with Shimomura, a pianist herself. Judge prophetik music cited just how effectively MkVaff opened things up with a gorgeous extended original intro before finally shifting to the source:

"really pretty opening. there's some beautiful turns in there. theme comes in at 0:33, and the left hand voicing here is poignant in its simplicity. [...] when we get more full in the voicings at 1:24, that feels really nice, and the continued movement fits the character a lot."

It sounds like proph's in the camp of this being a befitting tribute! Let's check in with fellow panelist Hemophiliac:

"Absolutely lovely.

A loose and extended improvisation intro is a nice way to ease the listener in before the proper Guile theme enters.

2:52 really liked the octave displacement here and jumping up to the higher register. Great way to signal the end is coming.

Total classic, way to bring it back to some of your early days with stuff like Cutman Sonata.

Excellent performance; great arrangement; MkVaff. What more can you ask for?"

He's right, it doesn't get better than that. One could easily see this as an ending theme version of Guile's theme. The performance dynamics here really add a lot emotional weight to the theme and indeed felt very reflective (per the theme of Mike's collection of arrangements here). I would love to hear MkVaff perform this on a grand piano, that would be cool, though there's also a sincere nostalgic quality to the tone of the keyboard used here. Send this one to djp (who's gone home to be a family man since retiring from running OCR); this very much felt in the vein of some of MkVaff's old-school piano classics, if not by arrangement approach, then by simplicity and earnestness. :-)