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Kenji Yamamoto (composer, born 1964)

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Kenji Yamamoto
山本健誌
Born	(1964-04-25) April 25, 1964 (age 60) Japan
Occupation(s)	Composer, sound director, musician
Years active	1987–present
Employer	Nintendo
Musical career
Genres	Video game music
Instrument(s)	Piano, guitar
Musical artist

Kenji Yamamoto (山本健誌, Yamamoto Kenji, born April 25, 1964) is a Japanese video game musician working for Nintendo, notable for composing music in many titles of the Metroid series, mainly Super Metroid 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.^[1] 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.^[2]^[3]^[4]

He was asked to compose the music for Metroid Prime to reinforce the series' continuity.^[4] 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 that took place when the series switched from the GameCube to the Wii; this allowed for higher quality audio samples to be used and thus a better overall audio quality.^[4]

Works[edit]

Year	Title	Role
1987	Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!^[3]	Music with Yukio Kaneoka and Akito Nakatsuka
1988	Famicom Wars^[3]	Music with Hirokazu Tanaka
1989	Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind^[3]	Music
1994	Super Metroid	Music with Minako Hamano^[5]
1995	Galactic Pinball	Director, music with Masaru Tajima^[6]
1999	Famicom Bunko: Hajimari no Mori	Music with Kozue Ishikawa
2001	Mario Kart: Super Circuit	Sound support
2002	Metroid Fusion	Sound director
2002	Metroid Prime	Music with Koichi Kyuma
2004	Metroid Prime 2: Echoes	Music
2004	Metroid: Zero Mission^[7]	Music with Minako Hamano^[7]
2005	Metroid Prime Pinball	Music with Masaru Tajima
2005	Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day!	Sound director
2006	English Training: Have Fun Improving Your Skills!	Sound director
	Metroid Prime Hunters	Sound supervisor
	Excite Truck^[2]	Music with Masaru Tajima
2007	Metroid Prime 3: Corruption	Music with Minako Hamano and Masaru Tajima
2008	Super Smash Bros. Brawl	Arrangement
2009	Excitebots: Trick Racing	Music with Masaru Tajima and Shinji Ushiroda
2010	Photo Dojo	Sound supervisor
2010	Donkey Kong Country Returns	Music with various others^[8]^[9]
2011	Rhythm Heaven Fever	Sound support
	Pilotwings Resort	Music supervisor
	Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword	Music director
	StreetPass Mii Plaza	Sound supervisor
2012	Kiki Trick	Sound supervisor
2012	Brain Age: Concentration Training	Sound supervisor
2013	Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D	Sound supervisor
	Tomodachi Life	Sound supervisor
	StreetPass Mii Plaza	Sound director
	Nintendoji	Music director
2014	Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze	Music supervisor^[10]
	Pokémon Art Academy	Sound supervisor
	Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U	Arrangement with various others
2015	Style Savvy: Fashion Forward	Sound supervisor
	Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash	Sound supervisor
	Real Dasshutsu Game x Nintendo 3DS	Sound director
	Rhythm Heaven Megamix	Sound support staff
	Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE	Sound support
2016	Mini Mario & Friends: Amiibo Challenge	Music supervisor
	Disney Art Academy	Sound supervisor
	Miitopia	Sound supervisor
2017	Hey! Pikmin	Sound progress management
2017	Metroid: Samus Returns	Music director^[11]
2018	Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido	Sound support
2021	Metroid Dread	Music director
2023	Metroid Prime Remastered	Music producer

References[edit]

^ Mirabella III, Fran (11 November 2002). "Metroid Prime". IGN. Archived from the original on 10 December 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2008.

^ ^a ^b Yamamoto, Kenji (24 August 2010). "A Blast From The Past: Metroid Prime 3 With Kenji Yamamoto and Retro Studios". Original Sound Version (Interview). Interviewed by Napolitano, Jayson. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019.

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Yamamoto, Kenji; Sakamoto, Yoshio. "Developer Interview, Volume 3" (Interview). Interviewed by Akinori Sao. Kyoto, Japan: Nintendo. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2020.

^ ^a ^b ^c "Interview with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Sound Team at Retro Studios and Composer Kenji Yamamoto". Music4Games. 5 October 2007. Archived from the original on 28 February 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2008.

^ Aversa, Jillian (23 October 2010). "Game music of the day: Super Metroid". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 5 July 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2020. Composers: Kenji Yamamoto, Minako Hamano

^ "Galactic Pinball". Planet Virtual Boy. Archived from the original on 19 June 2017. Retrieved 20 August 2019.

^ ^a ^b Nintendo R&D1 (9 February 2004). Metroid: Zero Mission. Nintendo. Scene: Staff credits.

^ Harris, Craig (17 June 2010). "E3 2010: Kensuke Tanabe and the Metroid Palm Tree". IGN. Archived from the original on 19 September 2018.

^ Pearson, Kynan; Wikan, Mike; Ivey, Tom; Tanabe, Kensuke; Tabata, Risa (2010). "Iwata Asks: Donkey Kong Country Returns" (Interview). Interviewed by Iwata, Satoru. Nintendo. p. White-knuckled Action. Archived from the original on 17 February 2011.

^ Goergen, Andy (12 February 2014). "Donkey Kong Country, Through the Years". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020. Original series composer David Wise has confirmed his return to work with Kenji Yamamoto to compose music for the game[...]

^ MercurySteam; Nintendo EPD (15 September 2017). Metroid: Samus Returns. Nintendo. Scene: Staff Credits.