There are many days on which I feel privelaged to be reporting on games, but tonight moreso than perhaps any other. I was thrilled when I was offered the chance to attend Nintendo's 'Symphony of the Goddess' tour as they passed through San Jose, CA, and immediately took the team up on their generous offer view the show live. A four-movement symphony, the show combined visuals from classic Zelda games projected onto large screens positioned around the San Jose Civic Center with live orchestral music and even a choir. 

When a Zelda game is good, it speaks to you in a way that few other games can. There's a magic to the series that captures players of all ages, and the beautiful thing about the series is that different games in it say different things to different people. My personal favorites are Wind Waker and A Link to the Past, and I was thrilled when two of the night's movements focused on the above titles.

And they didn't disappoint. Wind Waker's movement fluttered through the hall, a building testament to the freedom of the game's wide-open seas that was driven to crescendo by the effervescent interplay of strings and horns. By the time the piece reached the tune of the climactic battle with Ganandorf, a palpatable tension had overtaken the once-whimsical melody. As a passionate fan of the game, I found it surprisingly powerful.

A Link to the Past also got its own movement tonight, and although it was the last piece the orchestra played in their main set, I'll cover it here because many of the melodies which came after were in fact heavily influenced by tunes that originated in the title. Many of the pieces which were interwoven into the tapestry of A Link to the Past's movement were heavy on the brass and as a result had a sound all to their own, regal and yet rosy in the cheeks, menacing in a sort of empirical way but tinged with the wonder of a child adventuring out into the world on his own for the first time.

By the time Link reached Agahnim's lair and the evil wizard promised to make Zelda disappear, a part of the game which has always kind of gotten under my skin, the tone had shifted dramatically. Frantic strings injected a kind of fearsome magic into the air. As Zelda's body rose and vanished from sight, the music reached its crescendo. It was perhaps the crowning moment of the night, one which had me on the edge of my seat and wide-eyed with wonder. I sat as a child again as Zelda vanished and Link did battle with the evil wizard to the tune of epic fight music. And then, just as things reached a climax, Bunny Link appeared onscreen and the music shifted yet again to a whimsical and fun ditty. It was about as dynamic a piece as was performed all night.

And then of course came the Ocarina of Time movement; after all, how could you launch a celebration of all things Zelda without mention of the franchise's most well-known title? An accompanying choir covered the parts usually reserved for ocarina, adding a haunting, almost tribal resonance to the familiar tunes that have been engraved in our minds for years now. As for the Hyrule Field theme and other iconic songs, there's little to say here other than that they're pretty much as you remember them to be, which is probably for the best; there's only so much tweaking you can do to a classic before it becomes something different altogether, and the choir stuff added just enough variety to what was ultimately a pretty safe movement.

Twilight Princess also received a movement all to itself. While I appreciate the unique artistic flair that informs the design of many of the game's enemies, and of the wonderfully-designed protagonist Midna herself, I found Twilight Princess to be one of the most boring Zelda titles when I played it at the Wii's launch. While the soundtrack certainly had its moments (the lilting, silly tune that accompanied a brief video of Link flying around on a chicken was appreciated,) I was ultimately bored by the game's music as well. During the movement, I found myself paying closer attention to the onscreen visuals than to the orchestra. That's not to say that there wasn't some quality music coming out of the piece; it's just that the music seemed to emulate much of what was found in Ocarina of Time, and I appreciate Zelda titles that have their own unique musical flair.

Although the show was to consist of only four movements, two more were quickly revealed to be coming. Yes, spoiler alert, a concert got some encores. The first was a longer and more varied take on Ocarina of Time's Gerudo Valley theme, a tune which I felt no personal attachment to but which seemed to receive a warm welcome from the crowd. For what it's worth, the song was fun and the accompanying video amusing enough to keep me entertained through the movement. As someone whose first Zelda title was actually Majora's Mask, though, I felt as if I lacked the passion for the song that much of the crowd seemed to show. If I had to guess, I'd say there were many in the audience for whom Ocarina was the first step into the series. 

Luckily for me, the second encore movement stoked up those nostalgic flames. A surprise Majora's Mask movement closed out the night, one which, according to producer Jason Michael Paul, was requested specifically by passionate fans over email, Twitter and Facebook. Although I had a sort of love/hate relationship with Majora's Mask and its three-day cycle as a child, there was nothing I didn't love about the game's soundtrack. Equal parts mischievious and menacing, the movement made for a wonderful chaser to the more standard Zelda fare of the previous tune. Majora's Mask is Zelda at its wildest and weirdest, and that off-kilter swagger that comes so easily to Skull Kid was in kind reflected and refracted through the prism of the live orchestra. 

As the opening of the game played out onscreen and Link clung desperately to the leg of Epona, Skull Kid at the reigns, I was transported back to Christmas of 2000, and my first experience with a Zelda title. All the adrenaline from what was at the time a harrowing scene came rushing back into my veins as if it were still Christmas morning and I still a 9 year-old child. For me, it was another of the night's best moments, although many others probably experienced similar moments during different movements.

It's that flexibility that makes 'Symphony of the Goddesses' a must for any fan of Zelda. There's a magical power to the show capable of transporting every single person in the audience to a different time in their past, that fateful day when they first plugged a Zelda game into their console. And while it's a shame that there wasn't time to cover some of the more obscure handheld titles like Minish Cap, or even the recent Skyward Sword, it's safe to say that the games represented on stage for the most part encompassed the audience's "firsts," and an air of passionate nostalgia could be felt rushing through the crowd. 

Speaking of which, I'd be remiss to close discussion on what was ultimately a mass gathering of fans without mentioning, well, the fans. While the orchestra buzzed and crackled with energy throughout the night, it was the audience which often kept the energy high. Dozens of cosplayers roamed the halls during intermission, including one particularly detailed Ganondorf that clearly took hours of pre-show preparation to perfect. StreetPassing was at a premium. And engaging conversation was always right around the corner, since everyone was at the show for the same reason. Even the show's staff bristled with passion for the series, a point which was driven home when conductor Eimear Noone used none other than the Wind Waker wand itself to conduct the game's movement. As a huge fan of the game, I know I won't rest easy until I hold one of the awesome replicas in my own hands. 

Nintendo's 'Symphony of the Goddesses' concert was more than a moving evening spent with a thousand or so lovely fans, though. On a grander scale, it and performances like it are a passionate affirmation of the hobby we have so lovingly nurtured for all our lives. The night's performance was emblematic of the beautiful art and loving community that can arise from gaming, and of the passionate emotions that we associate with some of our earliest and brightest gaming experiences. It's just icing on the cake that the show itself happened to be beautiful, original and full of surprises.

If you're looking to get in on the action, there's still time. The 'Symphony of the Goddesses' show will be touring at Milwaukee, WI's Riverside Theater on January 26th, Sydney's Opera House on February 1st and 2nd, and Portland, OR's Arlene Scnitzer Concert Hall on March 16th. For dates, times and tickets, check out the symphony's official website.