Sparks & Shadows release Bear McCreary's score for Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie. The film is inspired by the famous Atari video game burial of 1982. Atari produced a game based on the biggest blockbuster movie of that year, E.T., and rushed it to meet the deadline for the Christmas shopping season. It was a commercial failure and millions of unsold game cartridges were buried in a desert landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Coincidentally, it’s not too far from Roswell, the landing site of a different kind of E.T. The Nerd sets out on a quest to find and review this video game – finally giving his fans what they have long desired – and leading to hilarious consequences...

Bear McCreary's score for Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie is both a loving tribute and a soft ribbing of '80s game and rock music. It contains 20 tracks (1 hr, 18 min, 13 sec) and covers various genres of music.

There's a handful of cheesy period based pop/rock tracks ('Nerds Before Birds'; 'Barcade'; 'Sacred Ground On The Golden Turd'; and 'The Angry Video Game Nerd Theme Song').

In addition there are more conventional orchestrated tracks. 'The Story Of Death Mwauthzyx' opens with what appears to be a homage to Dave Grusin's music for The Goonies. Other highlights include the beautiful 'Zandor's Tale'; the first half of 'Howard Scott Warshaw'; and 'Birds Before Nerds'.

There are also a few tracks that hark back to '80s electronic movie scores ('Nerd Nightmares'; 'Save The Fans'; 'General Dark Onward'; and 'Death Mwauthzyx Rises'.

Then there are tracks that are based on 8-bit game music ('Theme From Angry Video Game Nerd - The Movie'; 'The Landfill'; 'Humvee Chase'; and 'Source Music Medley').

It's an unusual, but entertaining album. For young fans of the film this will be a novelty purchase, but for those of us who grew up in the '80s, this will be a nostalgic reminder of what the golden years of video gaming.

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Darren Rea