Grant Kirkhope has had an illustrious career. In addition to winning an Ivor Novello Award for his work on Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, the composer has created music for games like Donkey Kong 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Piñata, Street Fighter 6, World of Warcraft, and Sid Meier's Civilization.
His whimsical style suits more cartoony games, and he's a big reason for Rare's popularity in the late 90s and early 2000s, but he's a serious composer. Having worked with Ubisoft a few times over recent years, I asked Kirkhope if there was any series from the developer he'd like to tackle, and his answer surprised me, saying an Assassin's Creed game would be "a really cool project to work on".
Grant Kirkhope and Ubisoft are forming a strong relationship. In 2017, he created the soundtrack for Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, and a few years later, he did the same for its sequel, Sparks of Hope—including its Rayman-focused DLC, Rayman in the Phantom Shadow. This ultimately led to him getting the gig creating the music for Rayman Legends Retold's Night of the Livid Dead level, which we interviewed him about (and you can read it right here)....
