Yasuo Yamate (山手 安生, Yamate Yasuo - April, 14, 1957), better known to SNK fans as Tate Norio, is a Japanese music composer and audio enginner who was hired by SNK in 1986. Before working for SNK, he composed soundtracks for many games such as Sonic - The Hedgehog, Ninja Gaiden series, Final Fight series, Contra series and most other games. Also helped in the composition of music from Street Fighter II, Super Hang On, Shadow Dancer and other games.
He actively tries to make his compositions match with the personality of the characters, using any musical genre that he deems necessary. He personally likes his symphonic tracks the best, but is often called for various rock or jazz arrangements for the games he's assigned. King of Fighters fans will best recognize him for his wild saxophone arrangements in Arashi no Saxophone, token theme songs for Iori Yagami. He still works for the company to this day but on a more freelance basis.
He comments in the Samurai Shodown NeoGeo Collection interview that his favorite characters from the series are Nakoruru and Basara because of how challenging their themes were for him to compose.
SNK Works
- Cyber-Lip
- Sengoku series (I~II)
- Football Frenzy
- Last Resort
- The Ultimate 11 - SNK Football Championship
- Metal Slug series
- Crossed Swords
- Round Trip RV
- Fatal Fury series
- Art of Fighting series
- The King of Fighters series ('95~2003; XII)
- Samurai Shodown series (I~III, 64, Warriors Rage)
- World Heroes series
- Kizuna Encounter
- The Last Blade
- Buriki One
- Off Beat Racer!
- Cool Cool Toon - also composed song Shine Bright
- Nakoruru: Ano Hito kara no Okurimono - also credited as sound director
- SNK vs Capcom: SVC Chaos
- Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
- Aggressors of Dark Kombat
- Neo Selection
- Neo Geo Super Live! 1994
- Samurai Shodown Image Album
- Fatal Fury Special Image Albums
- The King of Fighters ~ Best Arrangement Collection
- SNK Character Sounds Collection - Volume 11 ~ Iori Yagami (for Monochrome; acoustic guitar)