While the music genre has ample representation on the App Store, it’s still somewhat rare to find games that actually do a good job creating dynamic levels based on your song library. Synesthetic [$1.99 / Free] looks to join the group offering a psychedelic experience based on your current song of choice. While there’s plenty that Synesthetic does right, some minor annoyances and setbacks keep the title from further excellence.
Like a lot of music titles, Synesthetic’s objective is pretty simple. You travel along an ever-moving rail with a variety of obstacles littered across the path. Your goal is to avoid the obstacles, accumulate as high a score as possible, and simply enjoy the ride. You’ll be traversing the musical roller coaster using your iOS device’s accelerometer capabilities. A simple left or right tip rotates the lane in that direction, with the controls actually working pretty well for a tilt-exclusive scheme. Gameplay-wise, Synesthetic feels more visualizer than actual game, but there are a variety of modes to try and keep you engaged.
If Disco Kitten [$0.99] teaches us anything about rhythm games, it’s that they don’t need any licensed music or any fancy gimmick controllers to be good. Instead of being the next “rhythm” game that gets lost in the shuffle, Disco Kitten is a game that focuses on the music as an enhancement more than being the core way to play the game.
Where Disco Kitten begins to shine is in the energy collecting, which happens to be what you’ll be doing for most of the game. You just tap where you want your cat to move, and he’ll collect the energy from an assortment of tanks as they fill up. This is where the challenge comes in, as your kitten will be killed if you are on a tank while it's being filled.
Tapulous returns to the iOS music scene once again with Tap Tap Revenge Tour [Free], the latest in a string of TapTap Revenge games that stretch all the way back to before the App Store even existed. While Tour offers the same basic gameplay with new tracks (as well as a decent backlog of free and premium songs in its store), not much else has been improved upon or changed, save for the addition of a new freemium-based mode.
For those unfamiliar with the series, Tap Tap Revenge is a rhythm game that follows in the footsteps of Dance Dance Revolution with players tapping notes along three lanes to the tune of whatever is playing. Tour does do a lot to shake up the basic formula as taps, holds, swipes, and shake moves all return with little in terms of actual changes.
Honestly, there’s not much a rhythm game has to do in order to make me happy. A nice selection of tap-friendly tunes, decent UI, and adequate replayability features are the extent of my wishlist. For its part, O2Jam U [Free] manages to satisfy two of those three criteria, making it a satisfactory addition to the genre in my book. More importantly, O2Jam U manages to unveil a new wrinkle with the inclusion of freemium elements, a somewhat unique addition to song-based rhythm games.
If you’ve ever played a rhythm/music title on iOS you should be familiar with the gameplay in O2Jam U. Simply put, select one of the 16 currently available songs and earn the highest score possible by tapping out notes coming down the screen. Play results are scored on a grading scale and gems are awarded which can be used to purchase different tile patterns for each song. The tile patterns are a nice way to extend the life of each song, but I didn’t like the fact that patterns weren’t one-time purchases for songs.
As much as we may not want to admit it, a game’s style goes a long way—especially in a market as crowded as the App Store. With so many games from so many developers, the right icon and the right visual presentation are often the be all and end all of standing out from the pack. And while those of us who love games know that graphics don’t make for a good game, it’s hard to ignore the allure of stylish games.
That’s why I jumped on Brandnew Boy [$3.99], the latest action RPG from Oozoo. Sporting the Unreal Engine and a beautiful cel-shaded art style rich in color, the game is instantly stunning—especially in motion, where the smooth framerate and fast action prove to make an already-attractive game even more gorgeous. Much of the attention the game has received is because of its presentation.
Thankfully, unlike some pretty-yet-disappointing games out there, Brandnew Boy manages to delight in terms of gameplay, as well. It’s certainly not the best action RPG on the platform, but its unique combat controls and hearty adventure make it worth a spot on your home screen.
When we first found out about Kotomon [$2.99] recently, I was excited for the possibilities especially considering that some of the developers at Monstars consisted of folks from Q Entertainment (Lumines, Rez). Unfortunately, reputation alone is not enough to carry this simple music platformer with iffy controls.
Kotomon follows the adventures of a cute red monster of the same name as he searches the world for other monsters. Gameplay is divided into levels and has you navigating Kotomon and his companions across the terrain, battling monsters of various strengths until you reach a campfire, signifying the end of the level. A three-star system grades your completion with points awarded for faster completion, combos, and the amount of food your companion eat (littered across each level).
As you progress, Kotomon will meet new monsters (which are hatched by finding eggs), each with their own abilities and attributes. While the help menu provides small blurbs in each monster, i still found it a but vague for trying to figure out the differences of some of them. Regardless there's enough there for strategy in later levels when you have the choice of choosing who to bring with you in a level.
The platforming itself is enjoyable for being a simplistic title. Levels are usually divided into battle royales with tons of combat or terrain based missions with obstacles that can block or kill your companions. There's an interesting dynamic of keeping tabs of your companions while simultaneously using them as weapons of destruction. The difficulty also cranks up in the latter half of the game for gamers that enjoy a challenge.
One of Kotomon's features is a dynamic soundtrack affected by the actions of your Kotomon. For example, launch a monster at some baddies and the beat picks up temporarily for each enemy dispatched. Extras notes are also added when taking on more powerful bosses.
Other than those little nuances, I didn't really find anything particularly special about the music features. True, watching the enemies and your monsters dance to the beats of the song is quite adorable, but it's hardly game-changing. If anything, the emphasis on a dynamic soundtrack means that you'll be hearing a lot of simple tunes until you get into the thick of the action.
By far, the biggest issue I encountered with Kotomon dealt with its frustrating control scheme. Kotomon utilizes a floating, non-static virtual joystick for movement, which means that movement is always relative and can lead to the joystick sliding all over the screen. Compounding the problems are the shooting mechanics, which are solely based on the direction of your character and just feels unintuitive. For me, this lead to a lot of misplaced shots primarily due to the controls which range from frustrating to level-ending (especially with levels that contain lava which can instantly kill your companions).
The control issue feels amplified when you start to get to later levels with enemies that actively seek you out. Since aiming is based on the direction of Kotomon, you'll find yourself in a constant predicament of running away while trying to turn around to launch a shot before turning back to avoid dying.
Other facets of Kotomon simply felt average. The visuals were a mix of cell-shade for the characters coupled with bland backdrops and a heavy dose of particle effects. Meanwhile, content felt a bit light once you get past the star ranking system.
Maybe it's just a case of irrational expectations, but I was a bit disappointed in the overall package of Kotomon. It feels less like a music/rhythm adventure and more of a simplified platformer with frustrating controls and little in terms of variety. The cute monsters and somewhat catchy music are sure to appeal to some but folks looking for the next great platformer may want to pass.
Late last week The New York Times published an op-ed debate titled, “Hip, or About to Break a Hip,” a discussion about whether 45 year-old skaters are “embarrassing and risky or inspiring and life-affirming?” Opinions ranged from “inspiring and life-affirming,” to “... do something productive: become an ultimate fighter, get your G.E.D., date an 18-year old.” Um, wow, guys.
Appropriate then is the release of Brisbane-based IV Motion’sPenny Time [$0.99 / Free], which flies in the face of that rather unnecessary conversation. Shorn of the skating genre’s mechanical trappings, the game is allowed to focus on the sport’s anarchistic roots. Its reply, “Who gives a #$%*?”
Penny Time announces its care-free absurdity with a series of vignettes that see the player character using a Penny skateboard, crashed like a meteorite from the heavens, to freeze time and subsequently summon some spirit animals in the form of a pig, dodo and porpoise. Right. So, the player is off on his or her quest to skate through a series of time-frozen environments with the aid of the aforementioned Ghost Dodo.
So, this morning we learned that EA Mobile had sent out a popup notification to users of the original Rock Band [$4.99] for iOS effectively stating the game was shutting down at the end of the month. This naturally drew universal criticism from gamers and left me wondering one thing: why?
If EA wanted to stop the online support for the game and instead focus on the newer and better Rock Band Reloaded [$4.99 / $9.99 (HD)], well I can understand that. But the message clearly said the game would “no longer be playable on your device” after May 31st. It seemed pretty lame to not just leave the game playable in an offline way for those who had bought it and/or spent money on the IAP songs.
Well as Polygon reports EA has responded to the situation, issuing the following statement:
"Rock Band for iOS will remain live – the in-app message users received yesterday was sent in error."
"We apologize for the confusion this caused. We're working to clarify the issue that caused the error and will share additional information as soon as possible."
It seems highly dubious that this whole thing could have been one big accident, especially since the iOS Rock Band is listed on an EA support page as having its connected features discontinued after May 28th, and a comment on our previous post points to an EA representative confirming in a help topic on EA's website that the game would no longer work after May 31st, but that topic has since been deleted. Perhaps their intention all along was to drop support for the online features, and the strongly worded “no longer playable on your device” message was the mistake. Either way, this reeks of damage control rather than an actual mistake.
Either way, Polygon notes that EA is looking into what caused the error in the first place, and we’ll let you know if there’s any more news on the matter. For the time being it looks like iOS Rock Band-ers will still be able to rock out on the go.
We just learned this week that one of the pioneering forces of both the freemium pay model as well as real-time online multiplayer, Eliminate, will be closing up shop later this month. Well according to RockBandAide.com right on the heels of that news it looks as if EA Mobile will be giving the same treatment to the original Rock Band [$4.99] iOS game, which we thought was pretty good when it launched towards the end of 2009.
The original Rock Band was usurped by the superior sequel Rock Band Reloaded [$4.99 / $9.99 (HD)] in December of 2010, so it’s not totally surprising that EA would want to focus on the newer version. However, for a game that many people have likely spent a good chunk of cash on by buying new songs through IAP, not to mention that it launched at $9.99 to begin with, it seems sort of crazy that EA would flat out make the game inoperable.
At the very least you would think that EA would be able to just leave the original Rock Band alone, so those who bought it and paid for IAP songs can continue to at least use it even if future updates aren’t in the cards. Perhaps there’s a reason for this, like a licensing issue with the music, but at any rate if you’re still a fan of the first Rock Band on iOS you’ll have until May 31st to continue enjoying it.
Servers being shut down and dropping support for games isn’t a new phenomenon, but in the increasingly more digital age of video games you’ll just have to keep in mind that the experience might be finite unlike physical copies of games which will last for eternity as long as you have the hardware to play it.
Note: I'm leaving the links for both Rock Band games in case you already own the original and want to re-download it for safe keeping, but obviously it won't work after the end of the month. If you want a Rock Band game for iOS go with Rock Band Reloaded (for the time being, anyway).
Late last year Wild Chords [$4.99 (HD)] knocked my socks off. In a nutshell, it's an edu-tainment game that utilizes the microphone on the iPad to pick up the chords being played on a guitar. It works great, too. I was more than a little surprised that in a few hours of playing the game I went from never having touched a guitar before to actually being able to play a few (admittedly very basic) tunes.
Piano Dust Buster [Free] seems to accomplish the same thing, with two significant differences: Obviously, per the name, the focus is on the piano instead of the guitar. Additionally, the game features a virtual keyboard of sorts, so unlike Wild Chords where you need a guitar to play, you don't really need a piano to jump into Piano Dust Buster.
I think these music-centric edu-tainment games are seriously just fantastic, and really wish they would've been around when I was a kid. I couldn't even guess how much money my poor parents dumped into sending me to piano lessons when all I wanted to do was slam my head (and heinously under leveled party) against Gurgu Volcano in Final Fantasy. Had there been some piano gamification to be found in the 80's, well, I could potentially be a world famous concert pianist right now.
Piano Dust Buster is free, and I'm really curious to hear back from anyone out there with young kids and a piano to see how they take to the game.
Circadia [$0.99] looks like a meditative experience, but that's a lie. The elements are all in place for a soothing time: a minimalistic design, gently ringing music tones, a wide expanse of black and nothing to distract you. That just means it's devilish; this is a practical joke. Rather than lulling you into a centered state of mind, it will take all the attention you can spare. Expect to have your eyes and ears fully occupied. For an ultra-minimalistic rhythm puzzle game, Circadia is intricate.
It's also gorgeous. The stark, elegant aesthetic is a big part of its draw. Each level consists of a black field, a faded level number and a nearly imperceptible menu button. Otherwise, there are dots: white ones that can't be manipulated, and colored ones that can. Touching a colored dot plays a single note and sends out a circular pulse, like ripples in a pond. The level is complete when the pulse hits the white dot.
Conceptually, it's hard not to fall in love with this one. Graeme Devine, and his studio GRL Games, are working on a... spiritual successor of sorts to dance game Space Channel 5. It's called Dance City, and it's looking to leverage story, attitude, and dancing. In our meeting with Graeme today, he expressed his extreme love for narrative-led games, as well as quick-to-play titles with "one more time" hooks. Extrapolating, we're guessing Dance City is going to try to have all of these things.
It's early, so we don't know much. On the other hand, we do have the following image, which clearly reveals that Dance City will feature a strong protagonist, and a dance-for-followers mechanic, which should be pretty radical:
We'll keep our eyes on this as it hurdles to release and bring you much more as soon as possible.
Simogo's new office. Look how busy these guys are!
Simogo doesn't make games like most studios. It doesn't do design docs, meetings strike it as silly, and it doesn't get rattled when something isn't working as intended or a game needs to be delayed. It can be different because its games are the product of an improvisational style of development that sheds structure when it impedes an organic flow of ideas, analysis, and feedback. Simogo calls this "jazz development." It’s a good name.
Simon Flesser and Magnus "Gordon" Gardebäck are the two dudes behind Simogo. They’ve been working together for over five years across two different companies. They make mobile games now in Malmö, Sweden. Their office is a lively place with a pine-colored floor, a massive window, a radiator, and rainbow colored throw rugs.
You could say we've been looking forward to Simogo'sBeat Sneak Bandit [$2.99] The developer announced it just a few months back in November, but it feels like we've been waiting forever. After all, these are the folks that made Kosmo Spin [$0.99] and Bumpy Road [$2.99] two fantastic (if divisive) games, so who could blame us for a little eagerness? Now that the wait is over, you've gotta ask: does it live up to the hype?
And I have to tell you that yes, it totally does. I don't know of any other stealth rhythm puzzle games, but I'm pretty sure Beat Sneak Bandit could take on all comers. Every aspect has been expertly crafted, from the high level game design down to the details of the menus. Oh, and you guys? It's so very, very fun.
You should check out the trailer if you're mystified about the idea of a stealth rhythm puzzler, but here's the scoop in broad terms. You play the Beat Sneak Bandit, breaking into the mansion of Duke Clockface. He has, for undoubtedly nefarious reasons, stolen all the clocks from Pulsebury. He's kind of a jerk like that, I guess. Your job is to take back all the clocks without being caught.
Sick of dual-stick shooters? Gunning down spaceships lost its shine? I hear that. But let me just say this: unless you're really, truly, and utterly sick of the genre, you really shouldn't miss Beat Hazard Ultra [$0.99], an outstanding music-generated shooter from Cold Beam Games.
It has a few problems - awkward menus, fiddly controls, limited music sources - but I can't think of a more compelling reason to grab a pair of virtual sticks and let the bullets fly. This version is just about on par with its PC and PSN counterparts for a fraction of the price. There's no better way to light up your screen with insane strobes of gorgeous color. Just mind the photosensitive seizure warning, because it's not kidding around.
While the music genre has ample representation on the App Store, it’s still somewhat rare to find games that actually do a good job creating dynamic levels based on your song library. Synesthetic [$1.99 / Free] looks to join the group offering a psychedelic experience based on your current song of choice. While there’s plenty that Synesthetic does right, some minor annoyances and setbacks keep the title from further excellence.
