Symphony

Well...I would talk about Kingdom Hearts. I am bursting to do so but...umm...I wanna do it as a video. I can do that when my coursework ends. Which will be soooooon. It's more fun like that. I think it deserves it.

So...

[size=+1]Symphony[/size]​

I have to confess something: I really like these Music-Generated games. It's a simple idea but the fact that I like to listen to generally high energy Rock anthems, every single game is like the Death Star trench run if someone had stuck on some Queen. They can get very compulsive to just give them one more go.

"I am a sex machine ready to reload. Like an atom bomb about to oh, oh, oh, oh, oh explode!"​

But I can't say I play them for very long.

I agree, I enjoy them but I'm really not enough of a music buff to get regular use out of it. I play with it, go "Oh, wasn't that good?" and put it down again. I'm not really turned off, I just don't feel like listening to music. Neither do I usually feel all that happy to play an Arcade style game over and over usually. So, I've played and then left games like Beat Hazard and Audiosurf. Perfectly good games but they've rarely held my attention once the initial novelty has worn off.

Symphony fares a little better.

You know how Beat Hazard is sort of Asteroids with Music Generation, power ups and more than just rocks to fire at? And Audiosurf is a kind of Musical hybrid of Guitar Hero and about 7 other puzzle games? Well, Symphony is music-generated Galaga, set in the Tron movies and a little bit of ship customisation.

Oh! And there's a thin veneer of a plot too. Just to spoil you, it seems.

Symphony is vaguely about demons attempting to invade the real world through your music. As inconsiderate as it is to try and burst into this world through my copy of Appetite for Destruction, the head honcho of these guys has also overstepped his bounds a bit. He's enslaved the souls of a load of composers and forced them to create something called 'The Symphony of Souls' for evil purposes. It's your task to free the souls of the enslaved composers, render the Symphony of Souls useless and stop the digital demons from bursting through into our world and...umm...mess up our music collection? No, it's more likely devouring everyone's life essence and sucking our planet dry like an orange. They're inconsiderate like that.

As you can guess, this manifests itself as shooting little ships that sweep across the screen with movements and ship types controlled by the music's beat and various other stuff. You have a space where your ship can move that enemies can invade. Your ship has four positions for weapons that also get more powerful along with the intensity of the music.

Before we go anywhere with the meat of these types of games, can I please, please congratulate Empty Clip Studios on giving the main baddie demon front and center to talk and attempt to psyche you out. The Main Baddie is so much fun! Seriously! He has a minimalist appearance but he's still effective. The eyes and red background matched with that bizarre, wavering, glitchy voice makes for a villain that's simply fun to despise. Look! I'll show you!

[video=youtube;bXyyP7Db9JQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXyyP7Db9JQ[/video]​

Oh! I'm sorry, this is the other place I know this set up from: Crash Banicoot 3: Warped. You see, if you've ever played this game at any length, you'll know that the Playstation isn't exactly capable of intense, lengthy cutscenes to push the characterisation of each of the bosses. Plus, it gets in the way of the game, which you sprint through with as few stumbles as you can manage. So, in order to ensure that each of the villains maintain a presence throughout the game, they appear in between the levels for a few minutes. They chat to you, give you an idea of what their like and advance the plot. That is so effective because you have your target: you have to take the talking head down as best as you can. It's just effective.

And Symphony has it too.

"That had better not be 'Dark Side of the Moon' your using as a coaster!​

I like effective character design. It doesn't need much but this thing does nothing but pump you up. And that's all it needs to do.

OK, so gameplay! I like it. It's simple and fun while offering some nasty challenge if you're ready for it. The music generation seems fair. More manic songs produce far nastier levels than the quieter ones but each one will have surges with every chorus or solo, meaning that the feel of the music and where it rises or falls will help you deal with the enemy ships, of which there seems to be a decent variety of. I like it. The bosses are also pretty creative and entertaining.

Basically, if you've played Beat Hazard, this will be instantly familiar. You shoot ships with your ship. It's not hard but it is well done.

It all depends on what flavour of shooty-shooty-music-action you prefer: glowy-neon blue or fireworks display. Either way, your graphics card is likely wetting itself.​

What is different is how the game hands unlockables.

Beat Hazard was simple. You earn XP and it makes you stronger as you use it to buy upgrades. It's simple and it's quick. The upgrades are almost entirely necessary and they are all handy so it makes sense.

Symphony does things Skylander's style!

Trust me! It sounds weird but I know what I'm doing!​

You see, with other music games, you only get new levels. Which is clever in of itself but Symphony goes one better and gives you a procedurally generated unlocks when you beat each new stage the first time as well, with the chance of gaining a rare variant of what your song unlocks. Usually, my copy of X&Y by Coldplay would be a disk of DLC for just extra maps but in Symphony, it's a booster pack of ship weapons too. I think that's really clever as there is a greater incentive to play through your music to see what you unlock and hope for something rare because they tend to be way more powerful. This seems like a smarter move than Beat Hazard that only has one neat trick. Symphony has a present every time you complete a level. Hard to say 'no' to.

To me, a bunch of easy levels, new weapons and some relaxing alternative babble to meander through. To you, likely the realisation why I never review music despite the radio sitting right up there.​

That would be it to be called clever but it doesn't end there as you can also strategise how each weapon is used. On top of currency being able to buy upgrades in power for all your guns, Symphony asks you to be careful with what you go out with. Each weapon has it's damage outputs and it's little idiosyncrasies for how it deals them. Some need a charge before they fire at full strength, some are just a constant fire sort of weapon and some will only fire in relation to the music. So, you have to think about the song and what is likely to appear in there before strapping your weapons on and heading out into battle.

But! You also have to consider your gun's firing angle and spread. You see, there are only four gun spaces on your ship and they can be swivelled to a certain degree. The two closest to the cockpit can only shimey a little left or right while the weapons on the wings can shimmy with a larger distance. By default, all your weapons will be facing dead ahead but you can make them spread out to lay down a bigger range of fire and ensure you don't miss. Or, you can focus all your weapons on one spot to maximise damage. Some weapons can even be made to fire backwards to cover all directions you can. Believe me, that's handy. Nopony likes being insta-killed by a ship you didn't see coming for your rear end.

Remind you of anyone?​

It's certainly not perfect but most of the complaints are either with the genre in general or nitpicky. Like no multiplayer option. Not required but might be enjoyable, however I can see this being more of an individual centric thing. Could work but it's not necessary as the Beat Hazard one seems awkward when you both have to have the song to play. Then there's a playlist function. Would be an absolute gem of a feature to include, me thinks. Kinda figured it would be a no brainer but, ah well.

Everything else is just sort of me going 'meh' to the game just generally but I think it's more the difficulty of the later difficulty levels thats putting me off, not necessarily the mechanics. They're decent, solid and hold your interest to plunder more goodies. It's just a case of finding the time to sit, pick your favourite tunes and blast some neon-demons till the goodies stop dropping.

Seriously, if you enjoy Music-Generated games, pick up Symphony. They seriously did good work on this one.