The Sound Shapes PS3 Demo starts off by introducing you to the controls and the goal of the game. In it’s favor, both are pretty simple. You use one button to roll into a faster moving ball and the left analogue stick to move in the 2D plain. You can stick to many of the “Sound Shapes” that you traverse and you must avoid the red ones. At the end of the level you reach a record player which completes the level. The idea of the game is that you make music as you play. The way that works exactly is hard to explain in text, though the Sound Shapes Demo does an excellent job of doing so in game. I will try to explain it just as well.
The levels are broken up into smaller segments that fit your screen. Once you reach the end of the segment, the game seamlessly switches to the next segment of the level. You can freely go back and forth if you happen to miss a sound orb. These sound orbs are placed in a horizontal order and when the beat reaches that orb the sound is added to the track for the rest of the level. At the beginning of the game there are no sounds. It’s silent until you get your first sound orb. Once you’ve gotten that it’ll play every time the rhythm loops itself back to that part. By the end of the level you’re experiencing the entire song and it’s quite exhilarating. It does feel as if you created the song yourself.
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| The circles are the added sounds. The grey bar is the beat moving across the plain. |
A game like Sound Shapes will live and die by it’s soundtrack. In the demo you only get to experience 2 of the songs. This was enough to determine the quality of every other working part, but left me wondering what the rest of the soundtrack was like. I didn’t expect to be able to play any more songs, but a video showcasing small bits of the rest of the soundtrack would have been nice. The Sound Shapes Demo could have even touted itself by listing how many songs you’ll get to play.
While playing the demo, I often questioned the replayability of the game. Other music games like Guitar Hero have higher difficulties and scores that extend the life of the game. In the Sound Shapes Demo there was only one difficulty and after playing the first two levels, perfect completion didn’t seem like it’d be a challenge. I don’t think Sound Shapes needs these things, but for longevity it does need something. That’s where the Community feature comes in. Sadly, I have little idea what the Community feature is. They don’t let you experience any of it in the demo. All that’s given is a short explanation that basically says it’s where you download player created levels.
The Sound Shapes Demo also shows off the level editor where you can create your own level. It reminded me of LittleBigPlanet. It was simple to use but offered the opportunity for challenge if you wanted to make a masterpiece. Again, this portion of the game interacts with the Community Feature, but the demo didn’t allow me to figure out how exactly. Obviously, I’m pretty sure that if I make a level I can then upload it to the Community server where other people can download my level and vice versa, but it would have been nice to see exactly how that happens. Both the level editor and the Community feature seem to be big parts of the full game, but were mostly absent in the demo.
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| Coooooooooooool |
The music is the main draw of the Sound Shapes Demo but the graphics are quite the treat and complement the beat through and through. I loved the bright colors that saturated the plain as I rolled through. It brought about a sensation I would imagine people have when they go to a rave. Some of the shapes in the world pulsate with the beat which nods the attention back to your awareness of the music. Small things like this remind you that Queasy Games, the developer, knows what it’s doing.
One thing that’s unique to PSN games is that sometimes when you buy it on PS3 it’ll unlock it free for the PS Vita as well. That also holds true in the opposite order. This is definitely a bonus to purchasing the full game but I wasn’t able to find this information anywhere in game or on their website. In the Playstation Store it shows that both items are separate purchases. After purchasing the PS3 version, I found out that indeed the PS Vita version unlocked with it. I was still left wondering how they interact though. I imagine they are the same experience on both platforms but can I transfer the same save file back and forth? These questions certainly held me back from making the purchase.
The Sound Shapes PS3 Demo receives a 7/10. It was a very strong experience but failed to really solidify itself as a must buy. The demo should have included a tease of the soundtrack, a trial of the community feature, and further information about what a purchase would include. I really enjoyed what was there, but with all the questions I had, I was sitting on the fence as to whether I would buy it or not. Luckily, the scales tipped in the games favor because it happened to be on sale for only half the price. If not for that, I probably would have debated too long and eventually forgot about the game.
I would wait for another sale unless you already have a PS3/PS Vita Combo and it has a transfer save file feature. If those two variables ring true then I’d purchase this game for $15 easily.
- lvl 99
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