Gamersledge SoundShapes ReviewGamersledge SoundShapes Review
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Gamersledge SoundShapes Review

Sound Shapes is a Playstation 3/Vita bundle that you buy once and instantly have both places.

Describing the game is both difficult and easy — it’s a platformer at its roots, but has such a tactile audial response as you play it, turning it into a musical experience as much as a game.  Created by Jonathan Mak, the creator of one of the earliest Playstation Network titles, Everyday Shooter, this game seems like a natural extension into music creation.

Gameplay:

Levels are chosen by ‘Albums’ of 3-6 worlds by different artists like Beck, Skrillex and more.  Each one has their own difficulty curve and feel.  You are a small ball/blob that sticks to certain surfaces, and have to collect blue orbs throughout the levels.  Each orb adds a note to the song.  Anything red in the level (like the wrecking ball from Beck’s level below) will kill you instantly if you touch it, respawning you at the last checkpoint you touched sans any orbs you’ve picked up since then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can also …run…go faster…turbo/whatever mechanic you’d like to call it by holding down square or R1.  This makes you un-sticky.  With leaderboards (and times that are outrageous to figure out how they did that), there is plenty of repeat play opportunity.

There are also two modes to the game:  Play and Create.

I’ll let Jonathan Mak explain level creation courtesy of the Playstation Blog below, or if you want the summary, skip past it.

In short; Sound Shapes uses a grid format for you to place the notes.  The higher towards the top of the screen you place them, the higher pitch the note will have.  You can also place enemies and other hazards into the level for additional sounds — everything contributes to the music being created. You can have your level be one screen or multiple screens — there is a lot of flexibility.  As you play through Play mode, you unlock the components from each of the artists’ levels to incorporate in your own creations.  This adds to the replayability if you don’t clear all the orbs the first time you play a stage.

Music

In total, this game is basically a sample generator with a limited musical note range that can be used to create different songs.  I have found in the creation of my three levels that it is almost impossible to design the asthetic of a stage first; simply because you have to lay out the notes out to create the song you want and then place the terrain/monsters/etc.  That being said, there was no shortage of beautiful music in the levels that came with the game.

While I would like to see the ability to use user-generated sounds, the selection offered in the worlds that come with the game is adequate.

Here’s a video of one of the Beck levels as a playthrough:


My last word on the music/sound is that you NEED to wear headsets for this game, even if it is just earbuds with your Vita.

Graphics

The graphics are crystal clear on the Vita, and good on the PS3.  From the pictures and videos above, you can see it has a cartoony aesthetic to it, but works well for the worlds you create and traverse through.

Summary:

With the ability to cloud save up and down from Vita to PS3 and vice versa, an entertaining romp through different soundscapes that will most likely take you about 5 hours to beat, and then countless more hours creating your own levels, sharing them with the world and playing other people’s levels, Sound Shapes is a wise investment for your gaming dollar.

(also, if you are a Playstation Plus member, you get it for $11.40 instead of $14.99!)


Skrillex Wonk-wonks. (that’s 8 out of 10 — a great buy)