Missing your favorite songs? Symphony turns them into an entire game!
Sometimes we manage to snag assignments that are just incredibly enjoyable, both to play and to share. Such was the case when I picked up Symphony from a tip in ZAM’s General Games forum. An indie game from Empty Clip Studios, Symphony follows in the steps of games such as Audiosurf; by scanning your music library, Symphony creates custom levels based on the tempo and rhythm of the song. What kind of levels? Read on for a few examples and some short clips of my experiences!
I swear, half the fun with Symphony is just replaying all those songs you own but haven’t heard in a while. The gameplay action is somewhat like Space Invaders; you control a “ship” armed with up to four different weapons, with the objective of fighting off an invasion by a multi-dimensional evil force that is trying to enter our universe through your music collection. Your music taste is obviously awesome enough that it attracted outside interest, I guess. I know mine is; between Mmmbop and Barbie Girl, my library was doubtlessly the best way to invade. Hey, story isn’t the primary motivator; the gameplay is.
The game has six difficulty levels (or piano levels, I suppose), which are unlocked after defeating three random bosses in each difficulty. The early levels are not difficult at all and serve as a bit of an introduction to the game; players receive a Song bonus for defeating a wave and collecting a large song note. If waves are killed quickly enough the bonus will stack, allowing for a large amount of “inspiration points,” (which serve as your score) and reaching certain inspiration goals will reward an additional currency called “Kudos” at the end of the level. Higher difficulty levels give much larger Kudos for a reward and, as Kudos are used to upgrade weapon levels, they’re what you’re aiming for.
There are several different types of weapons that can be unlocked after each level is completed. These weapons all have different power levels and ranges, and some are best held back for a strong enemy while others can be fired continuously. At first the standard blaster worked fine, but I soon uncovered the Subwoofer; an auto-firing gun that sends out a powerful song note-shaped bullet that goes along with the bass of the song. While that was spiffy, it was also somewhat unpredictable; it was difficult to make sure a worthy foe was in its path when it fired off. I soon switched it out for some scattershot cannons (less powerful, great range), some blasters that would fire both in front and behind my ship and a rare version of the scattershot cannon that caused increased damage.
Of course, by the time I was up to the third level of difficulty my fancy weapons started to matter much less than my fancy moves. As I jammed out to Flo Rida’s Good Feeling, I finally encountered my first demon attack that promptly kicked my butt. At this point, I’ll either have to play several other songs and hopefully unlock some rare upgrades or higher power level weapons, or I’ll need to learn how to dodge better. Luckily, death isn’t a huge issue: you respawn in several seconds, but lose a few thousand inspiration points. There’s no penalty for dying several times, but if your inspiration plummets through constant death, you won’t hit the level targets and will fail to unlock any Kudos or new weapons. On the plus side, picking up inspiration also heals your ship so, as long as you keep killing ships and picking up inspiration, you can survive several small hits. Bigger abilities (much easier to see) are usually a one-shot KO.
The game isn’t perfect, of course: there is some lag, enemy projectiles can be difficult to see, and I believe some songs can be much easier than others. There were also several times when I felt like I was dying without taking a single hit; it’s possible that I missed seeing my aggressor, but I doubt it. Still, it’s well worth plopping down ten bucks to play through your favorite tunes. Symphony was one of those rare games that I began playing at 9am on a Saturday morning and discovered that three hours had gone by without me realizing it. To me, that’s the sign of a good game purchase! I leave you with a short clip of the level based on my friend Jon Tony's Deli Girl... enjoy!
