My Games of 2012, Part 1

I have been putting this off and putting it off more than usual and that's mostly because I've been given the leisure to do so.  It is Game of the Year time, or at least, it -was-, but given that I use the voting over at a few forums, namely the Penny Arcade ones which didn't start until this week (Last Sunday, I believe), to make my list, I've just been stewing on it til tonight.  Tonight, I sat down, I opened a spreadsheet and input the games I'd played last year (well, 20 of them.  I played 21 friggin' new games last year) and began the arduous task of ordering them.  Ranking them from 20-1, wracking my brain the entire time over whether I wanted this game over that one or that game under this one.  Twenty Games is a -lot- of goddamn games, so it makes a hard decision that much more difficult, but I managed to come up with a list that I'm satisfied with even though it was damn rough putting it together.

2012 was a friggin' big year in gaming, because even as I perused the list of games to add to my own, I must've ticked off three or four games at least that I -could- own, that I -could- have played, that I sort of -wanted- to own and play, but there was just no damn time for it.  This last week and a half, I played over five of the games that ended up making my list and that's not because I was -waiting- to play them or anything, simply that it was opportune to do so.  I could swing playing them now and be able to give them a fair shake.  Granted, I did stray here and there last year playing games that I -couldn't- vote for (namely Final Fantasy XIII and Demon's Souls) but there were reasons for those (for the former, so I could appropriately judge FFXIII-2, and the latter because it's goddamn Demon's Souls) and most of these games that I played just recently weren't in my possession prior to December anyway.  Still, I'm stalling now, so I'm going to jump right in this.  As I have twenty games in my list, it's going to require quite a few posts, but I don't want to straggle them out too much.  This first post will have my bottom five, and perhaps tomorrow I'll cover a good portion of the next bit of it over a single post or maybe two.  Just to get them out there and get this done and dusted.

20.  Final Fantasy XIII-2

You're probably thinking, "Woah, hey Mogs, you hated Final Fantasy XIII-2!  Why is it on your Games of the Year list?"  And that is an entirely valid wonder to have.  Because I kind of wondered myself on whether or not it would even show up.  The only thing I had below it was MotorStorm RC (Because fuck that game, stupid goddamn drifting and grumble, grumble) and it would have been a simple matter to leave them -both- off my list, to only have 19 games to cover.  That probably would've been the wisest course to take, really, but there is something important to Final Fantasy XIII-2, much as I am begrudging to admit it.  Final Fantasy XIII-2 was Squeenix's attempt, a real honest attempt, to do all sorts of different things, to go wild after the wildly constrained Final Fantasy XIII, and to improve it.  That they failed miserably, utterly and completely is its own condemnation, but I do have to hand it to them for at least -trying- instead of directly going to the next numbered Final Fantasy game that A) won't be out for like two or three years at -best- and B) will be all sorts of different itself, possibly in good ways, possibly in bad ways, but not very likely to have a lot in common with XIII.

Final Fantasy XIII was a good game mired in bad decisions and Final Fantasy XIII-2 was a bad game dragging down good ideas.  They're victims of their own extreme natures, but that there was -something- good about XIII-2 is enough to qualify it for my list, even if it is the very bottom spot.  There is also a very small (read:  like huge) chance that the voice-work of Liam O'Brien and Laura Bailey in the same game did wonders for its playability when the actual game itself did not.  While it may a bit silly that I would hold either of those in that high regard, in some ways, there is something to be said for production values and the things associated with that, as even the most fun game could be dragged down by less-than-quality voice-overs for the simple fact that you do still have to listen to those at some point, much as you have to play a mini-game at some point (for, let's face it, like most games) or have to really take a look at some of the texture quality at some point.  It's all just to get a general opinion of a game and that is the name of the game here.

19.  Resistance:  Burning Skies

The fact that I played Resistance:  Burning Skies, got the Platinum trophy in it and reviewed it, yet I don't really remember a whole lot about it is probably a good indicator of why it went so low on my list.  At the end of the day, Burning Skies just wasn't a very memorable game one way or another.  It was decent in quality, neither good nor bad and I think that that's almost worse than being bad since it just leaves it to get forgotten as you move on to other games that actually invoke something in you, whether it is positive or negative.  It's only because I actually liked the game a little bit for not being bad that it topped FFXIII-2, for instance and otherwise it was just a game that existed, that I bought and played and then moved on from.    Really, for as much as I like Resistance as a series, that's quite an unfortunate turn of events, but is not, in itself a condemnation of the game.

Burning Skies' only success, really was showing the world that First-Person games can be competently made and played on the Vita.  Because of the way it controlled, with just a little more polish Burning Skies could have been a good game, one that you would speak of when not specifically asked about it, but doing that seemed a little bit out of Nihilistic Studios' abilities.  It's very unfortunate that they then went on to be given the reigns to the Call of Duty game that was similarly tepidly received even though I'm assured that it controlled nicely as well.  Still, people know that the ability is there, we just need somebody that will capitalize on it.  Since Nihilistic is (thankfully) out of the way, having moved on to becoming a Mobile game studio, that leaves them out of the running to make anymore FPS games for anyone else that offers a quick buck.  Regardless, Burning Skies was definitely not a need-to-play title, but I urge you, if you have the opportunity (perhaps if it is free for Playstation Plus), try it out and see that FPS games work on it, because Burning Skies will tell you that, even if it won't tell you much else.

18.  Tales from Space:  Mutant Blobs Attack!!!

Speaking of things free on Playstation Plus, for a little while there, Tales from Space:  Mutant Blobs Attack!!! was one such title offered and I snapped it up, somewhat eager to see what the little title had to offer.  I knew nothing about it other than it was a rather charming little platformer with a touch of puzzle elements and, well, that is pretty much what I got.  Those impressions pretty much put everything on the tin and there's nothing at all wrong about that.  It does make it a bit hard to say much else about the game since...well, there's not a whole lot of depth to it, really.  Even the story, such as it is, is barely interspersed between chapters with no real dialogue, relying on some basic images to convey a basic story of the blob landing on the planet, getting bigger terrorizing everything and so on.

It's simplistic and that's most of its charm really - you navigate levels, eating whatever you can to make yourself bigger so that you can advance, and then you get to the end.  The next level has you eating more things so you can get even bigger and so on.  You start out as something that one might find on their desk and, in short order, are large enough to consider houses something to hop off of like stepping stones, chowing on cows for a snack and pulling in Helicopters for a good meal.  The presentation doesn't necessarily do the scale justice, but it's done well enough that, if you think about it for a moment, it really sinks in.  As it gets more and more complicated, however, as platformers and puzzlers tend to do, it becomes less and less fun, for me anyway, and for that reason, I didn't even bother finishing the second to last and last areas, since I just got overwhelmed with the puzzle elements and just found the levels to be a chore.  Still, it was fun while it lasted, as they say.

17.  Dynasty Warriors Next

If you're even a casual reader of Kupowered, you probably know that I was a man who enjoyed a good Warriors title.  I say 'was', however, since KOEI, in their infinite wisdom, decided it was a good idea to stop making disk-based games solely for the PS3 and solely for the NA region.  Yes, yes, there's that whole story about "Sony won't let us because blah blah blah", but it's a bunch of horseshit and I'll not hear anyone tell different.  As such, Dynasty Warriors Next is probably the last Warriors game I'll be able to enjoy unless they release any new titles for the Vita since their download sizes will probably not be the 11 gig monstrosities that One Piece:  Pirate Warriors, Warriors Orochi 3 and such have been.  Next was not quite the best send-off for the series, either.

While it aspired to be Handheld Dynasty Warriors 7 in a way, it ultimately didn't live up to that specifically because the replayability is mired in a randomized, barebones attempt at an Empires game that doesn't even accomplish a good shake at that.  Still, it -played- mostly like DW7 and that is a very, very good thing.  Beyond that, it kept my interest for a long, long time, though not anywhere near the 78+ hours that would have been required for at least one of the trophies, which would put me that much closer to the Platinum for it, a task which I have fully acknowledged will never happen.  Because I just am not about that.  I don't have that kind of time.  Clearly.  All in all, however, I liked Next even if my opinion of KOEI and all things Warriors has changed dramatically since.

16.  Sound Shapes

I had a lot of fun with Sound Shapes, and in my opinion it was a pretty neat little game, even if 'little' ended up being quite the descriptor.  I'm not sure what gave me the impression, but I expected there to be full albums (which, admittedly would be three songs/stages) as DLC to accompany the post-release of the game and it was only a year later when the game got -anything-.  It was not Album DLC either, but simply new tools to use for music in the creation tool which, while welcome, did nothing to extend the actual -game- itself.  In all reality, that was Sound Shapes' biggest fault in that it just was entirely too short, especially for the build the game had going behind it.  The online community reflected that in dying off fairly shortly, or perhaps that's just me being bitter because the level I created only got 4 plays and none of them were from anyone that reads this, I don't think.  I even showed if off here, though that's only the visual side to it, not the audio, which I thought was pretty good!

Still, Sound Shapes was a fantastic little thing for what it was, and that's really what counts.  The levels were fun and varied, the music was wonderful to listen to, and the package was fully there, even if it was a bit too easy outside of the challenge levels.  If there had just been a little more to it - maybe a couple more albums, it would've rated much higher in public opinion, I think and it would've kept interest for a lot longer than it did.  It's another case of "great while it lasted" and if only it had lasted a bit longer.  If only.  I could say it again and again, but the fact of the matter was that it just wasn't and still isn't.  Maybe the community's put together something fantastic in the meantime, but I'm not sure and I probably won't be finding out since the 1 gig and change of space that Sound Shapes needs is being used up by something else that I'm actually playing.

So that was the bottom five games of my list.  That...that was pretty much the easy part.  It was everything after this where things pretty much got harder and harder to pick as it went along, and I ended up surprising myself quite a few times when faced with all the options I had.  It wasn't like some years where I had x, y and z games that were -my- games, where the rest, I just enjoyed in some form.  No, there were quite a few games that were -my- games, and it was hard putting them in order, though I think I did so in a satisfactory manner.  Hopefully by the end of all this, I'll feel the same way, because man, I'm sure I can regret it and I fear that I might because of how close it was.  Still, that's something we'll have to see about!

"Escape The Factory" is My First Sound Shapes Level

We're going to do something a little different tonight thanks to me finally, finally finishing a project that I claim I will actually finish.  Funny thing, that.  The level that I have been working on in Sound Shapes, "Escape The Factory" is a thing that is done and published and you can queue it up to play with this link the next time you open Sound Shapes, sign into the community (It -works- now!) and bring up your favorites, since that is where things get queued apparently.  Perhaps a subtle hint, hm?  Anyways, if you have a copy of the game, go ahead and do that if you will to at least listen to what I've put together since that's the one thing I'm a bit incapable of offering with my blogpost here about the level.  As promised, and this is sort of what I was getting at in saying music is the only thing I can't give, I'll go ahead and show off all the screens of the level here so you can at least take a look at the style and see if you dig it.  As is probably obvious because of that, this will be a picture-heavy post, so I do apologize if that causes problems.

The first screen of the level, as seen above sets you in what I have styled as a factory which I assure you looks a little more like a factory (or at least a warehouse, perhaps I should've called it that...) in the later screens.  Our little crab buddy offers a little maraca sound to give us a baseline for this screen where the first establishing notes are laid.  They are, as most of the notes in the whole level, fairly easy to get to, as I didn't want to throw -too- much challenge in, because I preferred to have a nice little level to look at, which seems to follow the mood of the actual game itself really well, if I do say so myself.  Which isn't a knock, of course, simply a statement and a preparation for you in that you won't find the challenge you might be looking for with Sound Shapes here.  So, after grabbing the notes, it's a simple enough matter of just...going right to the next screen.

I was trying to go for a sort of derelict look here, what with the shelves almost all knocked over and product laying here and there everywhere, not to mention the faulty wiring in some of the lights that offers quite a bit of danger.  This probably offers the first of two really really not tricky but tricky jumps with the top, right-most note, which requires you to dash and jump pretty near the edge to actually get it.  Again, no real issues and you probably won't even get hit by the electricity jumping for it, but it at least poses the possibility for danger.  For flavor, I have the two coffee-sipping dudes who are obviously people who work in the Factory without hard hats or appropriate attire or anything because nobody -cares- about OSHA, alright?  Anyways, to the right is the next screen, again.  This is a theme, you see.

Once again, we carry over the run-down look with more shelves and product in disarray (I'm not sure what the boxes are actually supposed to be, but short of including sprites for cardboard boxes, I couldn't ask for better) and bring in one of the more notable pieces from "Cities" as well as a dude with a laser because who cares.  I just liked the sounds they offered and there has to be a little bit of separation in justified aesthetic and musical focus.  They offer what I want with the latter, so that's all that matters.  I didn't see fit to add any notes here as the ambient sound of the laser and the Beck vocals did most of what I could hope to add in for this phase of the level.  They're only here for this screen of course (well, in a way), but it makes a difference, I think.

And here is the exit to the factory itself.  I found that I had used the shelves for all my obstacles starting with the second screen and I wanted to bring back the aesthetic of the first screen, if only so that it didn't seem completely out of place.  I'm not really sure what those boxes are supposed to be, to be honest, but they are mechanical whatsits or what have you, and this is a factory, so just go with it.  As you might have noticed on the first screen, or at least do now, I used an outline of sticky material over non-sticky material so that it wasn't that abysmal grey with the red, but also served as something you can traverse.  Also added to keep with the mechanical theme are the two arms that, presumably pick up and sort the various product that seems to be, thanks to the background designs I was able to slap down, all mish-mashed and just fitting the theme of the whole factory itself.  You use these to get up the pipe on the far right, above the second and last piece of music terrain from Cities and above the janitor who has quite a job to do.  The 'flow' machine allows you to get right up to the left-most arm or you can skip it and just roll up the box.  Obviously, you just get to the pipe to get outside.

If there's anything I want to impress upon you from my experience with the editor and with making a level, it's that, if you care about the aesthetic at all, you have to consider the scale of it when you're doing it up.  As you can see, I've got the outside of the factory here and have it basically sheer, with the trashed product and shelves serving as a junkheap to stand upon.  Basically, I picture the Factory itself on the edge of a cliff so that they can dump all the excess right off into the screen below which I will get to in a moment.  And, as you can see in the background, the trash has piled up regardless of what's below, which I think is the primary reason for -why- you wanted to get out of it.  It's all a bit esoteric, I realize, and I'm not trying to sound a snob or anything, but with these types of games where you're only really allowed the minimum of expression, things are left open to interpretation, so I'm giving mine.  Being that I made the level, I think it matters a bit.

This is where the trash sort of ends up when properly dumped - a place to be slagged.  This is where the above clouds come from (which you can traverse) and, despite there being two clouds here, you aren't really going to get anywhere from here.  In fact, if you're on the cliff where my Blobby Guy is, you might just have to throw yourself to the molten metal below to get back up where you're supposed to go.  The proper developers did this type of thing too, so I don't want to hear complaining now.  Still, as I said, this is not where you want to go and instead want to jump off the cloud from the screen before this to the one on the right.

With any luck, jumping off the cloud will land you on the left-most cloud here.  They conspicuously make a path that leads up and to the right and you just jumped a screen to get here, so, that's pretty much the case here as well.  You might notice that in the background, the rubbish has subsided a little, and that's because it's the edge of the hill of crap, so it's tapering down from there.  Replacing it as the pretty background is the clouds and wisps with some sparkly stars at the top because it's nice.  Really sort of sells the whole "You're free of the factory" aspect, which is what I was going for.  Of course, it's pretty easy to land on that cloud that you're supposed to land on, so before checking out the screen to the right, let's take a look below.  Obviously if there's clouds here, there must be more slag, right?

Right.  Once more, there are clouds here and once more you're kind of delaying the inevitable by relaxing on them as I'm doing here.  The slag goes off somewhere underground which may or may not be a -thing-, but much like the other portion of it, you have it bubbling a bit and steaming, but not a whole lot else.  The hill of rubbish does still taper off here, which isn't entirely noticeable, but is enough, I think.  So, dead end, let's go back up and to the right for the penultimate screen of the level.

Proper jumping will land you here on this patch of rather dry looking grass (thanks to the colors, but I liked the sky, so I went with it) along with the only real signs of nature you've seen in the level in the form of some ambient sound creating flowers.  There are no notes, and you might have noticed that I never really repeated any of my notes, so it's about this point that I started letting most of it taper off.  It's a different sound throughout the level that way, but I think it makes for a progressive song as well, if you can call it that.  I'm no musician, however, so it might just be noise.  Regardless, it seems fitting for the nature screens to let that sort of thing sort of drift down.

And here's where it ends.  Much like the screen before, it's just a tranquil looking bit where even more of the notes have faded away, leaving you with just a few stray things that, I think, sound pretty fine.  It's a pretty simple concept, I admit, you escape a Factory and end up in Nature which is....kind of obvious, or at least thematic enough that it seems the obvious place.  It's not ground-breaking or anything, nor am I willing to say that it's awesome, but I'm proud of it regardless.  I think it sounds pretty good and looks pretty good, so that's all that matters for me.  For going on with little more than a crash-course and messing about with the creator, I think I did pretty good to establish something clean-looking at the very least.

Thanks for checking this post out if you read to this point and really took a look at the pictures and such.  With any luck, it plays decently to people who aren't me and hopefully, showing off this here might have interested you in checking it out.  By all means, if you did, let me know!  I need feedback so I can get better as a maker in preparation for LBP Vita.  Again, sorry if all the pictures were a problem, but, well, I wanted to show them off.  And at least they were a little better realized than my first attempt with it that you can see here.  I messed with that damn screen for about a third of the time as I did the whole level, I swear.  But that's the one that gives you the first impression, so that was the point of it.

Bleh Post - Some News and Whinging

You might have noticed, but for the past few weeks, I've just been in a constant state of 'bleh' and I'm not quite sure why.  Well....I could produce some very sound theories, of which include Summer troubles, allergies (or possibly being sick on-and-off) and all sorts of other stuff that I'm not getting into, but that's not really the point.  The point is that it's kind of been affecting my writing, I believe, in that I find it a bit harder and harder each night to come to the table, as it were, and put down something that I'm happy with.  When posts normally would take me a few hours, they've taken in excess of five on a few occasions this week, and with such prolonged writing times due to not being able to focus, I'm sure it's shown a little.  Knowing that I'd probably not be able to get out of this slump without acknowledging it, I'm going to go ahead and do that so it's not something weighing on the back of my mind with the hopes that it'll let me move on.  So yes, apologies if the quality seems to have suffered (when I actually get a chance to write instead of feeling miserable or storms making it impossible to do so) and with any luck, just coming out and throwing that out there will help me get out of it.

In a further effort to raise my moods, I'm pointing out what is basically a superfluous news point about LittleBigPlanet Vita to reaffirm to myself that the game is a thing and will be coming out at the end of next month and I just cannot wait.  If messing around with the Sound Shapes editor has taught me anything, it's that I can be a real perfectionist when I have, essentially, all the time and ability to be, as I do with a handheld, so hopefully I'll be able to effectively branch out beyond just writing a thing every night in terms of content creation on a broad scale.  Not that it isn't great to be able to do this, but I sometimes feel myself withing I could do something a little more tangible - something like a Let's Play which is just beyond my means.  Making a -thing- and showing the inner workings of it (As I have attempted to do with my game that is still being worked on, I swear) is that next step of things to bring in under the umbrella as it were, and I can imagine getting further and further along with that when it comes around.

Now, that out of the way, the piece of news here is that LittleBigPlanet Costumes are going to be cross-compatible, even moreso than simply LittleBigPlanet 1 costumes working in LittleBigPlanet 2.  You see, not only will you be able to use most of the costumes from LBP2 in both LittleBigPlanet Vita and LittleBigPlanet Karting as a way to stay comfortable in the game, or just make your style choices 'known' if you become 'big' in the community or such.  The costumes that won't make the cut, it seems, are the Assassin's Creed costumes (Ezio from AssRev and Ass2) and the April Fool's Costumes, but the only thing mentioned is that they will not make it to Karting with no mention of Vita.  The April Fool's Costume, I can understand as it has a specific animation attached to it that simply won't work in a Kart, but I'm not quite sure about the Assassin's Creed costumes.  Maybe the wristblades get in the way of the wheel or something of the sort.  Again, I can't tell if not making it to Karting means it won't make it to LBPV either, but I suppose we shall see.

The costume migration won't be immediate, of course, as there are a -lot- of costumes at this point, so they'll have to be rolled out gradually after they've been remade and such.  Something else that is a bit up in the air is whether it's simply DLC costumes, or if we can expect all the costumes, ala LBP1 -> LBP2 that we've gathered to show up.  (As in, costumes you simply gain by completing the main game)  Perhaps with a little save connecting or the like, we might see it, or if that sort of thing is flagged server-side, then it is possible, but I really have no idea.  I will be slightly sad if I don't get to use some of the vanilla costumes from LBP1 and 2, but between the Sony Licensed Costumes I have (Metal Gear Solid, God of War, etc.) and the others that will be in the game proper, I won't worry too much.  I'm sure I can find -something- that I like to have my Sackboy run around in.  Regardless, it's good to see that the things that people have actually -bought- for one game continue to make it across to the newer games in the series; something that other franchises should really take heed of.

Speaking of Sound Shapes' editor (as I did a couple paragraphs back), it shouldn't surprise you to know that I have been working rather extensively with it, tweaking and perfecting little bits here and there of a level that I am working on.  When it gets to a state that I'm pretty happy with, both in look and sound, I'll be taking some pictures, publishing it, and writing up a little post about the whole of it.  My experience making it, stuff I figured out, possibly showing you the 'preferred' method of getting through it and the like.  Not that it will be something amazing or even close to it, but it will be something that I definitely worked on and in no small form - I have been wracking my brain for hours trying to figure out what comes next in the musical part of the game, and figuring out how to make it mesh with the level design I have.  It's....a balance, to say the least, and I think that will be a little more clear once I can shed a little more light on it.  With that said, though, time to get back in it; borders that you can stick to aren't going to make themselves, after all.

Platinum Get - A Discussion

This might be a topic that I have covered before and if it is, I do apologize for reiterating things, but I imagine I can bring a few new things to the table, as it were, since I've been thinking about it recently.  Or, rather, ever since I got the Platinum for Sound Shapes which, despite my bitching about Death Mode, seemed to come entirely too easily.  And it's basically that point which has been the driving point behind the conversation I've been having with myself ever since I got that, my twentieth Platinum trophy.  It's certainly a little refreshing, I'd say, but I'm not certain if that's a good thing or not, really.  Honestly, the whole thing just has me rethinking just how I feel about the trophy system as a whole, or at least re-thinking the way I already think of it, which is, and remains, mostly positive.  Still, it is a bit different when you're handed trophies in the way that Sound Shapes gives them, instead of how others (read:  Most games) do.

Most games treat their trophies as progress markers within the scope of the game, things that you're handed for reaching certain milestones that the developers, for whatever reason, simply want you to experience.  Whether it's just handing you a trophy for beating this stage, or for doing a certain thing a certain amount of times, it's generally just about doing something specific that is either within the spectrum of the game, or slightly outside of it.  In that aspect, Sound Shapes is entirely on that same level, and when I say entirely, I mean entirely - the entire trophy list of Sound Shapes is basically just progressive since you get trophies for beating Beat School and Death Mode trophies and little else.  (Beating the Campaign and the Platinum are the two exceptions, though hardly so)  I guess the argument could be made that, in essence -all- trophies and achievements are progressive, but I will try to make a case otherwise.

The other types of trophies are generally outside the scope of the game, in that it's not simply rewarding you for -playing- the game to its pre-destined conclusion.  These are more free-form, of course, being things that are handed to you for skimming below the surface, as it were.  For games that provide creation tools, you generally get something for attempting and contributing to it, either by publishing a level or even just saving one, assuming that you will eventually put it out there.  Otherwise, these generally point to the quirks that the developers decided to include or reward you for finding easter eggs or things of that nature.  inFamous 2 is the most notable example of this that I can think of, with their trophy "Don't Fence Me In" that points to the curious lack of ability to scale chain fences in the first game.  It is, of course, entirely possible that you could get through the whole game without getting that (I believe) as it pertains to a specific thing that you are not automatically guided to and expected to do.  These aren't to be confused with the trophies that cover the miscellany, as that is a different subset.

The miscellany subset is generally the things that cover progress done outside the scope of the general game.  You'll do parts of these in the main game, but usually they're designed so that you'll need to go out and actually work for it, or that it simply requires several playthroughs.  What comes to mind with this is [Prototype]'s "Trail of Corpses" trophy, which requires you to kill exactly 56,596 Infected which is not only a crazy large number, but a crazy specific one, which throws it back into miscellany.  These are generally just there to bait you to continue to play the game so that you stay into playing it and will continue to do so after the trophy is gotten.  It doesn't always work, but the conditioning of it is pretty obvious since the goal is generally easy to attain, but simply time-consuming to do so, requiring you to find a rhythm or a groove with the game that you won't be able to simply hop out of.  These are generally the trophies you're going to loathe because some of them, as the example, are outlandish in their requirements and it becomes less a goal and more a grind to get to it, often becoming a matter of simply not being worth it in the end.

My point in all this is that Sound Shapes list only picking from the first layout offers a trophy list that is all at once satisfying, but perhaps too easily so, which could be said of the game itself, if you paid any attention to my review of it.  As people who play games, we want different things at different moments, so it's hard to quantify one thing here and another thing there since the goalposts end up shifting depending on the context.  For instance, "Knock out 100 enemies with melee" in a game where the melee system is satisfying is much less a chore than one where it was obviously an after-thought.  But I think what we all want is a challenge and an incentive to spend time with this thing that we have purchased, sometimes the combination of both, which is provided to some by the mere multiplayer aspect of a game, and others, the trophies and achievements.  So when you have this Platinum trophy, something that generally signifies a challenge, a struggle through a game (usually a pleasant one, despite our gripings), but you don't feel like you did a whole lot to earn it, it's....well, it's a strange feeling.  I think it makes me appreciate some other lists a little more than I have, because even if some of the trophies are ridiculous, they did try a little harder to make you feel that you've earned this thing that is really not that important or anything.  Since it makes you genuinely remember them, gives you a 'story' to tell for them, like the stories I have for the 19 Platinum Trophies that aren't the 1 I got from Sound Shapes.

Review - Sound Shapes

Sound Shapes is as unique a game as you could hope for after being touted so long and as loudly as it has been.  It also presents me with the unique opportunity to talk about a game that I have Platinum'd the day after I started playing it through no real large amount of effort.  As such, it left me wonder if I should review it or simply do a post about the Platinum as I am wont to do, and I sided with the former because I believe that experience has given me enough of an approximation of the game to judge it, with the fact that it took such a short amount of time being factored into that, and not exactly positively.  Not entirely negatively either, because for as short as the game is, it offers quite a lot to talk about which is certainly an impressive task if you really think about it.  And believe me, Sound Shapes offers quite a lot to think about within the confines of it's short, but pleasurable experience.

Basically what anyone who has played Sound Shapes will tell you is that it is not a music game, but rather a game designed around music which is somewhat of a rarity.....ever.  I can't think of too many games that have musical elements, and of those, it's always more that the music is the point, rather than not.  It's not a rhythm game, it's not a game where you have to hit this and this and this to hear something beyond white noise.  For the campaign side of the game, it seems to straddle that line between being a fully-fledged game and being something that you describe as less a game, and more an interactive thing (I'm avoiding saying 'experience' again) like Flower.  As such, you might find that it's a hard sell and perhaps rightfully so, but, like Flower, it's hard to imagine someone stepping away from Sound Shapes with a negative opinion of it.  Sure, it happens, but these tend to be the outliers rather than the norm, and I've yet to find evidence to the contrary here.

All of that, unsurprisingly, makes Sound Shapes a difficult game to actually sit down and pick apart since it is one of those games that you can't really judge by its parts, because doing so only paints half of a picture.  At the same time, a game is generally what it is, what its parts are and while there is room to discuss just what that does to us, what it invokes and causes, the case is usually always not "I felt so calm while playing the game" and more "The game was easy to play because the controls were thankfully simple and intuitive."  Why I make it such a big deal is because, at its core, Sound Shapes asks us to believe that it is a Platformer game with the very slightest hints of puzzle elements and it is hard to believe it until you start getting into the difficult (read:  nearly impossible) part of the game in the appropriately named 'Death Mode' which is less a full-fledged Platforming -thing- and more a series of very punishing mini-games.  So if you strip that layer away from it, what do you have?

You have something that absolutely oozes style from every single one of its non-existent pores.  Sound Shapes' Campaign is practically a work of art in every screen as you go through the fields and hills of the first album, the Pixelated land of space pictured above, and a city ablaze for the first (and best) of the three Beck tracks.  Every album has its own distinct art style and each one is so well defined, so detailed, that it almost becomes a distraction while playing.  At least, I found myself stopping every now and then to just take a look at the screen, not to think of a strategy to proceed, but just to take in the visuals that are so crisp on the Vita's wonderful screen and run at a framerate that I assume is locked, though I'm not an expert on that.  I can just say that it played smooth for me the entire time and I have no complaints there.  Which is good, since I imagine the 'wonder' might be somewhat lost if the frames started chugging away.

The music is similarly wonderful, though I would say not consistently, as there are a few things that just aren't to my taste; mostly the stuff towards the beginning that is just really laid-back and 'moody'.  Among the best things for me personally were, unsurprisingly, the Beck and Deadmau5 tracks ('Cities' by Beck is pretty much my favorite song/level in the game as is), but I admit there was a particular charm for everything, even if it wasn't in a way that didn't particularly resonate with me.  At least that aspect of the design, the sound and just the looks of the tracks, is pretty flawless, and especially so once you get into the creator and really start realizing just how much of the 'music' is made not with the notes you collect, but with the foes on the maps, the decorations, and just all the little pieces of detail that you might not give a second look to otherwise.  Whether it's the slight maraca sound the flames in the Cities level make, or the definite bass addition brought by cannons or the faulty equipment of the Industrial-like levels that fire off electric shocks.

With that, despite the complexity that it involves of all these elements creating the 'songs' of a level, it's all fairly simple regardless, which is a task that is more confusing to consider than to experience.  Everything just works because of it and I think if anything, that's what I've been trying to impress upon you most with this, is that the elements of the game are not things that are exclusive to themselves nor simply good on their own as is sometimes the case (games touted for their soundtracks above all else, if the only thing, and the like), but they all just blend together to draw you into the game for as long as it lasts.  Which...is also a negative of the game, I would say, since the tracks (hell, the albums and double-hell, just the game itself) are fairly short, so where you might just be getting into a song or something, you'll find yourself at the end of the track and it's time to move on to the next one because there's nothing else to do besides...well, just listening to the music, if you so desire.  Generally at the ending points of the level, it's just a matter of waltzing up to them and finishing the track and usually, you might want to be shooting for a quick time for a high score, so lingering is not a luxury you are afforded.

The simplicity, however, lends itself to the actual gameplay as I've inferred a few times already, which is where the game starts to falter and why it's hard to throw it out there as a must-play game.  You're not especially -playing- it, so much as you are just navigating these set-pieces made of wonder and fantastic music and art, and the only real challenge presents itself later on in the Albums, but even then, death is simply negligible.  There's at least one checkpoint on just about every screen and getting to that is generally the thing you're lead to doing first, even if you're not so inclined to head for them first.  The obstacles, as they are, are generally the mid-points of screens so you'll sometimes get a checkpoint at the front and back of it meaning if you can manage it once, that's all you need.  This pretty much eliminates all of the challenge, as you might imagine, which is good for the game itself considering the theme of it, but -as- a game, it's generally not a thing we applaud completely.  There are exceptions, of course, but Sound Shapes offers itself as a platformer, as I said, so you generally expect it to behave like one.

When it -does- start behaving as a platformer, however, you generally want it to stop, because this is where it kicks into the aforementioned "Death Mode" which only unlocks after you complete the entire campaign.  This is because Death Mode takes one section from a level (sometimes two) and makes a little mini-level out of it by sealing off the exits.  You are given a set amount of time and a set amount of notes to collect and the goal is simply to collect that amount of notes in under that time while not dying.  If you die, you are treated to the rather passive-aggressive message as seen above and given the chance to just try again.  You can and will lose a lot of time on a single level and the payoff is always bittersweet since you know that every other challenge is like the one you just spent all that time trying to conquer.  Rare is there a challenge that does not offer that, so it almost seems like the game is a little off-base with itself, when the campaign itself is not hard at all, where the other facet of it is hair-tuggingly difficult.  There is no curve, simply two planes of existence, and it is jarring to think of them existing as the same game.

Death Mode comprises just about half of the entire trophy list that Sound Shapes offers, handing you a Silver trophy for every single Death Mode track that you finish.  It's a little bit of an odd decision, but it's certainly not one I'm complaining about since you definitely -earn- a trophy with just about every Death Mode track you finish.  I suppose that I'm just surprised at the amount of sense it makes - akin to the look of shock a man in a desert offers when you hold out a bottle of water.  Here is a man who has toiled, has gone without in the harsh environment, and then you hand him exactly what he deserves for his trials and his ability to overcome.  Some of them, like the image I provided, don't exactly feel like it's worth it, however, as the challenge tends to come down to split-second timing and fighting against the game who insists on spawning the notes randomly and depending on the random generation, you either stand a chance of getting the win in the time allotted or you don't.  It is that simple - the game can decide that you simply aren't going to win this round and there is naught that you can do about it.

The other, infinitely more tolerable section that is unlocked upon completing the campaign is "Beat School" which is basically a series of 'challenges' to try and help you get your music ears on and think of how songs get composed.  Giving you a blank sheet in the Creation tool, it provides a simple song and tasks you with re-creating it by placing notes in the places that will give you the sounds it entails.  It succeeds because it is just that - you don't have to mess with placing shapes and terrain, decorations or obstacles, simply recreating music based on just listening to it.  Not being musically inclined, it was quite a boon to me and I found it to be the most balanced part of the game.  It was not too easy nor too difficult (aside from the very last Beat School) and it didn't rely on the game trying its best to keep you from the prize.  Honestly, I wish there had been -more- Beat School tracks and, with any luck, any DLC offered in the future will come with a few extras that make use of the different sounds said tracks in DLC albums will offer.  I could go without more Death Mode tracks, but we are not quite that lucky.

Speaking of the creation tool, I think I'll end by talking of it since I have had quite the positive experience with it, which surprised me a little.  While playing around with Beat School, I contemplated just how complex it was to get the sound you look for when creating, and it was just a little bit intimidating at first.  However, as with most things, the solution is simply to jump in full-boar and mess around until things start working.  The fairly simple menu-based tool facilitates this pretty nicely as well, making it rather intuitive to use once you get your head in it.  I've got a three-screen track being worked on currently and once I get around the logistics of getting the sound I want with the three-screen limitation (notes you place on one screen only carry over three, so the first screens notes cannot be heard on the fourth screen, etc.) I'll be able to publish it, provided I stop seeing this screen.  Such is the price of modern games relying on he internet as they do, unfortunately, as it seems game servers can never -ever- handle stress at the start, but simply seems to be a process that has to be eased into.  Still, I suppose it just gives people like me time to improve their skills at making these tracks as that aspect will be what keeps people playing it a month from now, and not the game itself, unfortunately.

The Good

• The game absolutely lives and breaths style, managing to always be interesting in art and music design
• It's rather simple for the most part of it, allowing you to enjoy the art and music
• Visuals are smooth and crisp
• It is, at times, rather inventive with the actual level design, managing to be genuinely clever
• I dare say that it is a very innovative game, for just how it handles the method of music delivery
• Beat School is inventive and fun, offering a good challenge if you have a good ear for it
• The Creation Tool is simple and easy to use - if I can make something I'm pleased with aesthetically in a few hours, you know it's intuitive
• Offers a unique experience, if nothing else, which we seem to be lacking

 The Bad

• Barely has a challenge to it for most of the game
• Is quite short, both in tracks and albums (Seriously, I know there's only three Beck songs, but they couldn't....do more with them for one or two other tracks?  Remixes?  Hello?)
• When it is not being clever and inventive with level design it's....well, not, and that is far more common
• Death Mode is genuinely frustrating with random note distribution deciding a win or loss more than your skill could hope to
• Seriously, the game is short
• I had to convince myself that Sound Shapes is more a game than an 'Experience' several times while writing this

Mogs Says

Sound Shapes at its best will have you wanting to shout from the roof-tops that it is a wonderful thing and that everyone should experience it, and at its worst, will have you wondering if there is actually enough there to justify the $12-15 price tag.  Some will argue that the short length of the game overall shows off a dedication to the product itself, ensuring that every level was on its own level of quality, where others will say that there just needs to be more meat to the game itself.  It's hard to say which of those people is wrong and which is right, since I find myself saying "If/when Album DLC comes out, it better be free" because I think it will seriously help quell worries about the game.  But the rational part of my head says that it will not be that way, and has me wondering just how I'll feel when that time comes to pass.  If you need a comparison, ask yourself if you liked Flower after buying it for full-price.  If yes, then you might like this, since you probably weigh the experience more than the mechanics.  If not, then perhaps just wait for a demo or a price drop before you take the plunge.

A Very Vita News Dump

So, as per usual of lately, there doesn't seem to be really anything all that huge to talk about, but there are kind of a few teeny tiny things of importance that couldn't really sustain a post themselves, but brought together make something a little substantial and happy.  And we like when things do that.  Because it too does not happen quite enough.  But there's no worry of that tonight and as an added bonus, all the little news bits are about the Vita!  Which you know I like that as well and because of that, I'll be taking the utmost care in delivering the bits here.  If you need a visual aid as to the preparation, imagine somebody who has taken the time to write up note cards, reads from them, and then casually tosses them over his shoulder as he finishes with it.  Because I am totally doing that and you cannot prove otherwise and really, it's just a funny visual nonetheless.

As you might have already guessed, the first bit of Vita news concerns the above pictured Soul Sacrifice.  The much-anticipated game, one that seems to take after Monster Hunter and the Souls franchise simultaneously, has already been announced for all regions which is fantastic, but previously unannounced was whether or not the game would support Online Multiplayer or if it would remain simply local co-op multiplayer, as some handheld titles tend to do.  The game does seem to practically beg for online multiplayer (considering there is going to be a multiplayer portion of the game, online seemed like a shoe-in, but those dice are never counted until they stop rolling, of course) but at the same time, it almost seems to go against the overall theme of the game since, as we know, multiplayer is rarely, rarely ever two to four people totally 'immersed' in the game and the universe, so much as it's people who don't know each other playing awkwardly together, or people who know each other and sort of talk about whatever they want overtop the game.  We've all been there, I'm sure.

Regardless of whether or not it will break the theme and/or mood, online multiplayer has been confirmed, so whether or not you want to really, honestly attempt to get 'into' the game and weigh sacrifice as a real, visceral option with some friends across the country, or if you just want to kill some things with your spine while your friends cheer you on because you're getting them free experience, you'll be able to.  Keiji Inafune would obviously like it if you would subscribe to the former option, stating that with the multiplayer mode, everyone can feel the full weight of what the sacrifice means, emotionally, especially when you play with your friends 'or girlfriend'.  His words, not mine.  Because there's just a ton of girlfriends out there waiting for the chance to play Soul Sacrifice with their partner and they just so happen to both have Vitas instead of just share one.  (Which I don't personally get; buy your own, people.)  Still, the best intentions come with the move, but I'm certain that I'll find myself chatting about Phantasy Star Online 2 and other games with my buddy Kaseius whilst playing the game at some point while we just go through the motions of making things dead.  And I imagine this will be a common scenario.  Still cool, though.

Moving on, it's fairly safe to say that the sidescroller beat-em-up genre has been sorely overlooked in the past years, and it's only with the releases and announcements of such games like Castle Crashers, Scott Pilgrim Versus The World:  The Game and the upcoming Dragon's Crown that we realize the complete lack of attention it's gotten otherwise.  Well, Game Arts, the folks behind Ragnarok Odyssey, has decided to add to the solution with Picotto Knights; a stylish little side-scrolling hack-em-up that will focus greatly on customization and cross-promotion.  Also of worth to mention, or perhaps as a side-effect of the already mentioned, Picotto Knights will be a free-to-play game that will, unsurprisingly, be supported through micro-transactions, likely the bulk of them being design options since that is definitely where the game's bread will be buttered.  Aside from the part where you cut stuff up with a friend and/or AI companion (who will be present if you play the game offline, apparently.  Likely someone who will be customizable as well).

I almost didn't bring this up since honestly, I don't know if this stands a chance of coming out in the West.  It certainly hasn't been announced because it was just announced for Japan, and as it is, I think an announcement of localization would be a while coming just yet.  Being that Game Arts is going to be collaborating with other companies to submit Picotto Knight styled characters (So, as an example, a Picotto Knight version of like Zero if Capcom would be up to collaborating.  Zero being the obvious choice because he already has a sword of sorts and Capcom hates Mega Man.) for players to use and/or customize further possible, that suggests it's going to be very mired in licensing things.  Licensing issues are, if you're not aware, a big big reason that people don't get things in regions other than the original one, since they're enough of a bitch in one region and are compounded exponentially in others.  It is a giant headache that will be a very real issue facing all of gaming, especially in the digital scene, for years to come.

Of course, I would be more than happy to give the game a whirl if it -does- come over here, especially if it remains free-to-play.  I am a big fan of games that have all sorts of collaborations like Picotto Knights is promising, or at least hoping for, so this seems pretty good-sounding.  Even if it has to come as a base and try to attract companies on this side of the pond all over again (or, more aptly, the publisher that brings it will have to, or resort to using their own characters.  NISA, XSEED and Atlus would all be likely suspects in this case, and all have some characters that could make a nice presence in the game on their own) while selling much the same DLC options for the folks who want more than the base game offers or simply wants to support the game itself.  Depending on what shows up and the price on those items, it could be a pretty good market, I'd say, since that seems true for most games that offer the same business model.

With all that said, let's get to something a little more Western-focused, shall we?  The people who are making Sound Shapes have put together the above video which shows off....somewhat....how to use the level creation tool a little moreso than previous videos have managed to do.  Excusing the awkwardness of the guy playing, of course, who seemed like somebody who isn't quite accustomed to being in front of a camera.  That said, I didn't mind him at all, except that I simply wished he'd talked a little more about the creator instead of sticking mostly to showing it off.  That did have the effect of pointing out that it is fairly easy to get used to, and seems intuitive enough, making full use of the buttons as well as both touch screens for finer touches which was welcome enough for me.  Everything available seemed to be quick to bring to your fingertips and it was confirmed in the text of the Playstation Blog Post about the game at least that the things used in the 'album levels' (read:  'Story' mode) will be available for use in the creator after you finish the albums, thus giving the slightest little bit of LittleBigPlanet influence that makes me happy.

It should be mentioned that he did admittedly make a single-screen level, when doing a multi-screen level (other videos, I believe, hint at a sort of go off the edge of screen, get on new screen old school design in that) is possible as well.  His playing around with the blank space towards the end of the video, using the "Ahhhhhhh" bit from a Beck level and loop notes and such did take place on the next screen of the same level, purely for demonstrative purposes of course.  I imagine, as with most things, the levels designed can be as complicated or simple as you want, and being a game that will allow you to play things an online community has made, you can be assured that there will be some rather crazy-cool things put out there.  Personally, I'm taking bets to how many days it takes for 'remixes' of popular game songs, ala Metal Gear Solid theme, Final Fantasy songs, and the like.  Smart money, I think, is on two days.  We'll see, I'm sure, as I plan on getting the game and will probably look for those.

I should point out again that Sound Shapes is one of the few titles that will support PS3/Vita cross-purchase, in that if you get one version, you have access to the other for free, which basically means that you get two copies of the game, being that a digital copy of a game is still -a- copy of it, and not just a 'thing' to which we are all 'entitled'.  The price-point will be $14.99 for North America, but if you're a Plus Member, you get a 20% discount, dropping it down to $11.99.  Being that it is also part of the PSN Play promotion, buying it and other games in the promo (one every week for the month or something) gets you PSN funbucks back which, however you phrase it, is still free money.  Not only is it a cross-purchase title, but also a cross-play title, meaning that levels created with a Vita can be played on a PS3 and vice-versa.  I assume the precision allowed by the Vita version will make it be the version you'll want in this, but we'll just see.  Personally, I just want a new messing around game for my Vita and this one looks like it fits the bill quite nicely.

How Did I Forget About Sound Shapes?

So, being one of the first wave of titles really announced for the Vita (then NGP), Sound Shapes has surely been in the back of all our minds for quite a while.  And there has been news coming out for it steadily since the early stages of the Vita's release, as Sound Shapes, er, shaped up more and more in development, but I suppose I filed them all aside in lieu of not being release date announcements.  But I suspect that it was a little too much, as even when the release date was finalized through the PSN PLAY promotion (August 7th, for those interested, which should be all of you) I haven't really given it too much thought.  So tonight when I was anxiously looking about for something to talk about, I saw the latest news on it, the fact that three new Beck Songs will be in the game, I had a moment where all of that excitement and such that I should have had going for weeks now hit me at once.  So much so that I wondered just how I left it overlooked so pointedly to this moment, but that doesn't matter so much as I am making steps to rectify that now.

In that vein, let's sort of re-familiarize ourselves with the news that has come out about the game in recent memory, shall we?  The biggest news, I suspect, is that some time prior to E3, Sound Shapes was announced to be a PS3 title as well which was sort of a double-edged sword, of course.  People will always complain when a game is not available on another system, as well as when a game is announced for one system, and is then later moved to something else.  Because, in terms of the latter, it makes the original version 'less special' or other such nonsense.  I'm sure others have already claimed that a PS3 version simply shows a complete lack of faith in the Vita to carry the game and blah blah blah, nobody cares.  The upside to this, however, was that everybody, regardless of owning a Vita or PS3 or both, gets to enjoy the game at the same price - $14.99 (or $11.99 if you have Plus).  And when I say the same price, I mean the same price overall, as if you buy one version, you get the other version on your account.  So if you own one system only, Sound Shapes will be there waiting for you if you pick up the other eventually.  Obviously any DLC purchased will work on both versions as well, should you go that route.

Now the question swings to "Okay, it's a game about music, so who all is involved?", which is an easy thing to answer of course, but not exactly a short answer to give.  Attached to the game already is Beck (as mentioned above), Superbrothers, Jim Guthrie (same link) and Deadmau5 who you all might have heard about by now.  Just...maybe.  You know, people who clearly have had no musical impact or anything like that.  (Of course I'm being facetious.)  That's all that has been announced so far and I imagine it might be all that'll be announced for the game proper.  Of course, this is where you have to wonder about DLC and consider that they could technically try and woo just about anybody they want.  It's a musical game, after all, which means by its very nature that it's supposed to be a varied thing in its own build.  While I could suggest a few people I would buy on-sight (Daft Punk, of course), I'm not really going to put down a whole lot here, as I'll choose to simply be surprised.

We know what the game is 'about' in a way, what with all the talk of music and such, but that leaves the very real question of, well, what -is- the game about?  The game is a platformer built around music.  That is the simple answer.  The complex answer is....well....complex.  You'd be best served finding one of the many youtube videos about the game to help you with understanding the concept.  (I'm not linking any here because they're all in the Blog posts I've linked already)  But allow me to try, because when I say it's a platformer built around music, I mean exactly that.  The level creation tools (you can make your own levels, of course) have you make a song first and then you tool the level you make around that so you're running through parts of the song as you go through the level for an interactive music experience.  It sounds -really- cool just as a concept and, after looking at some of the videos, I'm convinced that it works in practice as well.  Because, I mean, I see it work in the videos, especially the Jim Guthrie video, as he goes through the process of making a level.  It doesn't show the entire process of course, but it seems fairly intuitive.

I'm not too sure how successful I'll be in the whole creating music thing, but I'm more than willing to give it a shot, of course.  Being that I'm in Plus and I'm interested in the game, I think $12 for two copies of the game is more than fair and will likely be buying it for my Vita as my new "Play whenever I have a minute" game over Treasures of Montezuma Blitz, hopefully.  Or at least being -one- of said games, since I gotta level with you, I'm friggin' seeing in match-three vision I play ToMB so much.  It's ridiculous.  Getting to enjoy some new music while also playing a new game, a platformer at that, is tantalizing, so I don't see a way I would be able to think I could pass it up.  Let's hope that others feel the same way come August 7th, as I really want this game to succeed, if just because it's a different game, and if just because it's been associated with the Vita since it was announced.  Would be a nice bit of validation, I suppose.