Intonarumori

This game has been rated very low on many places, but I can see their reasons. Actually, this CAN be a very good game (sometimes as addictive as lumines) but only if you play it right.

The game basically consists on a board which generates random pieces from the bottom, and you have to move them with a cursor, but you are limited to vertical movements. You have to line them in a way you connect lines between the sides of the screen. You have a button to speed up the piece's generation (and thus moving the entire board) which is really necessary if you want to enjoy the game.

The gameplay can be really boring if you don't play it to the limit, though. Each time you complete a line, the board board advancement stops, and you aren't able to make it advance, so you have to wait 5 seconds for the pieces to explode. If you make the line as soon as you can, you will find yourself without pieces to move, more likely, so the way to play is to keep enough pieces on the screen to make the connect the highest number of pieces during this time, making a combo, which means cool sounds/background effects and points. These seconds can also prove quite valuable on the fastest maps, where the pieces pile up incredibly fast. So basically, you have two choices to play this game, the boring/relaxed one, or total adrenaline one. I prefer the later.

It does haves various faults, really. It's too difficult. Single player requires 3+ hours of continuous playing, and a single error makes you lose and start from the beginning. The game can also be really monotonous, if it weren't for the music, thats where we see the synaesthesia concept shining. If you can't enjoy the music/visual aspect, this game will not last long for you. You will have to move the cursor in this game, A LOT. Good thing is, sound cues are added to the movement (single step, or continuous) adding to the level's music. There are sounds for the piece switching (different for empty, single piece or two pieces), sounds for vertical or horizontal rush, and a scaling sound for the each piece closing the line. There's a sound for completing a line (varying depending of the size of the combo), another for the board movement and a special sound for clearing the entire screen. The alarm sound doesn't adds to the music though, but seems it's that way to warn the player he's about to lose.

Compared to Lumines, the music in this game is much more technoish, and the tracks are long enough so you can actually hear them advancing. The music sounds/music fusion is a little better too, there are levels where you wont notice you are making the music still you keep your cursor totally quiet. Seems you don't move the cursor like this on the DS version, so that would a minus for me. So basically, the music keeps your mind flowing, pumping each of your cursor movements, which are A LOT, and if you can't get your energy from it, you most likely won't be able to complete this game. (another reason it's not a game for everybody).

The single player is rough to complete in one sitting, but I do recommend trying it like that. This game is much more tensing that Lumines, considering you can die at any second, and sitting trough the 3 hours of increasing pressure (including the tension of having more time in risk with each minute it passes, in case you lose) gets you into an trance-like state. That's enhanced by the distinct themes of the songs you go trough (there's a really trippy part at the midsection of the game, actually).

The skins in the game are really varied, and the quality varies a lot. Some use 3d effects, while others appear to be made on flash. There are also some stylish graphic tricks in there.

There's also the detail the game doesn't saves automatically, so watch out.

Here's a Gameplay video I recorded, as I didn't found videos on youtube on youtube long enough so you could "get" into the song. It also shows 2 other gameplay modes. Double skin, where you can get an interesting DJ feeling, changing quickly between two moods, and the 10x10 board mode, where you can go totally crazy combo.

So that's it, it's a fun game if you aim toward making combos all the game, and enjoy the techno music throughly.

For the record, I do play mainstream games too, but they are reviewed a lot already, and don't really go with the theme of this blog.