Tag: Puzzle Game

#WeeklyGameMusic: Prime #4507 (Echochrome II)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

This week’s #WeeklyGameMusic may sound like generic elevator music, but is actually a world record holder. That’s right, we’re talking about the single longest video game track ever composed (as of this writing, year 2020, according to Guinness World Records), Prime #4507. This whopping 75-minutes long piece was composed by Hideki Sakamoto for the mind-bending puzzler, Echochrome II; a game developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) Japan Studio.

Echochrome II is a puzzle game where one uses the motion controls to move the light source and create a shadow path from a bizarrely arranged array of toy blocks for the artist mannequin, cast, to travel across. Depending on the angle, some blocks reveal interactive puzzle elements, including springs, holes, tunnels, and of course, the goal of the level. Much like the predecessor, the player has little control over how the cast moves, aside from making it stop and change directions; instead, much of the puzzle solving comes from the cast’s environment.

Echochrome II was released on the PlayStation 3. No other ports exists, as of this writing; though presumably, it can be purchased online from the Sony online store like other past Playstation titles for the modern console. As a complete aside, number 4507 is, indeed, a prime number.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Skate Park Shuffle (Create)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Regulars of #WeeklyGameMusic know I often find some rather obscure game music pretty often. Here’s one from a little-known sandbox game called Create, developed by EA Bright Light. That’s right, we’re checking out Electronic Arts game music this week! Ian Livingstone’s piece, Skate Park Shuffle, is a bit corporate at the beginning, but soon mellows out to a rather calming (and more interesting) conclusion.

A bit like the The Incredible Machine, the most game-like aspect of Create involves the player to use the items and tools available in the pre-made levels to push, nudge, and navigate an object from point A to point B. Much of these levels take place in the 2D plane to provide a simpler interface, though lanes of depth can be added like LittleBigPlanet. And of course, much like LittleBigPlanet, Create allowed players to create and share levels online, though as of this writing, the servers has long been shut down.

Create was released on PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac. As far as this writer can tell, there does not appear to be a way to purchase the game online easily, but the official game page is available here: ea.com/games/create

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Noisy Notebook C (Snipperclips – Cut it Out, Together!)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

I said we’ll likely revisit Calum Bowen’s wildly creative compositions. And here we are: this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic is an arrangement from Noisy Notebook C levels in SnipperClips – Cut it Out, Together! by SFB Games. Like many other games with fantastic adoptive soundtracks, SnipperClips changes its arrangements as situation changes in this cooperative puzzle game for the Nintendo Switch: below is just one composition that plays at one specific moment in gameplay in what is otherwise a very complex music.

While SnipperClips itself doesn’t have much in way of a story, its development is far more interesting. A London indie team put together a prototype known as FriendShapes during a short game jam session. Much like the final product, it features two shapes with legs that can cut each other out, creating a new collision shape. After winning the GDC Europe Innovative Games Showcase, SFB Games attempted to pitch the product to various publishers. As it turns out, Nintendo took the most interest in the game, and of course, sold it as a launch game for their latest console, Nintendo Switch.

This thoroughly English title is a puzzle game where two players control each shape, Snip and Clip, to handle a number of tasks. These challenges can include cutting each other out until they make a specific shape; moving a ball into a hoop; and blocking specific circuitry in a web of wires. As mentioned earlier, both players are armed with the ability to cut each other out using their own shape, as well as reforming themselves back to the original shape if needed. Complexity is added in later levels when certain objects reacts not only to your character’s shape, but your own controller input.

SnipperClips is available on the Nintendo Switch. No other ports exist as of this writing.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Always Been, But Never Dreamed (Tetris® Effect)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

This week’s #WeeklyGameMusic is a start of a spiritual journey. This transforming song, Always Been, But Never Dreamed — composed by Noboru Mutoh and Yukitoshi Kihana, and sung by Kate Brady — marks the end of the incredible experience, Tetris® Effect, developed by Enhance Games, Monstars, and Resonair. Besides, it’s Tetris®; what could you be afraid of?

Much like prior Tetris® entries, Tetris® Effect is a block-based puzzle game where the player rotating and dropping Tetrominos — shapes consisting of 4 squares — into a grid in hopes of creating a horizontal line of blocks. The biggest twist this entry introduces…is the virtual reality experience. Co-produced by Tetsuya Mizuguchi of Rez and Lumines fame, and designed for Playstation VR, Tetris® Effect has Tetsuya’s patented visual-auditory experience. Just imagine being surrounded by a colorful, zen environment where every detail in the game reacts to the slightest change the player makes. The video above merely provides a preview, an emulation of how the track might be presented to the player; but it’ll likely change based on how they actually play.

Other inspirational features this entry adds includes actual levels, speed progression that more closely follows a narrative arc — e.g. speed increases in the rising action stages, then provides a breather in the falling actions — and the Zone mode, where the player can “stop time” to create as many lines as they can. Once the Zone expires within a certain time limit, all the lines are accumulated and scored as if the player created it all in one block drop.

Tetris® Effect is available on the Playstation 4 and PC via Epic Games Store. It’s compatible with PS VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive.

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