I love games.
There, now that it’s out of the way, we can get to the point. More specifically, I love music games, as long as their presented in a way that is respectful and keeps things fun. Games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and most iterations of that particular genre were never my thing. However, games that honestly featured the music as much as the visuals and, if you paid attention, made it somewhat vital to gameplay, were really my favorite. The aforementioned games often imitated a feel for playing an instrument but, sadly, left those who couldn’t feeling like they already can. But that’s an issue in of itself. Audiosurf is amazing. Even less obvious are the Geometry Dash games. That said, SongArc is one of my favorite games to come to Android in a long time.
FLASHING LIGHTS!
Originally a Windows Phone exclusive (that had to work out REAL well for them), SongArc has found its way to Android and iOS. The premise is pretty simple. Tap the colored shapes as they cross the glowing barrier at the bottom of the screen. Keep your percentages up to progress and win that round.
Sound familiar? It should. It’s basically how all music competition games work. With SongArc, however, the joy is in the details.
For one, the game looks through the music stored on your phone that you will be able to play and then, if the song is popular enough to have been played before, will present you with what is called a Sheet. The sheet is essentially the gameplay itself. By generating a sheet, you can emphasize specific instruments, beats, or just increase the complexity of playing the game. Sheets can be customized, as much as possible at least, and really bring an element of gameplay that many of SongArc’s contemporaries simply don’t have. I find it impressive and if you’re the type to spend a good deal of time on mobile games, this adds replay to a genre that can quickly get stagnate.
So what do you do if you don’t have music on your phone? SongArc has you covered. Through featured artists and songs, along with a decent dose of in-app transactions, you can play some of the more popular songs on the app. Often you’ll only get a small amount of time before being prompted to spend a dollar or two to keep playing (or at least their version of in-game currency) but don’t let that throw you off. Most, if not all, major mobile games have micro-transactions. SongArc doesn’t seem to let that really bother the overall gameplay. It’s still fun and it’s still quite the beautiful game.
As stated, SongArc is available now on Android and all iOS platforms. Arguably it may be easier to play on a smaller screen like a mobile smartphone, but the tablet will most definitely bring out the bright and flashing visuals that SongArc really has to go along with an excellent bit of gameplay. Do yourself a favor and grab this one ASAP. It’s well worth the time.
