The words "retro rhythm game" absolutely evoke dread from me. To my surprise however, this unreleased masterpiece is not only just as playable as it was in the 90s, but even more so.
Sound Fantasy is something else indeed. It's a rhythm game that's playable entirely with a mouse. With modern mouse technology allowing for adjusted scrolling speed and the works, this meant I could set my speed to the 2nd slowest option and it felt absolutely perfect in terms of smooth movement.
In fact, everything about the game is accessible. The Pix Quartet and Star Fly modes are rather freeform if one wishes to get their brainjuices flowing, but what really steals the show is Beat Hopper. This can be best described as Q-Bert meets a concert. Clicking on a tile of a different colour or size can affect the abstract world's background, the pitch of the instrument, how long it is played, etc. Not to mention, the number of lines within make it immediately obvious how many times the player is allowed to hop on each square. If the player jumps outside an allowed hitbox, they lose hitpoints but the game is actually very generous, perhaps even too generous. It's easier to show than tell, here I suppose
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1101973056248889344/PERFECT.mp4
The real kicker is that the player has 2 means of progressing through a level; they can either clear every square like a badass, or they can left-click to progress through a stage automatically. This means there is a risk and reward element where the player can either clear with a high score, or save a life to continue. I think the system would be improved if the player was required to return to the center square for the auto-progress, but as is it's my one minor flaw.
Also yes, this means speedrunning the game entails just mashing left-clicks. And that's hilarious https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1101973575579222108/sneedrun.mp4
I've been thinking about this game a lot today. How with the rhythm genre being so non-existent, this could have very well been a breakout hit. It really makes one wonder just how often games came out that could have defined a genre, only to be canned behind the scenes because, say, a publisher didn't think it would make bank. And with how creepy the box art is, perhaps they were right
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1102015917589794916/SoundboxJP.jpg
Sound Fantasy is something else indeed. It's a rhythm game that's playable entirely with a mouse. With modern mouse technology allowing for adjusted scrolling speed and the works, this meant I could set my speed to the 2nd slowest option and it felt absolutely perfect in terms of smooth movement.
In fact, everything about the game is accessible. The Pix Quartet and Star Fly modes are rather freeform if one wishes to get their brainjuices flowing, but what really steals the show is Beat Hopper. This can be best described as Q-Bert meets a concert. Clicking on a tile of a different colour or size can affect the abstract world's background, the pitch of the instrument, how long it is played, etc. Not to mention, the number of lines within make it immediately obvious how many times the player is allowed to hop on each square. If the player jumps outside an allowed hitbox, they lose hitpoints but the game is actually very generous, perhaps even too generous. It's easier to show than tell, here I suppose
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1101973056248889344/PERFECT.mp4
The real kicker is that the player has 2 means of progressing through a level; they can either clear every square like a badass, or they can left-click to progress through a stage automatically. This means there is a risk and reward element where the player can either clear with a high score, or save a life to continue. I think the system would be improved if the player was required to return to the center square for the auto-progress, but as is it's my one minor flaw.
Also yes, this means speedrunning the game entails just mashing left-clicks. And that's hilarious https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1101973575579222108/sneedrun.mp4
I've been thinking about this game a lot today. How with the rhythm genre being so non-existent, this could have very well been a breakout hit. It really makes one wonder just how often games came out that could have defined a genre, only to be canned behind the scenes because, say, a publisher didn't think it would make bank. And with how creepy the box art is, perhaps they were right
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1048770623805079633/1102015917589794916/SoundboxJP.jpg