One drawback to just about any music game ever made is the limited song selection. Even the best titles will limit you to playing a small set of songs the developers think are worthwhile – and there’s always the possibility of a company taking all the good stuff out or deciding not to support expansions. Even with like downloadable music for games, the player will never have every tune he or she wants available. We live in an age when, for less than a dollar, you can legally own any single song you want for use just about anywhere, without having to listen to the other nine songs from an album if you don’t want. With the release of Phase for various iPod models, gamers now have a rhythm game where the soundtrack is entirely up to them.
Veterans of Harmonix games like Amplitude, FreQuency and the Guitar Hero series will be familiar with the basic interface of this title. There are three vertical tracks on the screen, with circular targets at the bottom. While a song plays, notes will travel down the tracks, and you must hit the corresponding button on the click wheel when they reach the targets. There are also sweeps, a series of dots that pass between the tracks, which you earn points for by sliding your finger along the outer wheel. Each song is divided into sections, in which you need to earn a certain number of stars; combos of successful hits gain credit towards stars (with more for sweeps and special, glowing blue notes), while misses reduce your rating.
Phase has two game play modes. Quick Spin is a simple run through one song of your choice. Marathon takes you through five songs in a row from a single album; you choose the first tune, and the game selects the other four randomly. You can’t do a marathon if the song you pick is from an album with less than five songs uploaded. In both cases, you start with four hearts, and lose one for each star by which you fall short of the goal; you lose when you have less hearts than the number of stars you are to lose. You can regain hearts by exceeding the goal, at the same one for one rate, and during a marathon, you get a heart back after each song. There are five difficulty levels; easy, medium and hard are available by default, while you must unlock expert and insane by completing marathons.
Getting music into the game is simple. After downloading the file, a new playlist will be added to your list on iTunes. Dragging a song or group of songs into that playlist will create step patterns for that song at each difficulty level. The process is fairly time-consuming, so it’s best to start the process just before bed or going out (if you ever do so without your MP3 player). After the conversion is done, the game and all its files will be synced with the rest of your data. You can only have 1000 tracks at once, so players with large collections won’t want to just dump anything on there. Also, tracks are limited to 30 seconds to 30 minutes; the former ensures that there will be time for notes in each song, while the latter prevents Dream Theater fans from wearing through the skin on their thumbs during a single hours-long game.
The lifeblood of any music game is its soundtrack, and Phase does not disappoint in this regard. This title comes preloaded with seven songs, good on their own, but just enough to whet your appetite. Highlights include the hard rocking “Nightlife Commando” by Harmonix favorites Bang Camaro and Speck’s so-bad-it’s-good “The Theme of Awesome”. Of course, to get the most out of the game, you need to add your own music, and the game plays it back at the same quality as your iPod will when simply playing the song. The few random beeps from the game are mildly annoying, but can mercifully be turned down or off easily enough. Cheers and boos greet you at the checkpoints, where they won’t distract you, and the music volume goes up and down with your combo. If this game doesn’t end up with the best soundtrack for any you’ve ever played, you’re doing something wrong.
The graphics are good, considering the small space available to work with. The notes are large and colorful, making them easy to see even on a Nano’s tiny display. Unfortunately, there’s nothing either in the notes or on the stage itself to tell you what is exactly on the beat rather than 1/8 or 1/16 off, which can be a problem at higher difficulty levels. Backgrounds consist of a half-dozen stylized worlds with the same few features passing by the player every few measures. There’s nothing visually that will really wow you while playing the game, but neither is it hard on the eyes.
Apple didn’t need more things to motivate people to buy from them instead of any other company for their MP3 playing needs, but Phase is a can’t-miss application that should move quite a few extra units. The game’s minor flaws are far outweighed by the ability to put any music into the game and have it play as well as any built-in track from other rhythm games. If you’re not sure if you’re going to buy a portable music player or whether to go with an iPod, this title should convince you. If you’ve already got one, download this title – it will likely be the best $5 you spend on games in a long time.
