The Games We Played is a year end round up of thoughts about games we spent time with.
By Omar (@siegarettes)
When Harmonix makes something, I pay attention. Their contributions to the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises creates a veneer of commercialization, especially after the former franchise over saturated the market, but look closely and you’ll find a constantly refined craft and passion for both music and games. (A bit perfect for our focus here at clickbliss). These are the people who brought both a new Dance Central title and the beat influenced shoot-em-up A City Sleeps to us this year.
In that context, who else would be better to bring us a 2014 update to Disney's Fantasia? Despite my reservations about how successful a Kinect based Disney game could be, I found it worth at least worth paying attention to with Harmonix at the helm. Besides, I needed something to justify my Kinect purchase aside from Child of Eden and yelling at my squadmates in Mass Effect.
Of course, what really drew me in was the tracklist. Leading with pop hits like Lady Gaga’s “Applause” and Lorde’s “Royals”, moving to well known classical pieces from the Fantasia movies, it then spin offs to Queen, Depeche Mode, Kimbra, and…Jimi Hendrix?
It’s an eclectic set for sure, and reminds me of Harmonix’s ability to create something wide reaching in appeal. Thanks to inclusions of tracks like “Enjoy the Silence”, “Feel Good Inc.”, and “Seven Nation Army” even I was able to find some favorites. An appreciation for pop music is required, and the game’s structure does mean you’ll sometimes be forced to play songs you’d rather avoid. Personally, I’d have no problem with them excising anything by Fun or Avicii. Then you get into the remixes.
There’s a wonderful joy in bringing an orchestra to a well known electronic number, or suddenly switching into a chiptune version of a classical piece. A few of the remixes to lean into the electronica a bit too hard (dubstep drops don’t exactly work with “Seven Nation Army”), but overall the remixes bring a fresh way to experience your favorites.
What’s best about Fantasia, however, is how it feels. Fantasia brings the more accessible feeling that Rock Band brought to the rhythm genre and taps into it using the experience they’ve built with Dance Central. The smart use of body gestures to navigate menus avoids the problems that typify Kinect games and shows they’ve put a good amount of thought even to the basic interactions.
Beyond that, the act of playing just feels good. The arm gestures call to mind both the sweeping motions of the The Sorcerer’s Apprentice short from the series’ namesake and the rhythms of the Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan DS music games. Combined with the physicality of actual body motions it manages to capture the kinetic appeal of both motion gaming and rhythm games without compromising either.
I’ve seen it described as the rhythm game for those who lack the coordination for Dance Central, and that feels like a fair comparison. There’s a similar level of satisfaction that comes from nailing a song in Fantasia, but the simpler motions meant I could do it without feeling the crippling self consciousness that comes with the lack of basic rhythm. It doesn’t provide the same fireworks that the animations do, but in a way your body makes up for that.
The detail that would otherwise go into the companion scenes for the music instead makes its way into the world surrounding the songs. Each set of songs has its own distinct world, filled with musical toys and bits to interact with. These are charming in themselves, little living notes of music in the form of animals, plants or percussive pieces of meat (lends new meaning to the term drumstick). It lends the illusion of a living musical ecosystem, each with its own distinct personality.
On that note, Fantasia's Scout deserves a mention. While Yen Sid, the sorcerer of the aforementioned Sorcerer's Apprentice, puts in an appearance, most of your time will be spent with Scout, an amalgamation of the Disney expressiveness seen in characters like Aladdin with the dance crew of Harmonix's Dance Central. Alongside a snarky British narrator (*rolls eyes*), she’ll lead you across the worlds in search of musical fragments and remix spells. She’s a burst of energy characterized mostly by collectible diary entries and a passion for music. More than anything, she serves as a lighthearted avatar for the collaboration.
Like the dance crews in Dance Central, Scout works an example of something that could have easily felt overblown with another treatment. Instead we get a character with just enough history to feel distinct and appropriately modern. That’s the kind of intelligent craft that runs throughout the whole game. Strangely, that’s what keeps Fantasia from feeling as grand as it could have. Harmonix have again created something that is effortlessly enjoyable. Fantasia may not be magical, but it does manage to cast a spell.