Shaping Up Your Life | Sound Shapes Review

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">If you are one of the many people shouting out for more PSVita titles &&num;8211&semi; you&&num;8217&semi;re in luck&period; <em>Sound Shapes<&sol;em> will catch you off guard and hook you in with its charm and innovative gameplay mechanics&period; This beautiful piece is a music based platformer that continues to evolve and change as you progress throughout its musical worlds&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">Developers<a title&equals;"Queasy Games" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;queasygames&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer"> Queasy Games<&sol;a> and <a title&equals;"Santa Monica Studio" href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;worldwidestudios&period;net&sol;santamonica" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener noreferrer">SCE Santa Monica Studio<&sol;a> ought to be proud of what they&&num;8217&semi;ve accomplished with <em>Sound Shapes&period; <&sol;em>The game runs perfectly on PlayStation 3 and VITA&comma; and acts as a double-purchase bundle&period; You buy one and you get the other version free&period; This is a good model for Sony and one that will hopefully affect most cross compatible games in the future&period; However&comma; we hope the cross compatibility feature is much improved upon in either a patch&comma; or future Vita&sol;PS3 titles to come&period; Syncing your save progress&sol;trophy progress for either version will occasionally fail&comma; making it not quite as smooth as we would have liked&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;24332" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-24332" style&equals;"width&colon; 590px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;shaping-life-sound-shapes-review&sol;sound-shapes-splash-image&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-24332"><img class&equals;" wp-image-24332 " title&equals;"Scary&period;&period;&period;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;09&sol;Sound-Shapes-Splash-Image-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sound Shapes Screenshot 1" width&equals;"590" height&equals;"331" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-24332" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Don&&num;8217&semi;t get too stressed out&excl; Patience is something you&&num;8217&semi;ll need to adopt in this game&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Once you get into the game&comma; you’ll be introduced to <em>Sound Shape’s<&sol;em> interesting&comma; musical twist on the platforming genre&period; As you bounce your way through the levels&comma; your timing can manipulate the score playing in the background&period; Affecting the soundtrack further&comma; each level is packed with orbs for you to find and collect&period; Everytime an orb is collected&comma; different instruments and tones will be added or phased out of the current track&comma; allowing your musical adventure to expand as you progress&period; We found ourselves heading back through levels&comma; trying our best to collect every orb and be rewarded with the great harmony that is created because of it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But as cute and charming as <em>Sound Shapes<&sol;em> is&comma; it’s not without danger&period; This danger is marked with red&comma; and it’s best you avoid anything painted with this color&period; However&comma; should you find cheating death a walk in the park&comma; you’ll be happy to know that the game features a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Death Mode” upon completion of the campaign&period; This mode is brutal&comma; and it’s unlikely you’ll complete these on your first try&period; In order for you to succeed here&comma; you’ll require an incredible amount of skill and luck&period; Fortunately&comma; the game makes it easy for you to return after every failure thanks to a complete lack of loading times&comma; allowing you to get back into the action quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;24331" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-24331" style&equals;"width&colon; 590px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;shaping-life-sound-shapes-review&sol;sound-shapes-psvita-&lowbar;&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-24331"><img class&equals;" wp-image-24331 " title&equals;"Wow" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;09&sol;06125406&sol;Sound-Shapes-PSVita-&lowbar;-e1346849574564&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Sound Shapes Screenshot 2" width&equals;"590" height&equals;"331" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-24331" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Avoiding the red can be harder than it looks&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Featuring music from artists such as&comma; I Am Robot&comma; Jim Guthrie&comma; Deadmau5 and Beck gives <em>Sound Shapes<&sol;em> a high quality sound&period; The songs from these artists greatly enhanced our time with the game&comma; and made the campaign that much more enjoyable&period; With the game initially announced as a release title for the VITA&comma; it looked like PS3 owners wouldn’t be able to get their hands on it&period; Thankfully&comma; Sony opted to finish up more tracks and port it to the PS3&period; This time was used well and it shows in the quality of the finished product&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Probably one of the most exciting modes in <em>Sound Shapes<&sol;em> is its player created content&period; Users are able to craft their very own levels and upload them to a community server&period; The game offers a more than adequate tutorial on how to create these levels&comma; and exploring all the User Generated Content adds a real lasting appeal to the experience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you want to take a break from creating or checking out all the other player created content&comma; then <em>Sound Shapes<&sol;em> offers one extra mode called&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Beat School Mode”&period; This mode plays a track for players to solve by utilizing the touchscreen pad on the VITA&period; By touching the right notes on the front touch screen&comma; you’re able to unravel the track and finish the level&period; This mode added a neat diversion to the more substantial content&comma; and it’s a good way to take a break from the more taxing stuff found in S<em>ound Shapes&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;24337" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-24337" style&equals;"width&colon; 590px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;shaping-life-sound-shapes-review&sol;sound-shapes-screenshots&sol;" rel&equals;"attachment wp-att-24337"><img class&equals;" wp-image-24337 " title&equals;"Mind the red&excl;" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2012&sol;09&sol;06125338&sol;sound-shapes-screenshots-e1346851697177&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"Sound Shapes Screenshot 3" width&equals;"590" height&equals;"331" &sol;><&sol;a><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-24337" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Trophy hunters take note &&num;8211&semi; the game features a double Platinum&period;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">If you’re still on the fence about this beautiful platformer&comma; then we’d recommend trying out the demo&period; <em>Sound Shapes<&sol;em> is something new and creative&comma; and in a business where risks aren’t always being promoted&comma; projects like these should be applauded and appreciated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; left&semi;">&NewLine;