Anomalies
SUMMARY: A graphical toy to make weird, surreal spacescapes and the oddities that inhabit them, from playing with sliders to just randomziing items. On top of that, you get odd soundscapes that play along. A way to just mess around, or a way to create relaxing - or disturbing - backgrounds on your computer or tv display.
Anomalies is a graphical toy that some may call a glorified screen saver - fortunately it’s both!
Basically you can randomize or set a bunch of parameters, that then make surreal spacescapes that you can watch while strange music plays. Depending on your choices, you might watch stars circle by as you observe a nebula, be caught among strange particles, or hover in front of a bizarre tentacular space creature. Or a combination.
– Real player with 31.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experimental Psychedelic Games.
This is a really interesting piece of software. It is good to have around to either dip into casually or have a longer session. There can be some nice surprises. I just came up with a not very spectacular creation from the visual point of view, but it has a very nice ethereal sound. Tweaking parameters and hunting and rummaging are great fun. I have got some more choices of wallpaper too.
– Real player with 26.0 hrs in game
Hexagroove: Tactical DJ
Hexagroove is probably the most interesting and exciting music game I’ve ever played. It’s a rhythm game made by people with a deep and obvious love of electronic music and the culture around it. It plays in a unique and intuitive way that makes it simple to make some kick ass music. Honestly, I never knew how much I needed something like this in my life.
Unlike other rhythm games which rely on quick reflexes and tapping along to the beat, most of Hexagroove’s gameplay centers around layering different instrumental loops. If you’re the kind of person who likes to play a game for the challenge, then it might not be for you. Most of the fun comes from putting together the different pieces and finding a solid groove, then adjusting it and playing with it on the fly. There’s room for a lot more experimentation and playfulness than in games that emphasize skill mastery, like Beatmania or Audiosurf. It offers some mini-games and an obligatory campaign, but you won’t find anything too taxing except on the highest difficulty. I’ve made my way through the whole game on each difficulty level, but most of my time is spent in free mode just jamming out. I’d hesitate to even call Hexagroove a game. It controls like a game, and it’s got levels, achievements and tricks to perform for style points, but it plays more like an instrument, something you can play to make cool music, without any of the hassle of having to learn to beatmatch or how to use an MPC.
– Real player with 19.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experimental Electronic Music Games.
Even with my short time in the game thus far I think it’s incredibly cool. I’ve not seen or played anything else like it. From the viewpoint of someone who doesn’t (yet) make music, it’s about the closest you can get to actually mixing and producing your own tracks while still also technically being a game.
It’s a lot of fun just to play around in, and I love that the game encourages that. More than once I’d be vibing with all the loops and samples in the practice mode, finding out my favorites and which ones work well together before remembering, oh yeah, I have a set to go play, maybe I should do that. It’s double cool that incorporating real life mixing and songwriting techniques and theory affect your performance and score. Also you can have a Psytrance rave deep in the forest.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Overpass
Phew, what to even say about this game besides that it is amazing.
The art, the gameplay, the music. It all works together to create this concise but beautiful journey as you play through the original levels. Learning and mastering the game’s fundamental mechanics and the gameplay principle before inevitably showing up at the final level. (The game does a fairly good job of teaching you of this without any tutorials besides basic controls but this also mean that some people won’t pick up on certain things. It may be enough to ruin some people’s ride overall just cause the levels get too difficult for them. No there isn’t much to learn, it’s just the fact that
! the object’s position in lanes is correlated to their movement or positioning. This is taught in the Forest Region and used even more on the Plains Region. )
– Real player with 1169.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experimental Level Editor Games.
So I’ve been playing this game for a while now. Around 200 hours by the time I’m writing this review. Here are my thoughts
This is a casual rhythm game. If you’re a hardcore rhythm gamer like osu! Don’t expect this game to be hard as you think. Although you can make it hard as you wish.
The most common complaint I’ve heard is the obscured notes. And I actually see this as a good thing. It’s a rhythm game from a new perspective. Which the reason why it’s a casual rhythm game in the first place. It’s on the music, Not completely on the visuals. You have to have combine your sense of rhythm WITH visuals. Which most rhythm games often doesn’t do. It’s absolutely brilliant.
– Real player with 269.3 hrs in game
Lily
Please add copy and pasting
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
OK so. If you’re looking for a powerful sequencer, this is not the program your looking for, very few instruments, and a rather cluncky way of setting it up with all the extra pads and links you have to do. But if you just want a hella pretty looking and sounding game to just mess around with to show basic music stuff. I can no recommend this more, it is so beautiful and what little sounds are there are just amazing.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Yi and the Thousand Moons
Bought this game during the sales for around one € (euro); which should be the price for this game considering the duration of the gameplay…
BUT, when not considering the full price of € 2.39 and just looking at the game itself; then this game brought me totally back where “Dear Esther” took me all those years ago… the creation of a totally new genre. Where the game “Dear Esther” invented the storytelling / walking simulator, this game brings us the interactive musical. Even your footsteps create music (it took me some time to discover that as it’s done so gently that you almost don’t notice it).
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Yi and the Thousand Moons is obviously made with so much passion that I get drawn into it immediately. It has to be said from the beginning of this review: this is a game centered around music, and you should make sure you like the music and singer in the trailer before you buy. The rest of the review is for you who like the music but still aren’t sure if you want the game.
The gameplay is basic, a walking simulator with a few instances of simple interaction. The graphics is a mostly empty world populated with a few block people, block houses and a block shamisen. Yet your brain is a pro at filling out those gaps, and the game looks beautiful within the constraints it operates in. And you know what else fills out the world? Music. We’re here for the interactive musical ride. The interaction is that you do different simple things to prod the music along, there are no choices or anything fancy like that going on. Yet to me it feels satisfying to release an arrow and hear the characters start to sing when my arrow hits its (non living) mark. The music fills the entire world and sometimes sends shivers down my spine. One song in particular gives me goose bumps every time. The game is short, and I keep coming back to it for replays to listen to the songs again.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Synthesis Universe -Episode 00-
Definitely more than 15mn contrary to some reviews!
(More content was added after initial release)
Some users don’t pay attention and miss most of the experience.
This is not fast food, this is not a game or a thing you have to try to speed run.
Why not taking some slow time in there, relax and enjoy the show?
Many interactions are hidden, delicate and add replay value, there is even a secret ending.
This is not for everyone:
If you are a gamer in a hurry: don’t buy it.
If you are looking to be fully immersed surrounded by music and FXs, enjoy every polygons, music notes and pay attention to the cues and the cryptic story… then go for it.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
A truly beautiful experience. The detail and the complexity of everything around you is so amazing, and the music makes it all come alive. Lots of genuine “wow” moments.
I can’t wait for what’s next in this universe.
Edit:
One tip for players is to look up in the “menu” area. I think you need to view the main story part first to unlock them, but there are three pentagonal flower shapes above you to the left and right that open up and take you to other scenes/modes. I had no idea until I read the store page that mentioned the added scenes. Anyway, I was very happy to discover this.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
RHYUP
RHYUP is a challenging, 5 button rhythm game with shmup elements. Defend your home planet as you take control of a spaceship and move and shoot to the beat of the music while weaving through an onslaught of eye catching, enemy fire and boss fights all set to an amazing sound track of 20 unique songs and levels, each with 2 difficulty settings.
Minimum requirements are for low settings 30+ FPS.
Before the Echo
Very unique spin on an otherwise commonly used rhythm game mechanic.
Anyone who has played rhythm games is all too familiar with the standard mechanic of having 4 columns of arrows falling in tune with the music. Sequence manages to make a very strong tactical/multi-tasking game out of it by having 3 seperate grids. One grid is the mana grid, which you use to get mana to cast spells - it’s very common to miss lots of beats here in preference to landing beats on the other 2 grids. This is also where the beats primarily follow the song. Another grid is the defensive grid - beats that fall here and you don’t hit will reduce your HP until you hit 0 and lose. The other grid is the spell grid. At any time you have the mana for it, you can choose to cast a spell - the effects vary from dealing damage to the enemy, healing, lifestealing, hitting the enemy with damage over time, giving yourself a mana boost, boosting the strength of the next spell you cast. Each individual spell has its own beat combination that doesn’t change with the exception of inverting a few presses, left instead of right, etc, and also significant changes between difficulties. All these different spells are balanced by difficulty of input, how much blank space is there in between beats (to allow for swapping to other grids), as well as cooldown before you can cast that same spell again. Anything less than 100% on a spell input results in it failing, going on cooldown, and using up mana.
– Real player with 21.8 hrs in game
I received this game as part of one of the Humble Bundles, and I’m glad I did! I really enjoyed this game, and I would highly recommend it. :) I also think it is worth the $5 on Steam.
To give you a general idea of this game, it is similar to Step Mania only with an actual storyline. If you don’t know what Step Mania is, it’s basically DDR (dance dance revolution) for the PC. However, Sequence is kind of refreshing because it isn’t just arrows flying up the screen to music. In this game, you have three different sets of arrows that travel down the screen, and you have to switch between the sets. One is your defense, one is your attack/magic, and the other is your mana. This keeps things interesting and sometimes challenging (depending on the difficulty). Yes, you are battling enemies instead of “dancing” to music like you would in Step Mania.
– Real player with 19.6 hrs in game
EXA: The Infinite Instrument
English below !!!
Diese App ist absolut einzigartig und ich kann sie nur empfehlen! Es handelt sich um eine Mischung aus virtuellem Musikinstrument, Loop-Station und virtueller DAW. Der Name “Infinite instrument” passt, da man sich beliebig viele Formen frei platzieren und skallieren kann und diese mit Audio-Samples und Tonhöhen belegen kann. Hierzu können eigene verwendet werden oder es kann bequem ingame auf die Datenbank von EXA ( 1000 samples) zugegriffen werden. Wer Noten lesen kann, kann sich diese auch vor seinem Instrument schweben lassen. So hab ich zum Beispiel das hier gemacht: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnAuH1DJV-M
– Real player with 79.0 hrs in game
I just want to say I love Exa. Great job to everyone who is developing this. I only played with this for a couple days and it is very easy to use and well designed. I will update my review the more I play around with Exa.
-When playing an instrument I hit a button on the controller and the Ringer menu pops up in front of the instrument while I’m playing. I would suggest to keep the Ringer menu outside of the play space so it is still accesible but out of the way.
-I would like a way to assign a sound to a controller button. So when playing the drums I can click a button for the bass drum so that the hand is free to still hit other pads. Also when hitting an open hi hat you pull the trigger while hitting and the same pad turns in to a closed hi hat. Pull the trigger to mute a cymbal crash. Think of using the trigger as a mute like the feeling of touching the strings of the guitar with your hand to mute it.
– Real player with 30.9 hrs in game
PANORAMICAL
SUMMARY: A musical/visual game where you manipulate various settings to create your own visual/musical combinations. Worth purchasing if you enjoy experiential games, and like unusual musical and video experiences.
Panoramical is best summed up as an audio/visual toy. It’s a kind of spiritual lovechild of screensavers, Proteus, and the Atari C-240.
As you play (with minimal instruction) you enter various settings. In those you have nine factors you can maniuplate - there’s no directions, you have to find what they do. Each factor alters both the musical and the visual landscape - what could be a mysterious black and white swamp, with a few tweaks, becomes a strange mirrored plain with shooting stars flying about. Music could be dissonant, orchestral, whimsical, or something else.
– Real player with 41.1 hrs in game
A Stendhal Syndrome inducing piece of art, that becomes David Kanaga’s most ambitious work to date
I should start this review by saying that after the first 20 minutes I spent with Fernando Ramallo and David Kanaga’s new creation, I feel forced to stop in a state of anxiety while tears of emotion blurred my eyes.
Panoramical puts me in the same state of euphoria that Stendhal felt visiting the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence for the first time, as he became overwhelmed by the dazzling beauty found in Giotto’s frescoes.
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game