Symphony revolves around a demon corrupting the Symphony of Souls and your favorite composers and music artists. You are tasked with liberating them by destroying their corrupted counterparts and restoring the Symphony of Souls. What ensues is an entertaining mix between Audiosurf and Galaga.
The basic gameplay has you controlling a ship and destroying the enemy ships that appear on screen. The enemies, and their aggression, are not only based off of your chosen difficulty but also the song that you choose. This is a nice feature as you can choose slower songs if you want to relax or, if you’re a masochist, faster artists like Dragonforce. As you beat levels you earn Inspiration and Kudos which allows you to purchase, and enhance, upgrades for your ship.
The presentation is pure visual bliss. Enemies will explode into musical notes and the stages will “pulse” to the tempo of your music. It’s incredibly satisfying to watch both the stage and enemies “adapt” to your music, especially songs that switch tempos. However, these bright visuals do have a tendency to get in the way of the gameplay. I died countless times because the explosions and visuals masked the enemy attacks.
One of the major problems I ran into was that a few songs were hard to hear over the other sound effects. It should also be noted that, like with Luxor Evolved, extended play sessions can give seriously mess with your head. My other complaint was that the game requires songs to be at least 1:30 long, which limited many of my choices.
All in all, Symphony is a fun little game that’s a blast to pick up from time to time. At $10, it’s an easy recommendation. Buy it!
You can purchase the game at GoG.com.
I’ll end the review with a few song suggestions. These selections can be challenging on higher difficulties but they’re enjoyable to play:
Danny Baranowsky- 8 Bit Friday
Smash Mouth- All Star
Cage the Elephant- Ain’t no Rest for the Wicked
Anamanaguchi- Airbrushed
My Chemical Romance- Welcome to the Black Parade
Pros:
+ Incredibly fun.
+ A good way to kill some time.
+ It’s only $10
Cons:
- The visuals tend to get in the way of the gameplay.
- Some songs drown in the game’s sound effects.
- Extended play can give you headaches.
The Verdict:
A fun little time diversion that won’t kill your wallet.
Symphony was released on August 6th, 2012 for PC.
