Sound Shapes – A Must Have Game for the PS Vita & PS3

by Lori Cunningham (@wellconnectdmom)

In August, Sony came out with a great came called Sound Shapes for the PS Vita and PS3.  When I first saw the screenshots of the game, I was disappointed.  The scenes were simple, not real-life applicable, and greatly lacking the zest and excitement of today’s video games.  Nonetheless, as a PlayStation Family Ambassador, I set out to try out the game and see if it lived up to its acclaims, which by the way, were very praiseworthy.

After playing the game for 10 minutes on my PS Vita, I was hooked*.  I admit, I’m jaded my today’s latest video game technology and thrills, which almost caused me to bypass this game.  That would have been a mistake. The object of the game is to take your “ball” along a sometimes rocky path to collect circles, or “coins”, which bring about added music to the soundtrack playing in the background.  As you roll along, you can jump up and over objects, stick onto walls and defy gravity, and speed roll which gives you momentum to jump farther and faster.  Once you roll from one side of the screen to the other successfully, you go to the next screen.  You can actually roll along your merry way without reaching for any coins, and it still can be perilous, but doing so limits the “life” of the game, as the circles bring about additional notes to the musical score.

The game is divided into five “albums:”

1. Hello, World with music by I am Robot and Proud
2. Corporeal with music by Jim Guthrie
3. Beyonder with music by I am Robot and Proud
4. D-Cade with music by deamau5
5. Cities with music by Beck

I particularly liked the Corporeal album, as it reminded me of my corporate days, working in a big building with thousands of employees.  This level takes you through floors of an office building while workers drink coffee, give presentations, and other corporate activities.  The music is really catchy and you can’t help but move to the beat.

Admittedly, I was cautious about letting my daughter play Sound Shapes because I was afraid she was going to jam through all the levels of all 5 albums and finish the complete game for me.  But I have since found that:

1.)   There are SO many levels, this would take a LONG time.

2.)  You can replay the levels again and try to quicken your time.  Phew!

Sound Shapes is a fun game for all ages.  Once you get past its seemingly simplistic nature, you will find a lot of richness and strategy to the game.

Pros:

• fun music
• very entertaining, addictive, you really need to come up with good strategies to advance yourself in the game and gather more notes
• as the game progresses, so do they challenges
• engages both adults and kids
• added element where you begin creating the game and your own scenes
• for one price you get Sound Shapes for PS Vita and your PS3, which are synced via the cloud
• you can “die” as many times as necessary, you are not limited to a certain number of available lives
• there are countless levels available as community members upload their own creations of album play

The goal of the game is to add music and sound to your play, which of course is challenging as the coins are placed in exceedingly more difficult spots as you roll along.  Though you’re not penalized for dying (which happens often at times), dying does add to the time it takes for you to complete a level.  The less time it takes to get through a level, the better your score.

          

A Mother’s Perspective