mysteriousmage09
Member
Dem new IPs!
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Fantasia: Music Evolved Announced (Disney/Harmonix, 360/XBO, Kinect, 2014)
- Thread starter RobotRocker
- Start date
Give the people what they want, and that's shallow body flailing games wherein you can just do whatever you want and the game "rewards" your "skill" at being a spaz. And then set it to beautiful Disney backgrounds. It's amazing how simple it is to cash in. Wish I'd thought of such a cynical product, frankly.
vagabondarts
Member
If the last three E3 expos have taught me anything it's that this is the kind of thing what we can expect from the press conferences.
This is an advance messenger so that we can all prepare ourselves accordingly...
This is an advance messenger so that we can all prepare ourselves accordingly...
I'm gonna ignore the trailer which was terrible but I'm going to keep a somewhat open mind on this because:
It's Harmonix and Dance Central was great
The Harmonix guys have said the trailer isn't representative
The previews looked interesting
It includes classical music
It looks like it could be family fun
Even though I loved Fantasia, I'm not hung up on the name - don't make me quote Shakespeare!
I hope the Xylobone version is optimised for Kinect 2.0
In reality it does have the potential to be crap but it also has the potential to be a pretty nifty experience
It's Harmonix and Dance Central was great
The Harmonix guys have said the trailer isn't representative
The previews looked interesting
It includes classical music
It looks like it could be family fun
Even though I loved Fantasia, I'm not hung up on the name - don't make me quote Shakespeare!
I hope the Xylobone version is optimised for Kinect 2.0
In reality it does have the potential to be crap but it also has the potential to be a pretty nifty experience
Well going by their PR, this game will have some classical with the pop and will still pull from actual Fantasia stuff in places. Still can't help but feel this will end up all over the map tonally - screens, trailer and public messaging are all saying totally different things. Just an odd mix of appealing and unappealing concepts. Weird reveal, even if the game ends up alright.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Rite of Spring was the closest thing to contemporary in Fantasia, IIRC. That's still like putting New Order in this game and calling that contemporary.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
Would you say that Queen is contemporary, because they have a song included, and it's older than any New Order song.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Read it, doesnt interest me in the slightlest.
Is be ceative with your body the new way to say do whatever you want with your body that the game will track it as ok?
Doug Heffernan
Member
Yes you're right, it is a new IP for Harmonix & Disney.
Father_Brain
Banned
You don't have to find it interesting, but any one of the previews makes it clear that it's not Dance Central with a license tacked on.
Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Point taken.
Quadraphonic
Member
Remember when they weren't just a Kinect Kompany and actually made games instead of regurgitating dancing games? Heck, remember Dance Central 1? It didn't even support 2 players.
Terrible Majesty
Member
where are the brooms?
No, I'm pretty sure I played Dance Central 1 with two players.
I hope when the guitar solo comes up in Bohemian Rhapsody, and you nod your head a la Wayne's World, the crabs on the screen start exploding.
Not simultaneously. Switching players was the multiplayer mechanic.
Not simultaneously. Switching players was the multiplayer mechanic.
Baron von Loathsome
Member
The turtle knew.
Anticitizen One
Banned
I don't really feel comfortable with Yensid showing everyone how to get down and dirty to bruno mars songs
StudioTan
Hold on, friend! I'd love to share with you some swell news about the Windows 8 Metro UI! Wait, where are you going?
....is what someone might say if this was published by MS however since it's not it's not one of the 15.
More gameplay in GTTV tonight:
https://twitter.com/GTTVshow/status/342808852401627136
Be ready to behold guys.
https://twitter.com/GTTVshow/status/342808852401627136
Be ready to behold guys.
I wouldn't say it's lazy criticism. It's the right amount of effort to state how I feel about this announcement. I barely liked Rock Band, I'm not a Disney fan and I have NO interest in Kinect.
Incitemaybe
Member
I'm not personally interested but looks like it may be fun for those that like this type of game.
Alx
Member
So was some gameplay presented somewhere ? I couldn't find it on the gametrailers site
Plexirvones
Member
here's what gametrailers showed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ar1ifPJnTk
and here's what gamespot showed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u4ByCa3MkA
bassman2112
Member
Thanks for the links, I hadn't actually seen that.
The gameplay doesn't seem terrible, but honestly it seems like they may have just added some Max/MSP patch that's accepting Kinect movements on an XY grid to make all these "new features." Nothing too mind-blowing. Also, that arrangement of Queen at the end, the orchestral stuff sounded super filtered for some reason, did anyone else notice that?
FantasticMrFoxdie
Mumber
Smh
that trailer.
why
Oh Harmonix...
that trailer.
why
Oh Harmonix...
Alx
Member
Thanks for the links too.
It's still not quite clear how you'll be interacting with the game and the music... the pointer-based parts seem a little disappointing (it's a very limited use of kinect, especially for something as immersive as music), and the weird parts with little arrows are not very easy to understand. The interviewees do mention some gesture codes, so there's probably more to it, but I'm still not too excited at the moment.
Gametrailers interview said Avicii Levels, so I hope it's the horn remix
nicholasbrutal
Epic Games PR Manager
Dumping this here for those interested in hearing more "traditional" Fantasia music in the game (i.e. the music they recognize from the film):
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/06/disney-fantasia/ (Spoiler, we've told Wired we're bringing "Night on Bald Mountain" to the game, in addition to reiterating that we'll feature classical music pieces.)
I think once you see and play the game, it speaks for itself. But a few misconceptions I should clear up:
1. Not a dancing game.
2. Not a game where you can just "flail around and win."
If you're still sort of scratching your head as to what the game is about, it's a unique combination of beatmatch gameplay, mixed with creative choice moments, and environmental musical exploration. Combine that all for a pretty wild ride, unlike anything else I'm familiar with. I'll say it's probably closer to a lot of games Gaffer's like than you're thinking: Ouendan, Electroplankton, point and click adventure games, with a hint of Journey. While it's not any one of those games one-to-one, those are probably the best parallells I can draw so you'll understand it. I think it's a good problem to have, not being able to draw direct lines to any other title you've played.
So yeah, you move (and maybe that's a dealbreaker for you, I dunno), but it's not a dance game! (You don't even have to use your legs if you don't want to, outside of stepping side to side to look at environments. In that case, I've played it in a rolling chair because I get lazy.) If you're at E3, come check it out. If you're not, read impressions of folks who have checked the game out. If you still aren't interesting, cool. But it's totally not a dancing game.
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2013/06/disney-fantasia/ (Spoiler, we've told Wired we're bringing "Night on Bald Mountain" to the game, in addition to reiterating that we'll feature classical music pieces.)
I think once you see and play the game, it speaks for itself. But a few misconceptions I should clear up:
1. Not a dancing game.
2. Not a game where you can just "flail around and win."
If you're still sort of scratching your head as to what the game is about, it's a unique combination of beatmatch gameplay, mixed with creative choice moments, and environmental musical exploration. Combine that all for a pretty wild ride, unlike anything else I'm familiar with. I'll say it's probably closer to a lot of games Gaffer's like than you're thinking: Ouendan, Electroplankton, point and click adventure games, with a hint of Journey. While it's not any one of those games one-to-one, those are probably the best parallells I can draw so you'll understand it. I think it's a good problem to have, not being able to draw direct lines to any other title you've played.
So yeah, you move (and maybe that's a dealbreaker for you, I dunno), but it's not a dance game! (You don't even have to use your legs if you don't want to, outside of stepping side to side to look at environments. In that case, I've played it in a rolling chair because I get lazy.) If you're at E3, come check it out. If you're not, read impressions of folks who have checked the game out. If you still aren't interesting, cool. But it's totally not a dancing game.
GuitarAtomik
Member
If you listen to the most recent Giant Bombcast, Jeff describes the gameplay as a mix between ParaPara Paradise, Elite Beat Agents, and Electroplankton. They go more in to detail than that but I feel like this is one of those games that's hard to explain with words.
nicholasbrutal
Epic Games PR Manager
My god, that's kind of incredible (and annoying). True story: there was a small period of time where, in the menus of Dance Central 3, if you dropped to the ground quickly (squat-style), the game would make an air horn sound. It was stupid and hilarious. It didn't make the shipping game.
Quadraphonic
Member
I love how the exclusive mentions the song, and even references Chernabog, and the Sorceror's Apprentice bit, but skillfully avoids mentioning that none of that is actually in the game outside of the audio.
GuitarAtomik
Member
Yeah just saw the live stream. Day motherfucking one. I don't know how. But day motherfucking one. This shit is my weakness.
beat
Member
I went to the presentation at Disney's E3 booth just because I'm bit of a Harmonix fanboy. The lineup wait was gruesomely long. I was 10th in line, moving up to 7th because three people just gave up after 45+ minutes of waiting.
Once inside, a presenter gave the spiel while a second presenter showed us how a playthrough of Bohemian Rhapsody would go. First off, they could have streamlined this better: either the devs should have made for optimized loading -- worst case, there's always the 'create a memory image and dump it to a file' method of loading. Or they could have pre-loaded it to the level they wanted.
Anyways, at presentation they had the choice of two levels: the Shoals (undersea level) and the Press (was told it was a printing press, more puzzle-y than the Shoals, which looks to be more toy-y.*) Once in a level, you can wander around in it and select songs to play.
* not a slur. In my opinion, a 'toy' in videogames just means a fun thing to play with that does not impose external goals.
Main song gameplay is kind of like Tap Tap Revolution for tablets, if you've seen that, except it's Kinect 2.0 so it's 3D: sometimes you have to thrust your hand forward to push a button, rather than swipe over it. Every so often it lets the player choose to branch to red/blue/green versions of the song, which for Bohemian Rhapsody were the master tracks, a sort of classical orchestra cover, and a sort of 80s arena rock (?) version. I may be forgetting the accurate description of the green version. It blends pretty smoothly, so it's not a jarring jump to go from whatever version you were on to the one you select next.
There are also a couple of sound-warping things that come up - kind of like a whammy bar for the track - which again help break up the gameplay and add variety.
It's very pretty. It's also unfun to watch. They let us play it a bit afterwards, and even though I got the timing wrong quite a bit at the start, playing it was where I could finally see the appeal. The whole-body gaming of this just doesn't come across even in person when you watch someone else play it.
Also, and this may be my biases at work here, but I think Harmonix' stated mission of connecting non-musicians to music is undercut here by making this thing so explicitly game-y.
Once inside, a presenter gave the spiel while a second presenter showed us how a playthrough of Bohemian Rhapsody would go. First off, they could have streamlined this better: either the devs should have made for optimized loading -- worst case, there's always the 'create a memory image and dump it to a file' method of loading. Or they could have pre-loaded it to the level they wanted.
Anyways, at presentation they had the choice of two levels: the Shoals (undersea level) and the Press (was told it was a printing press, more puzzle-y than the Shoals, which looks to be more toy-y.*) Once in a level, you can wander around in it and select songs to play.
* not a slur. In my opinion, a 'toy' in videogames just means a fun thing to play with that does not impose external goals.
Main song gameplay is kind of like Tap Tap Revolution for tablets, if you've seen that, except it's Kinect 2.0 so it's 3D: sometimes you have to thrust your hand forward to push a button, rather than swipe over it. Every so often it lets the player choose to branch to red/blue/green versions of the song, which for Bohemian Rhapsody were the master tracks, a sort of classical orchestra cover, and a sort of 80s arena rock (?) version. I may be forgetting the accurate description of the green version. It blends pretty smoothly, so it's not a jarring jump to go from whatever version you were on to the one you select next.
There are also a couple of sound-warping things that come up - kind of like a whammy bar for the track - which again help break up the gameplay and add variety.
It's very pretty. It's also unfun to watch. They let us play it a bit afterwards, and even though I got the timing wrong quite a bit at the start, playing it was where I could finally see the appeal. The whole-body gaming of this just doesn't come across even in person when you watch someone else play it.
Also, and this may be my biases at work here, but I think Harmonix' stated mission of connecting non-musicians to music is undercut here by making this thing so explicitly game-y.
nicholasbrutal
Epic Games PR Manager
Thanks for waiting, and sorry it took so long. Day 1 of E3 is generally pretty packed with marketing and retail folks who have to see games, and they often get shuttled, making waits longer. Terrible excuse and it makes me sad, but we don't really have much control over that (also, not an excuse, just sort of reality).
Other realities: the Xbox One units we have on the show floor have been a bit... unpredictable? Load times like we'd been experiencing were NOT an issue back in Cambridge. We'd had a few issues that we've resolved in a few ways, but almost all were unrelated to the game itself. The perils of working on new hardware, I guess!
Funny you say the game is unfun to watch, because I've only heard the opposite ("This is cool to watch, like Mickey conducting the heavens in the film!"). Of course, nobody would tell me to my face the game is stupid and not fun to watch.
Appreciate the feedback. Hope you're interested in seeing more, because there's a bunch we haven't shared yet. Those wondering WTF this game is all about, Ryan and Alex from GiantBomb came by and pulled a bunch of direct video, chatted a bunch, so look out for that. No clue when it's going live. Ryan also gave me a demo of Super Drake Tracker, which I have video of if anyone is interesting, but why would you be because man what a silly thing that is.