Progress: Completed Insane difficulty marathon.Phase is a music-based game much like Guitar Hero (mostly since its made by the same people). It uses songs in your iTunes library that you add to a special Phase playlist and it automatically creates the patterns.
The game is played by using the “previous”, center, and “next” buttons on the iPod. You press the corresponding button as it crosses the onscreen buttons. The sequences are timed to the music thus listening to the song while playing is essential. The game also utilizes the scroll wheel of the iPod in the form of bonus “phases” that you slide the wheel along.
In my opinion, the game has a little too much visual content during gameplay and it hinders the performance slightly. I noticed that while playing through some songs, I would press the buttons, but the game does not respond to it. Its at these times that I notice high visual implementations in the background.
As for the pattern creating software of the game, I say bravo. Harmonix did an excellent job of automating the process for this purpose. It allows players to play the songs they like and not the ones that the game creators tell them to play (given, they do give you some songs to play). Their software does a great job of picking up the beats in the music. Save for a few songs I tried, they were nearly perfect.
Scores:
- Graphics: 8/10 (not bad for a 2.5″ screen)
- Sound: 10/10 (it is a music player after all)
- Story: n/a
- Control: 7.5/10 (irritating when it doesn’t pick up the press of the button)
Overall Score (not an average): 8.5/10
Summary of Phase:
Other than the minor glitch missing my button presses, I loved this game. It kept me amused for many hours when I should have been sleeping. For the $6, its definitely a great buy.
