iPod Finally Gets a Decent Game… sort of

This game is boring

Okay, You probably have heard about Square-Enix’s new Final Fantasy Tactics-esque game Song Summoner. I actually took the time to play it with the explicit intent on reviewing it for our loyal readers.

Here’s a brief plot summary:
You are Ziggy, an average guy who chills with his younger brother Zero. Immediately, Zero gets kidnapped by evil robo-gestapo types. Then some eccentric hippie old guy takes some sort of cube medallion from you and kills off a bunch of the robots. This dude becomes your mentor. You then train to become a composer (someone who calls songs to do their fighting for them). This is a big deal because the robo-nazi empire (who have at this point taken over the ENTIRE WORLD) have been systematically kidnapping all of the composers in the world because music is the only thing that kills them. You spend most of the game engaging in Tactics like battles against 4 different enemies and once in a while a boss character.

to the game play…
Well you use the click wheel to select crap from menus. that’s really it.

The novel idea about the game is the fact that you create warriors from the songs on your iPod. Some warriors are good some are bad. You get to choose which ones you keep. Your warriors become stronger in 2 ways. The first way is by training them in “rehearsal rooms” which is basically a danger room setting for your dudes. The more crystals you get the quicker your dudes level up. The second way is to actually listen to the songs that make up your characters. This gives you bonus points at game-load and levels them up. (Enter cheaters: make an iTunes playlist with your warriors, repeat it over night.)

Thematically, the game touches upon lots of ideas. Freedom of expression, buying music, music keeping you safe, music as an escape, buying music, and purchasing music from the iTunes store.

When I first started the game I was completely blown away by the graphics (and still am) I love the ability to have good looking games on the go. The game is fun, but gets old VERY quickly. After the second day, I wouldn’t even play it on the bowl. This seems to be the problem with most downloadable games for mobile devices. They kill time when you want them too, but soon enough you just get bored.

I completed about 2/5 of the game in about 4 hours. This time included about an hour of leveling up in the rehearsal room.

Long story short, it’s the best game out for the ipod, but that isn’t saying much.