Feel the Magic with Fantasia: Music Evolved - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 14 June 2014 / 2,565 Views
Harmonix and Disney are collaborating for a new music game on Kinect. Fantasia: Music Evolved takes inspiration from the beloved animated musical revue for a unique spin on the music/rhythm game genre. The game has you following along to the rhythm of music by waving your hands as if you were conducting an orchestra or controlling magic a la Mickey Mouse in the famous Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence from the original Fantasia. I played along to Bruno Mars' “Locked Out of Heaven.” Other tracks available include “Piano Man” by Elton John, “Feel Good Inc” by The Gorillaz, and “Levels” by Avicci. There are also more classical orchestral pieces which go really well with the magical feel and allure of Fantasia.
You follow the on-screen cues. The most basic movement is to wave your hands to correspond with star slashes. You have to nail the timing just right and wait for stars to attach to the tails of the lines before you make your movement. Large circles onscreen indicate a punch, which requires you to thrust your hands forward towards the screen. Often you will be asked to punch and hold the position of your hands for a few seconds or perform a slash that ends in a punch. Stringing together perfectly timed movements will increase your multiplier.
It does not matter which hand you perform the on-screen cues with, though naturally I understood which hand should do what. On-screen, my body was represented by a silvery silhouette that mirrored my movements with little latency. While I undoubtedly looked stupid in the real world, flailing my arms about seemingly at random, in the game it is visually captivating to see sparks and stars shoot of your palms. The majority of the visuals consist of abstract shapes and colors, appearing and disappearing to the beat of the music, which makes for a very surreal, magical, and dare I say trippy visual experience. Every so often the game would take a break from presenting me with a stream of notes to give me the choice to alter the musical arrangement.
You can emphasize different instruments playing in the background by waving your hand to the desired selection from three options. For instance, if you select the drums then for a certain section then the percussion of that track will move to the foreground of the audio. You can also select the vocals if the track you are playing contains lyrics and that will make the singing much clearer. There are also surprising videogame-inspired twists available for certain tracks. I watched along as a classical piece was transformed into an 8-bit medley simply by selecting a computer icon when asked to alter the musical arrangement.
That is all I was able to glean from my brief time with Fantasia: Music Evolved. My sincere hope is that you will be able to play along with the animated segments included in the film version of Fantasia (and its delightful sequel, Fantasia 2000). It would be magical to wave your hands alongside Mickey from the aforementioned Sorcerer’s Apprentice short, though nothing has been confirmed on that front. Multiplayer will also be included, allowing two people to play at once. If nothing else, Fantasia: Music Evolved will be another musical Kinect title that provides a cool alternative to Just Dance or Dance Central. Fantasia: Music Evolved will be available for the Kinect on Xbox 360 and Xbox One on October 21, 2014.
