For this week's Mini-Game, I decided to change things up a bit. The game I am reviewing was purchased (via iTunes download) a mere 20 minutes after I read about it on Penny Arcade. That game is Song Summoner, the first game I've wanted to play for the iPod.

But, was it worth it?


Jesus, it's hard finding pics of this game.

For those not initiated, Song Summoner comes to us from the RPGeniuses at Squeeeeeeeeeeeenix, and is exclusively for 5th generation iPods that can run video. The
story is pretty standard fare (done amazingly better in Sonic The Hedgehog the
animated series); kid's brother gets captured, kid finds out he holds great power (in the form of special jewelry, of course), kid must stop robots from turning all the humans of the world into robots using a machine. But, instead of using regular weapons or magic to quell the evil mechanical menace, our main character uses Tune Troopers, fighters created from music to battle foes. And, by music, I mean actual music: every playable character in the game is created from a song on your iPod. This was the main draw for me: how fucking awesome is it that I can kill someone using a fighter created from "Hit Me Baby One More Time"? The characters are rather varied: there's roughly 50 that can be created, each belonging to one of 5 jobs: soldier, archer, monk, mage, and knight. Characters are created in-game in a place called the Hip-O-Drome, where some hippie master teaches you how to bring troopers in from the music. All you do is pick a song (sometimes following guidelines the hippie has you follow), or have the master choose a song for you. Either way, what you get from the song can be varried: I created 6 different characters all from one song. Plus, no two characters are the same. Each Tune Trooper has base numbers for each stat. Depending on the amount of times you've played a song, or how long the song is (or other random mitigating factors), you'll either get a uber-powerful trooper, or someone not fit to sit on the bench.


One such Trooper, and her stats.

Each character has 4 levels (bronze, silver, gold, and platinum), and can come out of the Hip-O-Drome at any level. But, the higher level you get, the less times you can use that character: yep, they put deployment points up in this mutha. For instance, a high-powered knight at Platinum level comes out with only 2 deployment points, whereas a weak, bronze-level Woody mage can come out with 8. A deployment point is used up when putting a character in battle, or when they die, meaning 2 can be used up in each battle. But, because it's so easy to make new troops, there really is no point of worrying about deployment levels. And that's the fatal flaw with the game: there's never any real challenge involved when it comes to the Troopers.


One of the unoriginal battles.

After battle sequences (which are nothing more than simple RTS battles you've seen done a million times better in FF:Tactics), you get Pitch Pearls, which act as experience for the Troopers. A certain amount of pearls is needed to raise your troopers up a rank, and raises their stats. But, you never feel the need to use these, because you can create platinum-level (the most powerful level) characters right out of the gate. Plus, once those platinum troopers are gone, you can just spend more time in the Hip-O-Drome until you create a whole new stable of high-powered warriors.

Now, the game does have some redeeming qualities to it. The gameplay, while being a bit stale, is still fun to pick up and play, if, say, you're waiting at the bus stop. The price is right, too, at only $5 (resisting...urge...to make...EC...joke...). Plus, the Groove Level element is pretty cool, too: if you listen to the songs that you've used to make Troopers outside of the game, you get points that pile up over time. These points can be used at the beginning of battles to increase your Groove Level, effectively giving your units more power and defense. If the gameplay was deeper, these music innovations would make this game an instant buy for anyone and everyone. Instead, what you have is a basic RTS with some bells and whistles only the most die-hard of RPG fans will appreciate.

Oh, and, be forewarned: the names of characters and places in this game are just...just awful.

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Previous Mini-Games:
Devil May Cry 3D
God of War
Assassin's Creed
Turok
Dead Rising
Final Fantasy Snowboarding
Doom RPG