Regardless if you appreciate the game or not, it’s clear that Sound Shapes isn’t normal. The game looks totally low-fi, plays like one elaborate, more nuanced morph ball platforming section from Super Metroid, and features content from Beck, Deadmau5, Super Brothers, Jim Guthrie, and many others. That’s not the kind of game you see every day.
While I may scoff at the notion that Sony consoles have “more artistic” games than what you may find on the Xbox 360, Wii, or PC, there is no question that the publisher is taking some bold choices with the titles they bring to their platform. Artistic merit may be in the eye of the beholder, but titles like Sound Shapes, Papa Y Yo, Dyad, the PixelJunk games, The Last Guy, and so forth are unarguably risky, especially on the PS3 — a console that was built on a reputation for having the most expensive looking, movie-like games that home consoles have to offer.
We talked about all of that and more on last week’s episode of Sup, Holmes?, featuring Sound Shapes developers Jon Mak (Queasy Games) and Shaw-han Liem. You can watch the full episode here, or download the podcast here. Thanks again to Jon and Shaw-han for being on the show and being great.
