If you remember the original release of Sound Shapes last year, you should remember the emphasis on user-generated content and levels. The same rings true with the PS4 release with access to all of the previously released community levels. Much like the selection to Little Big Planet, these are just as diverse as the players who created them. Some levels are purely dedicated to playing a song as you go along for the ride while others try to tell a story. If you’re in the mood for some feels, The Anniversary by TonyTough is a great one to start with. Each screen adds another layer to the story as you play, all the while your note collecting builds up the dynamic music.
To ease you into the robust level creation tools, Sound Shapes offers a few tutorials on the various mechanics. Only the bare basics are shown, going over basic object placement and level design. To make the more complex levels like those showcased in the community levels, it’s going to take a bit of dedication and outside research. Making a fully functioning level is possible with the assistance of the in-game tutorials, but to truly tap into what Sound Shapes offers, it’s going to take time and dedication.
Another set of tutorials, aptly called Beat School, focus on teaching you how to make some of the more complex beats by demonstration. This pseudo-puzzle mode puts you in control of a Kaosilator-style touch pad and your job is to place notes on the scales so that they match up with the background music. While it doesn’t show off the various instruments or more complex layering, Beat School does help out with identifying beats and learning how to make complex rhythms for those levels you’ll be making.
Lastly, the third mode to Sound Shapes is the properly-titled Death Mode. These levels take place in the same levels from the campaign but each have some sort of devilish twist. The primary goal is not to make it through the level, but instead to collect a certain number of notes before the time runs out (which is usually just barely enough to squeak by in the last couple of seconds). All the while you’re collecting notes, there’s always some sort of bright red hazard trying to kill you as you’re speeding around. In one stage, horizontally flying missiles coast about to the beat of the song while in another, flames jet out from geysers that you have to jump from one to another. There’s no room for mistakes in these levels, as making the wrong jump can easily waste precious seconds or flat out kill you, sending you back to the start of the level. As the notes are placed randomly and only show up one at a time, there’s no tried and true method to get through a level on the first try.
While Sound Shapes both looks and sounds great on the Playstation 4, there’s little reason to come back a second (or third) time around. The game itself is a welcome addition to the console’s launch lineup when there’s not much else to compare it to. The user-generated content is the main staying point to Sound Shapes, as the main campaign is over far too quickly. But once you’ve gone through all of that, there’s little else but to start making your own.
[Editor’s Note: Sound Shapes was reviewed on the PS4 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
