A cool idea for a music game on an iPod, but it pretty much fails.

User Rating: 5 | Phase IOS
Phase is an iPod game that lets you put songs from your iTunes Library into a play list and it auto-generates note tracks for playing in the game. This concept sounds pretty fun. You may think "Hey! It's like Guitar Hero but I can put whatever song I want on it!" However, you will be greatly disappointed by the quality of the note tracks and gameplay as a whole.

First off, the auto-generating of note tracks is flawed. Since it can not differentiate between different instruments or pitches, the notes seem to be completely random. It's not exactly the developers fault, since these kinds of programs aren't really that effective in the first place, but it certainly makes it a less fun game.

The only held notes (like notes in Guitar Hero or Rock Band where there is an extended line after the note which you have to hold) are sections where you slide your finger on the circle for a brief moment. These sections are almost always completely out of place with the song. They are very rarely placed in a part of the song that makes sense and seem to occur at random. They do add a bit more variety to the gameplay, but I wish it was possible for them to make more sense in their placement.

Unlike any other music game, there are no beat lines to show the tempo of the song. This is probably because the notes usually do not fall on beat with the song. Very often I will try to stay on beat with the song and then miss notes because the notes weren't sticking to the song's rhythm.

When you play a song, it is split into sections and once you complete a section, the gameplay stops for a moment giving you a break, but the music continues. These parts are very out of place and detract from the entertainment. Also, the song always starts several seconds before the gameplay does, so if your favorite song has a cool part at the very beginning, you won't be able to play it.

If a song has a long drawn out intro that slowly builds up or has long extended notes, the notes really mess up. It is hilariously bad when there is a fade out or a long extended chord in the outro. In these situations, the notes are literally random and make no sense whatsoever.

This game can't be very healthy for your iPod. You are constantly pressing buttons; more often than you'd ever normally press. It apparently requires as much button pressing in one session as it does in one year of normal iPod use. This wear-and-tear on your iPod will likely disappoint the users who do happen do enjoy this game.

Overall, there is fun to be had in this game. Though it isn't the best designed music-based game by any means, it is one of the cheapest ones and it can be played on your iPod. However, the game just feels like your just being told to press random buttons at random times while a song is playing in the background. It's not a terrible game, but the many flaws and potential damage it can cause prevent it from being better than mediocre.