What happens when Music and Art Fuse together? Electroplankton is what happens!......
Electroplankton Review
By: Kool_j
(Note: I know I said this can't be reviewed well, but I will try to stay as baise as possible! Also note that I got this game on the 12th and played it 10 hours or less as hours played to date for Gamespot)
What happens when Music and Art fuse together? Electroplankton is what happens! When Toshio Iwai, creator of Electroplankton, thought of making a game about music, he wanted to combine several aspects to it. It was to combine Art,Music,the NES,a microscope and a sound synthezizer, together, to creat a unique gaming experiance on the Nintendo DS handheld. When some people hear about Electroplankton they think of it not as a game at all, as it is more of a unique music maker or experimenter. It may not be considered much of a game, but it realy does provide enjoyment and entertainment.
Lets start off with what the heck you do in this thing! It is really a experimental music creator. You are given ten different types of plankton to experiment and play with. Each one is different and you use them different ways. Some invlove the microphone, while most are done by touching the bottom screen and pressing the D-Pad left and right. The top screen isn't of much importance in Electroplankton, besides seeing a close up view of the plankton you find your self not looking at, as everything is happening on the bottom screen.
Now for describing each type of plankton! I will give the proper description the manuel states, and then I'll include my thoughts about it. That way there isn't much confusion.
#01 Tracy- "Tracy plankton make sounds as they swim over graceful lines made up of linked triangles. The creature's name comes from the fact they follow the lines you trace along the water. There are six types of Tracy in all, each with a unique color and sound. All Tracy plankton produce differnt tones depending on the direction they swim. They produce the lowest-pitched sounds when they swim to the right and produce higher-pitched sounds as their path veers to the left."
The tracy seem to be more of noise makers then music makers. It can get pretty chaotic when you have all of them zooming around on the screen at once. If you study them enough and now when and where the make differnt pitched sounds, you can make a nice noises. When you tap the D-Pad right they move faster and faster making it loud and crazy, but if you tap left, they get slower.
#02 Hanenbow- "Normally an aquatic creature, Hanenbow sometimes use floating leaves to launch themselves out of the water, creating strange sounds and melodies as they bounce off the leaves. Entire schools of Hanenbow have been known to launch out of the water, one after another! As a leaf is repeatedly hit by flying Hanenbow, it gradually changes color. This also alters the sound made by bouncing Hanenbow. When all of the leaves turn red, a flower will bloom on the water. It is still unclear why the Hanenbow display this curious behavior."
Hanenbow can be considered the most like a game, of the plankton. Usually the objective is to move leaves at differnt angles, making the Hanenbow bounce from one to another, changing the color of the leafs from Green to Red. If you can keep up a constant flow of Hanenbow hitting all of the leaves over and over, you make a flower bloom on the plant. There are four differnt plants to try and make flowers bloom, and theres always more hten one way to make it happen with each plant. You can fire individual Hanenbow by tapping Up on the D-Pad, or making them flow faster and slower by tapping it right or left.
#03 Luminaria- "Luminaria plankton are famous for their habit of perfectly following arrow-shaped formations. The plankton spin as they move, changing direction as soon as they come in contact with an arrow that's pointing in another direction. The pitch of the sound they make changes depending on where the arrows are positioned. There are four types of Luminaria-red,yellow,green and blue. Each type floats at different speed and makes distinctive musical tone. The four types of Luminaria drift together to creat beutiful melodies. Completely altar the direction of arrows to change their sound dramatically."
When the manuel says these guys make beutiful melodies, it means it! Luminaria are very relaxing, and very experimental. The arrows can be pointed in 8 differnt directions, or just make them spin wildly when you hold it down for a few seconds. After playing with them for some time you can start to figure out how to make a specific song. You can also change every arrow at once by tapping the D-Pad Up,Down,Left or Right.
#04 Sun-Animalcule- "Sun-Animalcule plankton get their name from their tendency to emit light in a sphere around them. The plankton begin as eggs and gradually grow, emmitting light and fastinating sounds throught their entire lifecycle. The sounds they make change as they grow from infancy to maturity, growing very quickly until they disappear completly. Sun-Animalcule plankton only emerge in the morning,noon and evening. Sun-Animalcule lose strength as the night wears on; that is when the cresent-shaped Falcato plankton take their place. THe pitch of the plankton changes depending on where they grow."
These guys are cool, when it's light in the game you make sun-animalcule, shapped like suns. At night you make the "Falcato" ones, which are shapped like moons. They all make magical sounds, and as they grow the sounds change. You can experiment by making simple shapes like circles and squares to see how they sound. Make the day change to night when you continue to tap the D-Pad Right. You can place 30 of them on the screen at once, and they have differnt tones depending on where on the screen you place them!
#05 Rec-Rec- "Rec-Rec are fishlike plankton that feed on sound waves. They absorb sound waves transmitted through water and use them as a form of nutrition. The sound waves that the Rec-Rec eat are then stored inside their body until they have been digested. Once the digestion process is complete, they play back the sounds in perfect four-second intervals. While these sounds are playfully emitted, the wave patterns can be observed pulsating on their bodies. Rec-Rec always swim side-by-side in schools of four. When they swim at differnt speeds, the frequency with which they emit sounds also changes"
These guys will provide you with endless entertainment, litterally! This is one plankton where you get to use the DS' Microphone! You can record up to about 5 seconds on each Rec-Rec, and togheter with the hip beat playing in backround can sound pretty cool! There are differnt beats to choose from, and when you tap the D-Pad it changes the speed of the noises, which can sound pretty funny at times. Experiment by pluggin sounds form outside, like cars or someone talking. The Rec-Rec prove that the DS mic. is not cheap at all and works pretty nice.
#06 Nanocarp- "Nanocarp have very sensitive hearing. Sensing vibrations coming through water with the two ears on their head, these plankton can distinguish sound quality and frequency. They display very interesting reactions to the sound of humans clapping and breathing. Nanocarp are also excellent swimmers. They have a tendency to swim in formations of sixteen and react together to sounds they detect. These plankton emit sounds on their own when they sense waves on the water surface. When this happens, the pitch of sounds they produce changes depending on where the Nanocarp are currently located."
These plankton also use the Mic. You can give them commands by clapping and blowing into the Mic. For example clap 3 times fast to make them form into circles. Or lightly blow once to make a heart shape. Then when you touch the screen it makes ripples and waves, that make the Nanocarp emmit tingle sounds. It can be pretty relaxing. There's a WHOLE BUNCH of commands to do, I can't even remmeber them all. (They are found in the manuel) When you tap the D-Pad Left,Right,Up or Down it makes a wave that goes across the whole screen in that direction.
#07 Lumiloop- "Lumiloop plankton are curious, donut-shaped aquatic creatures. While stationary, they have the ability to spin at very high rate of speed. As they spin, the Lumiloop emit unique sounds and a fascinating ring-shaped glow. Lumiloop plankton seem to always grow in clusters of five. They produce sounds at differnt pitches as they soin together, creating a beutiful harmony. This is called a pentatonic scale. Depending on where they live, Lumiloop plankton that produce several different sounds have been identified."
Lumiloop are mezmorizing when you have them all spinning good at once, but it can get hard to all keep them spinning fast at the same time. Once you do that though, you have a cosmic show of sound and light. Pressing the Select button will let you pick 3 different types of Lumiloop that each have a differnt sound. You can also spin them clockwise and counter clock wise whcih makes a different sound and color, for each induvidual.
#08 Marine-Snow- "Resembling delicate snow crystals, Marine-Snow plankton elegantly float on the surface of the water. The plankton get their name from their distinctive snowflake shape. They grow in clusters of 35 and line up in a very orderly formations. When stimulated, Marine-Snow plankton spin and produce vibrant sounds. While the plankton do grow in size if they are repeadly tapped, they gradually return to their original size over time. They are born in four polygon shapes: triangle,square,pentagon, and hexagon. The ends of the crystalline protrusions also take on the same shapes. The tone of the sound they make change depending on the shape of the Marine-Snow plankton's body."
Playing with Marine-Snow is like playing a musical instrament. The first set sounds like Piano, while others sound like other things. When you tap one, then tap the another they switch places, making sounds. You can also slide the stylus across them to make more noises. Press Select to cycle through the differnt ones.
#09 Beatnes- "Beatnes are curious plankton with geometrically shaped heads that form vertical strands like seaweed. Their bodies are made up of eight sections, each featuring a distinctive diamond-shaped tail. The sound of a Beatnes can vary wildly depending on which segment of the body is tapped. However, all of the sounds closely resemble the short-wave and triangular-wave sound effects from a Nintendo Entertainment System sound chip. When Beatnes are tapped in time with a rhythm, they continue to repeat the sounds in perfect time for a short period."
Beatnes is the NES part of what Mr. Toshio Iwai wanted in Electroplankton. I love these guys, they perfectly simulate the NES sounds off classic NES games like Mario! You can really get a good beat going once you learn, I have actually made my first Electoplankton song with these guys, it's called "Electric Mario". There is 4 differnt classic tunes you can have playing, and each time you tap a segment of them they make a sound. Depending on how high and low you touch it will make a different tone sound. Tap the D-Pad left to make it go slower, and tap righ to make it go faster.
#10 Volvoice - "Volvoice plankton memorize the sound of human speech and repeat it over and over. They accomplish this amazing feat by oscillating the long flagellum that extends from their head. By resonating the vibration with their water-droplet-shaped body, the plankton produce sounds that closely resemble human voice. The body can expand and contract at will. By changing shape, they can easily manipulate the sound of the voice. Words that the Volvoice memorize and play back in reverse have a particularly strange ring to them. Reasearchers refer to this phenomena as Volvoice inversion.
These ones will provide you with endless entartainment! They are very funny the way some of them altar what you say and how it sounds. There are 16 differnt Volvoice to select. The Volvoice can record about 15 seconds of sounds! It's very fun to experiment by putting the mic. up to the TV and seeing how it will sound wiht all the different ones. Once again this plankton proves that the DS Microphone is good.
In Electroplankton there is two modes to choose from. One is Performance, where you get to experiment and play with all the planktonof your choice. The other is Audiance mode, where you get to sit back and relax while the game plays for you! You can also join along with the game, so it's almost like semi-performance. You can also learn new techniques while listening and watching.
Now onto the scoring!
Gameplay 8/10- Experiment with all these plankton, have fun and try new things. There's always something new to think of. Drawing shapes and names to see how they sound is quite interesting! 10 different plankton to experiment with, all with unique sounds and ways to play. Thre may be only 2 modes to choose from, but there's endless entertainment involved in them! But one thing that may be a negitive to some people is that fact that you can't save some of your best creations, and sometimes it's hard to pull them off again.
Graphics 8.3/10- The graphics in Electroplankton are pretty nice for a 2D game. It has tons of colors and shapes. The transparent plankton give it a 2D/3D effect, and they look smooth, not blocky at all. transparent bubbles are constantly floating around the screen, with each touch on the screen. A magnafied view of the plankton on the top screen show that they are made quite nice. They don't show much weakness at all.
Sound 10/10- The sound in Electroplankton? Only a few words can fully descibe it... Crisp,Clean and Amazing! Toshio Iwai provided amazing sound in this. Given that the whole game is dedicated to sound and music, this is really good. The sounds are of great quality, and the Mic. recordings are also great, showing that the DS mic. isnt a piece of junk.
Reply 9.2/10- Reply value in Electroplankton is massive! Thanks to plankton like Rec-Rec and Volvoice, you can litterally record any sound the human ears can pick up! New ideas and thoughts always pop up and they will keep you comming back. Although some of the plankton can get old and seem like they are less experimental and more teddious there is still lots of other ones that will keep you playing.
Overall 8.9/10- Electroplankton is a really inovative and unique experiance. These are the types of things that make the Nintendo DS famous for inovation. But this is a new concept in the gaming world, and still has to prove it's self to some people. Not everyone will be willing to order this and keep playing over and over. Some may just see it as a tech demo, but when it is really a great game. This is somthing that you should at least try, if you have a friend with it, why not check it out and see for your self?
If you are someone who likes games with objectives, un lockables, missions, action and violence, then Electroplankton may not be for you. But if you are someone who is creative and likes music, and is willing to try somthing innovative and new, then I highly recommend getting Electroplankton. This is one thing you may not wanna miss!