REVIEW: Disney’s Fantasia: Music Evolved

If there are two areas of gaming that have taken a distinct fall from grace in the last few years, they’d be ’Kinect Games’ and ’Music Games’. Both had a hugely successful start and a period of extreme popularity before a sudden (and frankly inexplicable) loss of interest from the gaming community.

Well I still play Kinect Sports regularly when friends are round, and my Guitar Hero instruments are in the corner of my lounge – so when Harmonix announced their intention to combine both genres with Fantasia, they certainly got my attention.

For me at least, the first trailers at E3 last year made Fantasia: Music Evolved seem like another Milo tech demo. In fact, Even when I first saw the game being played in early live demonstrations I wrote it off as a Nintendo Music clone. However, as more info was released it became clear this was something very different and (Certainly from a reviewers perspective) surprisingly difficult to define.

This is a ‘rhythm action game’, but not as you know it. Probably the closest example to use as a starting point would be the new Kinect (as opposed to ‘mat-based’) dance games. However, Fantasia really does take the idea to another level. More than that, with traditional dance games the music is controlling your movements. In Fantasia, it’s the other way round.

The movements you use to control the music start (on the easiest songs) as something akin to those of a conductor. However, by the time you reach the top tier difficulty your movements have far more in common with high energy dancing, or martial arts (the later comparison maybe to help preserve my masculinity while flailing as if I’m in a dubstep simulator).

Where this game moves beyond the realm of Dance Dance Revolution or Rockband is that don’t just ‘play’ the music through your gestures; you use them to actually mix, change, manipulate and rearrange the songs. Whether a genuine result or a clever artifice, you’re genuinely left feeling as if you have created your own unique work of art after every song you play.

Moving on to the mechanics themselves, the game starts with a (much needed) tutorial that introduces you to the basics of the game. From the moment you load up the title screen, everything is gesture-based. Whether loading songs, changing realm or navigating menus, the controller is put to one side in favour of the Kinect 2.0.

This certainly takse out the inconvenience of constantly reaching for the controller between songs, but in my opinion only serves to replace one mild irritation with another. I love the Kinect. The Kinect 2.0 is, to my mind, an incredible piece of technology. However, Fantasia politely reminds us that there are still some …advancements left to be made.

The system actually works very well for the most part, but those same problems that plagued the early Kinect titles on 360 still stubbornly rear their heads. Missed cues, mis-selected options and frustratingly imprecise movements will still occasionally illicit some decidedly non-Disney language – Such as when you accidentally reload the home hub, when all you wanted to do was tickle some fish. However it should be stressed that this is still an issue with the Kinect more than the game, and is both occasional and limited to menu and realm navigation. Once in the songs, any missed beats are entirely down to your own coordination (or lack thereof).

The tutorial is short and fun. You quickly learn that the gestures used in the game are very simple to learn (although not always as simple to copy at high speed!). They broadly break down into different types of hand sweeps, punches, pattern tracing and holds (staying in one position as a gauge fills). However once you add all the various directions and combinations (often requiring different actions by each hand simultaneously) the depth and complexity starts to build.

Once the basics are covered, you are introduced to ‘Yen Sid’ -the sorcerer to whom you are to be apprenticed. You learn that there is magic to music and that it is present in different forms in each of the ‘Realms’ (play areas). You also learn that there is a dark power at work -called the Noise– that must be chased from each location thought the magic of harmonious music. You then move between each Realm, completing songs and challenges in order to cleanse them of the dark influence.

However, shortly after starting on your quest Yen Sid disappears -so you his other apprentice (the very Disney-named and voiced Scout) have to work together to find and save him. This is where the real depth of the game is introduced.

The first addition this brings is that of the ‘remixes’. Each song has 3* mixes available (the original song and 2 remixes – *with more available as DLC) which are unlocked through multiple plays of each tune. For example Niki Minaj’s Super Bass gets the option of Soca and Jake Staley mixes, while Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons: Winter, 1st Movement gets Alt Rock and Steve Porter alternatives. You haven’t lived until you’ve heard (or played) Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody in thrash metal.

These remixes aren’t just a blanket change of style, but are divided up among lead, rhythm, bass, percussion and vocals for each song (although the style may effect the option so that ‘lead’ becomes ‘piano’ etc). You can start Elton John’s Rocket Man with original vocals and piano, 80’s Bass and Rhythm lines and a Dubstep percussion track (or ‘mad beat’ if you prefer). Then over the course of the song you can switch in and out between each style for each instrument type. There are limitations on this; it can only be done at certain points, although there are usually between 8-12 of these in every song. The point is, you are able to manipulate and mix the song, and create something that feels truly your own.

This remix option alone means that you could play most of the songs 30-40 different ways. However, there is a further feature, and it’s what really adds the personal touch to the game. As you clear the Realms you unlock different editing modes.

These are minigames of a sort that allow you to use 6 different methods of editing and personalising a 10-15 second loop of the song in question. Once unlocked, they will pop up during each song to allow you to add your own touch on the fly. The various methods range from moving a marker around a virtual spherical keyboard to create a tune, through to literally stretching and twisting the notes to your liking -depending on the type of editor that pops up.

Your little 10 second creations are then spliced into and/or overlaid across the main song. Whether it’s a thumping techno beat or a classical violin line will depend on the style and instrument selected at the time the option presented itself. You will get to do this several times through the course of each track, and whether you end up with a beautiful masterpiece or an insufferable cacophony is entirely down to the choices you’ve made.

Perhaps what’s most impressive is all of the above happens on the fly. There is no break in flow, and you never feel like the song has been interrupted by the minigames or instrument switching. Much of the time you are left with a creation you are generally proud of and that you want to share…. which is great, because after each performance you are given the option to save your clip and upload it to Upload studio or even direct to Youtube. A nice touch is that it doesn’t include the minigame in the recording, so the song seems even more seamless.

If you can’t be bothered to play through the story, or you just want to jump straight into some songs when you have friends round, you’ll welcome the inclusion of ‘Party Mode’. This is the ‘quick play’ option. No achievements or scoreboards, but a chance to play every song unlocked and ready to go.

There is also the inclusion of local multiplayer, in which you can play songs alongside a friend. In a truly Disney gesture you shake hands with the second player to introduce them into the game. Then each of you are given your own set of gestures to (at least attempt to) harmoniously ‘make music together’.

So that is the best I can do in terms of trying to explain how the game works, but it doesn’t do enough to tell you how the game feels. Perhaps this isn’t a surprise given the Disney pedigree, but this game is absolutely charming, in the literal sense of the word. From the moment Micky appears to pull back the red curtain and invites you into the game, you know you are in for a treat.

There are some negatives, of course. The story is weak, and a little contrived. The menus can occasionally be a pain to navigate and at the end of the day it has the limitations of even the best Kinect games.

Despite all of that, this is just SO. MUCH. FUN.

It feels fresh, the difficulty curve is spot on and you get a genuine sense of accomplishment and creation when you put a song together. With October and November offering 40 different ways to cause death and mayhem -from Assassin’s Creed to Sunset Overdrive, via Call of Duty- This may just be the fun, light-hearted escape you need. It certainly was for me. So give it a go (even just the free Demo HERE for Xbox One orHERE for Xbox360), I think you may just get hooked.

^HooksaN (@HooksaN)

Here’s the full track list for your perusal (scroll down for a video demonstration of the game at work):

• Dvořák – “Symphony No. 9 from the New World”

• Vivaldi – “The Four Seasons: Winter, 1st Movement”

• Avicii– “Levels”

• J.S. Bach – “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”

• Bruno Mars – “Locked Out of Heaven”

• Cee Lo Green – “Forget You”

• David Bowie – “Ziggy Stardust”

• Depeche Mode – “Enjoy the Silence”

• Drake – “Take Care” (ft. Rihanna)

• Elton John – “Rocket Man”

• The Flaming Lips “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1”

• Fun. – “Some Nights”

• Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”

• Imagine Dragons “Radioactive”

• Inon Zur – “Scout’s Theme” (ft. Lindsey Stirling)

• Jimi Hendrix “Fire”

• Kimbra – “Settle Down”

• Lady Gaga “Applause”

• Liszt “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2”

• Lorde – “Royals”

• M.I.A. – “Galang”

• Missy Elliot “Get Ur Freak On”

• Mussorgsky – “Night on Bald Mountain”

• New Order – “Blue Monday”

• Nicki Minaj – “Super Bass”

• Peter Gabriel – “In Your Eyes”

• Police – “Message in a Bottle”

• Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

• Tchaikovsky – “The Nutcracker Medley”

• The Who – “The Real Me”

• White Stripes – “Seven Nation Army”

• Mozart – “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”