Music Neon is a puzzle game in the same vein of Pipe Dream, where you must rotate neon pipes to connect from one of the nodes on the left to any of the receivers on the right. The developer?s website also promises an ?amazing? visual and auditory experience to go along with this easy puzzle structure, but this falls flat on its face.
This game was an unusual and awful ordeal. I imagined the sick beats and simple gameplay of Lumines mixed with the gorgeous and vibrant art style of Geometry Wars. From the screenshots and the developer?s description, this notion doesn?t seem so crazy. But then I turned the game on.
I was initially greeted with a cheerful title theme reminiscent of a Nokia ringtone from 1999, and a background of what appeared to be dancing stars in the shapes of Christmas trees. Don?t get confused like I did, though. This game is NOT Christmas themed. Ignore the snowflakes, the evergreens, and especially ignore the Christmas lights. If you want a truly Christmas themed game, the same developer made Christmas Neon, which has the exact same design, only Christmas Neon has rotating Santa heads. Now you begin to get an idea of the caliber of game we?re working with.
Then we get into the actual game, with no explanation of what to do or how to do it. There is an Instructions screen (pictured on the right), but it only explains what things are, which is useless when everything is already labeled for you. The point of this game is to create paths from left to right, and to enjoy the sound that you create when you complete said paths. As you fulfill your quota of completed paths, you?ll move to a new level. With each level you unlock new pieces to rotate. These pieces are also stored in your ?Neon Box? accessible from the main menu. These pieces aren?t different in any way other than their look. They all sound the same (a random piano note) and they all have one of three basic uses: continue the line straight, turn the line, or split the line.
As for enjoying the sounds made by these glowing neon pieces, well that?s a hopeless endeavor. I regretted success in this game, as every time I finished a line, I was met with a brutally irritating piano lick followed by the sound of glass shattering. This, on top of the repetitive and generic background music, made everyone who was in the room turn, faces puckered, and beg me to turn off Music Neon.
This is the worst iPhone game I have played yet. The only redeeming qualities are the visuals, which are best enjoyed from far away, and the premise, which ultimately fails. The gameplay is tired, the user interface feels cheap and plastic, and the so-called ?music interaction?? Well, I?d rather turn on Sound Grenade for an hour. Don?t get this game. If you happen to be a masochist, then get the Lite version. I would hate for you to accidentally fund a sequel.