Beatbuddy - Tale of the Guardians - 1 DVD
Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians is an action-adventure game that
utilizes music throughout the majority of the gameplay to create an
amazing audio-visual experience.
Composed of hand-drawn 2D high resolution sprites and a soundtrack
featuring a mixture of high intensity drum and bass along with
impressive Jazz beats,Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardiansis the evolution
of using music as a primary mechanic.
Save Symphonia
The plot of Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians is about saving Beatbuddy's
world of Symphonia from the evil Prince Maestro and his army.
You explore the underwater world to solve puzzles and gain access to new areas in the world.
A soundtrack to match the addictive gameplay
Most of the time in Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians, you just play as
Beatbuddy. Swimming through the linear environment, you have to open
passageways, break barriers made of shells, and escape from huge
predators.
Beatbuddy isn't invincible and needs to break shells to regain his lost
life meter. Enemies include various swimming creatures and as well as
the world itself. Hermit crabs dance to the beat with their spiky legs
and the environment will try to crush you against coral.
The soundtrack in Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians creates the ambiance
for the entire level. It actively plays a role depending on where you
are in the level. When things get intense, the song starts to speed up
and you know that something is going to happen.
Puzzles also interact with the music's beat as some puzzles have to be
matched against the current song that's playing. The first couple levels
don't introduce much of the expanded world in Beatbuddy: Tale of the
Guardians, but once you get into the game, the music is both your friend
and enemy.
Best with headphones and controller
As an action-adventure game, Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians thrives
through the use of a controller. It's much easier to control movement
and attacks for precise aiming.
Using headphones helps to imbed your senses in the world of Symphonia.
It's also easy to get distracted by the fast tempo music that serves
multiple purposes.
The technical requirements aren't that high for the game, so it's one that can be enjoyed across a range of hardware.
A perfect symphony
Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians isn't going to interest everyone. Even
before trying the game, I was skeptical. But once I started playing it
and getting past the first level, I saw and heard how the music worked
with the gameplay.
It becomes more pronounced as you continue with the more difficult
levels and you have to keep track of where the beat is to solve some
puzzles. Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians doesn't just present puzzles
in the levels, but evolves them to make them more challenging.
The visual style is amazing with a pseudo-three dimensional style of
layered 2D sprites. Each enemy and character is highly detailed and the
animation movement is impressive.
Once you start playing, you have to get past the first level to really
see the expansion of all the ideas that THREAKS put into the game.
A big, welcome surprise
Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians isn't what I expected when it was
introduced as a game that has a strong use of music. The whole design is
a welcome change for adventure games and the use of music is one of the
best I've ever heard.
The gradual increase of difficulty is welcome and Beatbuddy: Tale of the
Guardians doesn't directly penalize you for making mistakes. It's looks
simple on the surface, but contains one of the best gameplay
experiences this year.
