Game Reviews

SineWave

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iOS
| SineWave
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SineWave
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iOS
| SineWave

You can do anything to music. Work, play, exercise, eat, go to sleep. So it's rather curious that games incorporate music into their mechanics are often quite, well, one-note.

So-called beat-matching games belong to a genre all of their own, but it's a fairly small one.

SineWave attempts to jazz things up a bit by stirring in some action shoot-'em-up elements, but it still moves along to a disappointingly steady beat.

Future sounds

You take control of a futuristic spaceship, hurtling through a series of twisting tunnels.

Rather like a 3D endless runner, you swipe on the screen to avoid oncoming obstructions. Occasionally, an enemy craft will appear on-screen, necessitating a direct tap in order to blast it away with your lasers.

But the point here isn't to stay alive. It's to initiate both of these core tasks at just the right time, which means in sync with the beat of the frantic dubstep track playing in the background.

Your ship might be collecting coins along its path, but these are as much time-keeping aids as they are typical videogame knick-knacks to be hoarded and spent.

Out of tune

The key trouble with SineWave is that its action game trappings don't quite match up to the colourful intensity of its dubstep soundtrack.

There are higher difficulty settings that undoubtedly crank the urgency and challenge levels up. But even then, there's a curious lack of vibrancy and soul to proceedings.

I couldn't quite place my finger on what was amiss at first, as everything moves along fluidly enough (but for a few command prompt misreads).

But there is a fundamental disconnect between SineWave's visuals and its gameplay, and it proves fatal to the kind of repeat performances that such a game needs to encourage to survive on your iPhone or iPad.

SineWave

A solid beat-matching game that attempts to liven things up with action elements, but the disparate parts simply don't marry up in a way that's sufficiently satisfying
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.