To begin with – several well -known facts about the Opera N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tale of King Saltan". This famous opera was written according to the same fairy tale Pushkin. She was dedicated to the centenary of the poet’s birth, the prime minister took place in 1900 on the stage of the Moscow private opera – the Solodovnikovsky Theater partnership. In the role of the artist-winner, the outstanding Russian painter Mikhail Vrubel acted, and Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, who managed, according to art historians, was conducted by the remarkable fine finds and the poetic charm of the orchestral episodes of his teacher. And now – one little -known fact: the famous composition “Flight of a bumblebee”, under which Tsarevich Gvidon catches up with the ship of his father, serves as an excellent basis for the musical shooter Beat Hazard , games in which every note is a deadly weapon.
La-la-fu
The closest ideological relative of Beat Hazard is a musical arcade Audiosurf. You choose an arbitrary musical track on your hard drive, the game analyzes it using some tricky internal mechanisms and changes what is happening on the screen in accordance with the features of the musical composition.
That's just, unlike the game InvisibleHandlebar , Beat Hazard is not a race, but a shooter most similar to Geometry Wars: Retro Kaboom Slots Casino Evolved or even an arcade Asteroids Born in 1979. A boat, maneuverable, but very fragile moves along the closed game arena. The cosmos is full of horrors: asteroids and aggressively tuned enemy fighters fly around with crazy speed, a clash with which is mortal. Bonuses fall out of the defeated enemies, and periodically on the screen, under the deafening roar of the siren, the boss crawls out (there are two types in the game – large and very large) – a heavily armed cruiser, which also needs to be urgently shot. The main task is to live to the end of the round.
The intensity of what is happening on the screen directly depends on which composition you chose as a soundtrack. Music affects everything – the power of weapons, the quantity and importunity of opponents, special effects … Try to load the Pink Floyd group in the Beat Hazard song, and most likely will be disappointed: the nondescript gray points will fly out of the ship guns that can not even damage even to damage large asteroid, not to mention warships.
But it is worth turning on the melody later, and the show will begin on the screen cleaner than any “singing fountains”: our starship will begin to shoot with multi-colored rays of rage and some fiery whips that will turn any object on the screen in a crumb in a matter of seconds. Cosmos flashes a thousand multi -colored sparks (extinguishing and sunken again to the beat of music), everything around flickers, shimmers and flickers at a frantic speed – a warning message about possible seizures on the title screen of the game quickly ceases to seem as far -fetched. Along with this, each of your maneuver, each movement in a strange way fits into the overall rhythm of what is happening. You feel any note literally with your fingers, in peak moments you feel that it is not music that controls the game, but the player himself controls music.
Do not shoot a pianist
By default, almost any melody is suitable for Beat Hazard, if only quickly. However, in fact, not every track is suitable for this game. Below we publish three songs, to play under which it was especially pleasant, as well as three compositions that did not justify our hopes.
Bulls on Parade
This song Rage Against the Machine contains a protest against the US military-industrial complex. Even in isolation from the provocative text, the protest was a success: at least in the Beat Hazard the screen looks no less impressive than the fireworks on May 9.
smooth Criminal
Michael Jackson is perceived by Beat Hazard with a bang – we loaded the game They Don’t Care About Us, Black or White, Thriller – and each shocked us to the depths. But in Smooth Criminal, the game arranges a natural light show. Keep in mind – eyes can hurt from habit.
Vocalise Eduard Hilya
Not in need of the submission of vocalizes “I am very happy, because I finally return home …” Initially raised doubts in us – the song is relatively calm, with such a game behaves unpredictably. However, the mighty baritone of Eduard Hilya (photo – from the site Kremlin.ru) even withstood the Beat Hazard test.
Flight of the Valkyrie
The melody “Flight of the Valkyrie” from the opera Valkyrie Richard Wagner seemed to be ideal for Beat Hazard. However, it did not work out: about half the track has to be sluggishly to shoot from asteroids.
Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da
It is reported that John Lennon openly despised this Paul McCartney song with the White Album The Beatles, calling it “old woman”. We will get rid of such high-profile statements, but the fact is in the Beat Hazard Ob-la-di, Ob-la-DA looks very sluggish sluggish.
Viva Las Vegas
The cover of The Dead Kennedys for the song by Elvis Presley Viva Las Vegas sounded great in the film “Fear and Hatred in Las Vegas” by Terry Gilliam, but for some reason it is completely unsuitable for our purposes-even in peak moments of weapon power is not enough.
Musical explosion
I must admit – it is not always possible to achieve this effect of Beat Hazard. Like Audiosurf, it is imprisoned for a specific type of music. The best game works with electronics and quick guitar compositions. She digests piano melodies through time, she does not perceive slow music almost in any form. In addition, there are extremely ridiculous situations when during a calm part of the composition the airplitance of fighters suddenly declares or, conversely, at the peak of your firepower, the screen is unexpectedly empty – in the game, the levels of which are based on music, this should not happen, this should not happen.
Finally, Beat Hazard is too fast-the authors are not even trying to at least somehow motivate the player. Of course, there is a system of titles that we get for glasses score during tracks. There are aceretheres, and often rather cunning (you could not shoot for a minute under the enemy’s squall fire?). But at the same time, the campaign, even the most litter, is not provided, there are only two types of bosses, and the habits of ordinary enemies can be studied in details in the first two rounds. For these reasons, the average time, for which the game manages to get bored, is one and a half to two in the evening.
* * *
Nevertheless, at its best moments, Beat Hazard is amazing: when the melody is gaining momentum, space, until recently cold and unfriendly, explodes dozens of flowers, pulsates and winks. The outside world is very quickly dissolved in this light music hell, and after everything ends, only one persistent question remains in the head: how it turns out that a artisan game worth ten dollars can cause stronger emotions than a multimillion Modern Warfare 2?
Reigracy – Yes
Cool plot – No
Originality – No
Easy to master – Yes
Evidence of expectations: 80%
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound and music: 10
Interface and management: 8
Waited? Musical shooter, in which even the song “Boy-gay” of the Tattoos group can turn into a weapon of mass destruction. Bright, noisy, but rather quickly boring.
Mania rating: 8.0
"Great"