Song Summoner: An Unsung Treat by Square Enix

When I first got my iPod Touch, it was a 2nd Gen, and I roamed the app store for interesting looking games. At the time, I was still a complete Square Enix fangirl, and that's all it took for me to invest. Thus, I discovered Song Summoner.

I'll add here I'm not normally a fan of tactics games. They're interesting, and there are special ones-I'm finally starting to get into Fire Emblem, the original GBA port. But something about Song Summoner appealed.

It had a pretty basic quest line, at least at first glance. A dystopian fantasy world ruled by machines. The main character becomes a "Conductor", able to summon tune troopers, to combat the threat.
This is where it got special.
"Tune Troopers" are constructed based on songs found on the player's iPod. As you play through, you can unlock more possible troopers, as well as a few 'Superstars' of each type. 50 Characters sorted into 5 different job classes. Each of the characters had unique art-beautiful art.

There were different bonuses for each attack in the tactics map-either by color of trooper, or job class. And honestly there was something personal about knowing the people fighting the battles were born of your taste in music.

Obviously the game had a good soundtrack, because otherwise why focus so much on music?
It was a singularly unique game, which I suppose makes sense. IOS took it off the market a few years back, which makes me sad, but it's still worth talking about. Especially since Square Enix likes reissuing it-and maybe we could see an Android Port one of these days.

Gameplay: 1.5 of 2. It is a tactics games, originally designed for click wheel, later released for a touch screen, and probably the only reason an old ipod Touch is charging under my desk.

Story: 1.5 of 2. There is a tiny bit of predictability in one 'twist' that I called from the beginning of the game. However, asides from that, the story is a surprisingly touching adventure, with unexpected surprises when you replay levels later on in the game.

Graphics: 2 of 2, though it's almost unfair to deliver this score. Square Enix has a lot of reputations in gaming circles, but graphics have always been something they excelled at.

Music: 1 of 2. It's a fair soundtrack, but compared to previous Square Enix entries, nothing that will stick with you.

Bonus: 1 of 2. Did I mention how cool it is to pick one of your favorite songs and get a badass playable character? The inverse is also true. Sometimes your favorite songs get a character completely unfairly designated and leveled.

1.5+1.5+2+1+2=7 of 10.

Starsweep: A Simple Pleasure

Lets Talk about Starsweep. I first played it on my Playstation One, and it was re-released on the Playstation Network. A small, short game, but rather fun. Its a simple game for when you just want to play a puzzle game. The story is brief, but the character designs have a lot of work. Nine stages, two "battles" each, except for the first one-where your player character originates from, a Psuedo Greece. The music is catchy and the game play is fairly simple and fun to learn.

Also its worth noting like all puzzle games it has different modes. Anyway, as I said, its a simple puzzle game and very straight forward, so now I can get onto the scoring.

Game Play: 2 out of 2. Though, to be fair, it's really hard to mess up controls in block drop puzzle games. Not impossible-but difficult.

Story: 1 out of 2. It's a simple puzzle game, so it didn't do a lot of focus here, and that's expected.

Graphics: 2 out of 2. They're simple, a combined effect of pixelated sprite icons throwing the blocks, and more detailed anime character art. It's 2D, but it's still very pretty.

Music: 1 out of 2. While the music is catchy, if you wind up replaying a level a lot because of difficulty, it will make you grate your teeth.

Bonus: 2 out of 2. The game was released in 1997, and the main quest follows a female protagonist. Outside Barbie, Samus Aran, and Lara Croft, there still aren't a lot of those in comparison to male. Additionally, given the simplicity of the puzzle game, there was a lot of thought put into a wide selection of characters that you would encounter.

2+1+2+1+2=8

Starsweep walks away from Spryte Bytes with an 8 out of 10 score, which isn't half bad for a puzzle game. I would definitely suggest availing yourself either on the Vita or PS3-I'm not sure if it's PS4 compatible as I have not tried.