Preview: Fantasia: Music Evolved

Well, I’m just going to come right out with it: Fantasia: Music Evolved was one of my top games of E3 this year.

Yeah, its a Kinect game, but I don’t care what you think about that. The reason? Its a Kinect game developed by Harmonix, the one studio on earth that’s time-and-time again proved that it’s capable of creating amazing motion controlled experiences. So, if I start to lose you when I describe Fantasia as a motion controlled conducting game, I want you to hold on and have some faith, okay?

In Fantasia, you’ll play as a modern day version of Yen Sids’ apprentice — whether or not you wear mouse ears is up to you — assisting in the campaign to bring music back to soundless areas. This means that — in terms of Harmonix games, at least — Fantasia actually has a story campaign that makes actual sense… and I’m looking square at you, Dance Central 3, for being the worst offender to date.

You start off in one music-less hub world, and using your hand to explore the area, search for elements to energise with sound and rhythm. There are two parts to this: finding new songs to conduct, or in-hub elements to interact with. Both focuses? Equally as fun as the other, but for entirely different reasons.

Fantasia has been advertised with current songs by artists like Bruno Mars, but the song we found and got to conduct (well, vicariously through the Harmonix developer, at least) was Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Can I get a “hell, yes!” for an amazing power song, anyone?

You’re not dancing in Fantasia, but rather flicking your left and right hands in the directions that are presented on-screen. The effect causes you to essentially look like you’re conducting an orchestra. The better you are, the better the music sounds, of course, but I don’t think you need to worry about failing a song; this isn’t Rock Band.

At various sections in the song, you’ll be presented with different directions to take the music; the developer could select the top right of a selection interface to lace the song with a heavy metal guitar, to the left to keep it as close to the original score as possible, or the bottom right to overlay some classical instruments over the music. You’ll have to chance to make selections like this in various points of the song, creating a unique remix that will grow with each selection. And, as you’d probably expect, each of the remix combinations we heard were amazing. If I wasn’t escorted from the room after the presentation, I would have sat in there and played the same song over and over again just to try different combinations of the tracks.

Back in the hub world itself, we watched the completed song sent musical energy into the air; to really drive that point home, a strain of “Bohemian Rhapsody” wafted through the hub. The developer then found a cluster of seahorses, and, with a little movement, brought them to life. As the seahorses swam away, a strain of music filled the air. After that, we then came upon a bed of clams. As the developer touched each individual clam, it came to life. When the entire bed was roused, the developer had an entire set of drums to play with.

As the developer ran her hand over each clam, a corresponding drum bent sounded. Thankfully, the Harmonix representative said that this type of functionality would never lead to awful sounding beats — and he was proved right. The drum work that resulted from the developer’s motions was nothing short of rock solo material. The same was proven true with a guitar motif as we progressed through the level.

In true super-creative Harmonix fashion, each of those little in-hub strains — plus clips from the songs you complete — are recorded and mixed together to form a unique song that you’ve basically unknowingly constructed just by playing inside a world. To first experience your own song being recorded, bit by bit… well, it’s truly magical. Disney-type magical, in fact. Unsurprisingly, that’s exactly the type of thing — that feeling of wonder and merriment that Mickey had as Fantasia’s original apprentice — that Disney and Harmonix are going for.

Your goal in-game is to bring music to the world, and I’m sure Harmonix’s is to do the same in real life. I don’t know if words can actually do this concept justice. Please go and experience Fantasia first-hand when its released in 2014.