Sound Shapes Message Board

Okay, this is a big one. Are you ready? Here we go.

So you probably saw the PS4 launch last week – pretty exciting, right!? Did you get one? Lucky lucky if you did.

We’ve been playing with the PlayStation 4 for a while, because we’ve been preparing Sound Shapes for this screaming fast new machine. Sound Shapes doesn’t exactly push the hardware, but it sure looks sweet! We’ve also added new functionality with DualShock 4′s touchpad, light bar, and speakers. It also takes advantage of PS4′s social features, like the new Share button that allows you to easily livestream your game with friends and share vids of your levels.

With all these improvements, this is a great time to pick up Sound Shapes (we’re impressed with your monk-like patience if you haven’t). If you’re already one of our thousands of supporters, we have great news… The PS4 version of Sound Shapes is free for you! That’s right, everyone who’s already purchased the game from PSN for PS3 or PS Vita also gets it for PS4 (isn’t Cross-Buy great?). The flip is also true… if you buy the PS4 version you get both the PS3 and PS Vita versions at no additional cost – three for the price of one.

But wait, there’s more! We’re also releasing new DLC today. First up is another installment of the Milkcrate with brand-new guest curators including two head honchos at Sony (who also happen to be big fans of the game!) and the folks at Santa Monica Studio (makers of the God of War series, the PixelJunk Series, The Unfinished Swan, as well as Journey.) A total of five new albums.

We’re also dropping two brand-new Sound Packs:

We used them in the trailer at the top of this post, so have a listen there.

For the first time ever, we’re releasing an Art Pack. The City Art Pack brings buildings, bridges, graffiti, and BBQs to the editor so you can create a beautiful urban utopia in addition to the bombed out, post-apocalyptic, wasteland of the Beck Cities world. It goes very nicely with the Old School Sound Pack!

The Milkcrate albums are available via a free update and the DLC packs are $.99 each. All are available on PSN or through the in-game Music Store.

We’re super excited about all of the latest updates to the Sound Shapes world, and there’s still more to come in 2014. If you were lucky enough to get a PS4 at launch, we hope you pick up Sound Shapes and / or the DLC; if the new PlayStation is still in your future, no worries, everything is available for all three systems.

As always, share your levels with us on Twitter or Facebook and let us know what you think of the new content. Talk soon!

We’re celebrating a big birthday this week – Sound Shapes turns one! At the age when we were wearing diapers and barely crawling, our strange musical platformer has been out in the real world making things happen.

First he came back with some good reviews, then a bunch of awards, and now he’s hanging out with thousands of friends making levels. Who knew our little game would be so driven? As parents, it’s real nice to see.

During this birthday week we have lots going on, and you’re invited to the festivities. Have a look.

Creator Contest

We’re holding a level design/jam competition. To participate, create and upload a level highlighting what you love about Sound Shapes and hashtag the title with #BDay. Upload your level by August 19th, 2013. Winners will be announced soon with the launch of the next Milkcrate.

The top six creators will receive a signed, screen printed Sound Shapes poster and will be included in a special 1 Year Anniversary Milkcrate album which will be a permanent part of the Sound Shapes community.

No purchase necessary. Must be 13 years of age or over and a US resident to enter. See the full rules here.

Birthday Sale

If you haven’t tried Sound Shapes yet, now’s the perfect time! Starting when PlayStation Store updates later today, and running for the next week (until August 13th, 2013) the game will be 50% off! It’s also Cross Buy, so when you buy it for either PS3 or PS Vita you’ll get the game for both platforms automatically. If you already own Sound Shapes we have something for you too: the DLC is 50% off, and all the avatars are free for the duration of the sale.

A Free Gift For You

If you’re a fan of Sound Shapes (or just want some free stuff) click here to go to a special PlayStation Community thread, post your thoughts or birthday wishes, and get the Car Mini-Album & Entity Pack for free! You’ll need to post by Monday, August 12th 11:59pm PST to get the gift. We’ll be sending the codes out via XMB message and email no later than August 30th.

One last thing before we light the candles… a huge thank you to the guys and gals who make the thousands of levels that consistent blow our minds. Jool, Beej, Gasssst, Gez, Daft, Bleu, Dude, Pika, Amrods, A45, PopTarts, TTough +++ so many more… you’re awesome!

If you haven’t explored the Community yet, have a look at The Milkcrate. It’s a collection of the best Community levels curated around a particular theme or by guest curators (like Baiyon, Ghostly Records, Gamespot, and The Verge) and is a great place to start.

Ok, this is a long post so we’ll tie it up here. Thanks to everyone who supported us this past year – it means a lot. Keep playing, keep creating, and stay tuned, we have many more announcements coming soon.

Happy Birthday! Cake by our own Sharon K.

Everyone has the friends who know all the new bands and all the cool music, who make the mixtapes and the killer roadtrip soundtracks, the friends who you always ask, “What are you listening to?”

We made some good friends creating Sound Shapes, the kind of friends that are deep into games and music. So with Sound Shapes being all about games and music too, we just had to ask them, “So what are you playing?”

Our first Milkcrate release was March 12th and featured six albums we chose here at Queasy. For our second release we’ve asked our friends at The Verge, Gamespot, and Ghostly International to create Milkcrate albums with their favorite community-made levels.

Also invited was Japanese multimedia artist, Art and Music Director on PixelJunk 4AM, Baiyon.

Here’s our interview with him about his experience curating the Milkcrate.

Sound Shapes: What excited you about the Sound Shapes Milkcrate?

Baiyon: For starters, being able to work again with Shaw-han Liem was definitely one of the most exciting things about Sound Shapes. Shaw-Han and I have worked together on some musical projects before and it was such an amazing experience. It’s been a great honor to be part of this exciting project, which involved many artists and from Canada whom I’ve collaborated with, including Jim Guthrie, Superbrothers from Sword & Sworcery. It’s also gave me a great chance to play numerous levels that other users have created.

SS: What was your reaction to some of the Community-made levels you played?

Baiyon: I was simply amazed at how much tweaking is done to the levels, and which can only be done when one goes through the level so many times to test it out.

SS: What was the inspiration for the “Picture Book” theme and cover art in your Milkcrate album.

The Milkcrate

The Community Milkcrate came together shortly after Sound Shapes was released last August. We were so impressed by the amazing level creations of our community that we had to find a way to highlight and share them with people. We came up with the concept of creating playlists of levels and releasing them as albums similar to the campaign and complete with liner notes and custom album art. Our first release was in March 2013 and featured six albums of curated community levels. Future albums will feature special guest curators.

Baiyon: As I went through the variety of levels that the community offered, I found a lot of “picture book” – like levels that cleverly used the tools in order to draw their original pictures and writings. I was also impressed at this particular level where the colors and the feel of the level was so soft and delicate. That’s when the concept for the theme came to mind. I am hoping that the players could feel like they are playing in the world of my artwork with the pattern series “Bug-Check” and the creatures I created which, so to speak, have come to be my signature.

The artwork for the cover is my signature pattern, blended with the Sound Shape character.

SS: Have you experimented with the game editor, creating music or levels yourself? What are your thoughts from a musician’s perspective?

Baiyon: Yes, I tried several times. If I focus too much on the music, the level becomes boring. If I focus too much on the level design, then I lose the musical freedom. So I have to make a lot of compromises, and that process is just like game design itself.

I always think this, but the best game is to make games.

If you’re someone who’s made a game before, then you’re more likely to enjoy playing games. Sound Shapes is definitely one of those games, that features the joy of game making.

SS: What have you been working on lately? Anything you can share?

Baiyon: I’ve been working on a few game remixes recently.
First is a game called FEZ.

I was also involved with the Street Fighter II remix CD, that comes with the special edition of High Score Girl (4), which is a popular manga comic about Japan in the 90s. Check out how I remixed Blanka’s sound.

One more thing. For the people who may not be familiar with my works, I wish to introduce one of my recent projects. I have once collaborated with Shaw-Han Liem who is co-creator in Sound Shapes, on the benefit compilation album called “Vibes against Vibesvol.1 & 2“. This album is dedicated to the sufferers from the monstrous earthquakes that hit East Japan 2 years ago. Please check out our collaborative tracks if you would like to know more about Shaw-Han Liem works.

For the latest news, check my Twitter and Official Website.

In addition to Baiyon, you’ll find albums from Ghostly International, The Verge, and Gamespot. Each comes with liner notes and custom album art and is available today as a free update. Hope you enjoy it.

Ghostly International Records

Ghostly International is a multi-platform cultural curator, a tightly knit aesthetic universe fulfilling the roles of art gallery, design house, clothing designer, technology innovator, music-publishing company—and, yes, record label—in one.

“Since we’re a group of musicians ourselves, it was pretty great to be able to select a few of these levels for our Milkcrate album. There are some amazingly difficult, and at the same time, wonderful sounding levels in there, and from the standpoint of being a creative company we love that these were created by the folks playing the game. We’ve both played with making levels, and haven’t come up with anything even close to the inspiring ones they’ve picked. Although we listen to music all day at work, it is fun to come home and use your mind and ears in a different way for a few hours. We hope you enjoy playing these as much as we did playing thru and picking them.”

The Verge

A media network focused on covering the digital trends around tech, gadgets, games, and more.

“The Milkcrate project feels a lot like a mixtape… only for a video game. Only instead of painstakingly recording your favorite songs on a cassette, you’re digging through the heaps of user-generated Sound Shapes levels in order to find the ones that speak to you. But the result is the same: you get to share cool things with people, in a satisfyingly personal way.”

Gamespot

Gamespot is one of the original gaming websites and has been providing the news, reviews, and features about video games since 1996.

“Almost a year after GameSpot reviewed Sound Shapes it was great to see that the game’s community is not only still active but also very creative. If I ever finish creating my second LittleBigPlanet Vita project I’ll be sure to have another go at making a Sound Shapes level.”

Queasy Games

We couldn’t resist curating one ourselves featuring levels made with our Car DLC Pack.

The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and “wub” is in the air… and with the spring comes a new blast of Sound Shapes DLC. Two unique sound packs are available right now and in just a couple weeks we’re stuffing the Community Milkcrate with more albums from guest curators – more on that below after this brand new video showcasing our new 80’s and Dubstep Sound Packs.

First the sound packs. The 80′s pack brings the synth-poppy melodies and digital drum beats inspired by the neon decade when big hair and leg warmers ruled the lands. If that’s too gaudy for you, dive into the dark and dirty world of the Dubstep Sound Pack with the lurching, wobbling, big bass drops straight from the streets of London. Will you dare to combine the two?

Both packs each include new notes, loops, five new Beat School levels, and five Trophies.

And later this month we roll out a special installment of the Milkcrate, our carefully curated collection of Community levels. What’s so special? Well, we asked some of our favorite people to hand-pick their favorite levels, write up liner notes, design custom album artwork, and send them your way – people like:

• Japanese media artist Baiyon
• Indie music label Ghostly International
• Pioneering game site Gamespot
• The kings of digital cool at TheVerge.com
• And the fifth is Queasy-curated (we’re still special, right?)

Pretty rad if we say so ourselves, and there are many more guest-curated Milkcrate albums coming soon. Stay tuned.

Both Sound Packs will be available today for $0.99 each on the PlayStation Store (PS3 and PS Vita), and the Milkcrate albums are coming on May 28th as a free update (they’ll appear like magic when you log in). Hope you dig all this new content, and we’ll see you soon.

Hey everyone! We’ve been working hard on our next update (our biggest one yet!) and it’s finally ready. With new levels, vehicles, creator content, offline play, and more musical/visual goodies than we can list, there’s something for everyone here. Hope you like it!

Car Mini-Album & Creator Pack ($1.99)

Put on your driving gloves, there’s a new vehicle in Sound Shapes and it changes everything! Speed, flip, loop, and jump your way through the levels and experience Sound Shapes like never before. We set out to make a platformer and created a trials game by accident. Yeah!

This pack includes new Campaign levels, a full Sound Pack, brand new editor entities (like loop-de-loops, speed boosts, and more), Beat School lessons, and trophies too.

The Community Milkcrate & Six New Albums (free update)

Perfectly sized to fit a record, the trusty milkcrate has been holding music collections for a long time and with the Community Milkcrate we’re continuing that tradition. We’ve hand-picked eclectic and creative levels from the Community and arranged them into themed albums. Each is presented in a brand new interface and comes complete with liner notes with insights and interesting things to check out while playing them, kinda like a director’s commentary for levels. We’re so blown away by what you guys are making that we wanted a way to properly showcase it. Oh… and the Milkcrate albums become part of the game so any levels selected are baked right into Sound Shapes.

The Milkcrate launches with six albums and 35 total levels and is included free in today’s patch update.

Offline Play (free update)

You’ve been asking for it and it’s finally here. Sounds Shapes now has Offline Play. While connected to the Sound Shapes servers, select any community level, tap a button, and sync it. Now you can play your favorite levels whenever you want! (Offline Play is included free in today’s patch update as well).

John Drake is the Director of Communications and Brand Management at Harmonix Music Systems, makers of Rock Band and Dance Central. He is most often found flying on planes to and from demos or trying to coax Ryan Davis into a dance frenzy with his patented move, the “Dazzle Crotch”. He also hosts the Giant Bomb Homage-fest that is the Harmonix Live Stream every Monday.

10. Sound Shapes

I bought my Vita as an impulse purchase at a Best Buy, due to general techno-lust. While it hasn’t made any strides in replacing my suite of Apple devices for on-the-go gaming, Sound Shapes stands out as a varied, charming and uniquely musical platforming experience that made fighting with the PlayStation Store trying to add money to my wallet worth it. The game got more intriguing with every level (I particularly liked the Beck suite) and justified, for a short while, carrying my Vita and headphones around everywhere.

9. Spaceteam

Anything that gives me an excuse to get Alex Rigopulos, Eric Pope, and Nick Chester into a room together and just scream nonsense at them is worth all the money in the world. Oh, it’s free? WELL DOWNLOAD IT ONTO EVERYTHING THEN. Seriously though, Spaceteam is the best experience I’ve had with local iOS multiplayer…probably ever. Who is your ideal Spaceteam?

8. Dance Central 3

Is it bullshit to put a game you worked on onto an end of year list? Is it? Mikey Neumann was all "I’m too good for that, I’ll just mention it in my post script." Well *crag* that--Dance Central 3 is the best game ever developed for Kinect, it involves time-traveling dance crime fighting secret agents, it has Gangnam Style now and it allows you to HIGH FIVE YOUR OPPONENT TO START--GAME OF THE YEAR. (Except 8 on my list cause I’m willing to be an asshole and put it on here, but not THAT much of an asshole.) Though I’m clearly a biased representative, if you have people in your life who are looking to dance, have fun and use a Kinect, get DC3 and Double Fine’s Kinect Party for the 1-2 punch of hilariousness. Seriously.

7. Fez

Just the weirdest, brain-bendingest game wrapped up in a smart and simple execution. It’s really the open-world game of platformers. And just when you think you’re done, you get sucked back in for a whole new bizarre adventure. Also, QR codes--equal parts genius and ridiculous.

6. Assassin’s Creed III

Though it suffers from the “all-story” meta-narrative that all AAA games this year were infected with, I really, really enjoyed running around historically nerdy scenes, trying to be stealth, failing, and just hatcheting my way out of them. I had a lot of issues with AC3, but I also had a TON of fun during parts of it. Many of this year’s biggest games left me feeling uninspired after a few hours, playing out of obligation and not out of desire. With Assassin’s Creed III, I felt compelled to push history along and watch these characters grind the revolutionary war out. Additionally, I’m excited for the DLC that’s coming out where I’mma get to murder George Washington, because that guy has it coming.

5. Trials Evolution

Trials is still Trials, which means constant restarting of levels and the sweatiest hands I get all year as I muscle through ever more complicated levels. The crew at Harmonix was often found crowded around a 4-player multiplayer match screaming at each other, which was a welcome addition. Lastly, though I didn’t have time to dig in myself, I was particularly wowed that the devs at RedLynx figured out how to compact their level editor down into a robust tool fans could use to torture everyone around the world.

4. New Super Mario Bros. U

Alright, so I bought a Wii U, I really need a game that makes me feel justified in that purchase, and ZombiU freaks me out a little too much to complete. Where is a gamer to turn? Ah, like any Nintendo product--straight to a first-party title. Thank god NSMBU came out at launch. Though it’s “just more Mario”, that’s a welcome respite between bouts of Funky Barn. The platforming is tight and familiar, the graphics look great, and the extra bells and whistles are quirky and interesting. Additionally, This Mario Bros meant that our house has begun using the term “Bubbling” in casual conversation – When shit is just too stressful, bubble yourself and float through the level. “You okay, man?” “Rough day dude, but it’s cool--I’m just bubbling through to tomorrow.”

3. The Walking Dead

Thank god (or Telltale) for characters we can care about, environments and an art style that feels natural for the end of the world, and gameplay that stays out of the way. Pretty much everything that can be said in praise of The Walking Dead has been said at this point, but I enjoyed watching fans stumble across it over the course of multiple months--playing through it episode by episode, marathoning it all at once, or putting it down and picking it back up again weeks later. Walking Dead became lodged in your brain when you weren’t playing it, and that’s a testament to the writing and design at its core. So good.

2. Frog Fractions

Probably the most UNIQUE experience I had this year with a game, Frog Fractions is a fever dream wrapped in a nightmare wrapped up in Number Crunchers. Leap-frogging (see what I did there?) between a rapid-fire set of game styles, it’s frenetic and messy and confusing and awesome. I stumbled across the link (because LOL it’s a flash game) at 1am in a hotel, intending to play for 4-5 minutes just to check it out. I ended up unable to put the game down. So great. So, so weird.

1. Mass Effect 3

I wasn’t won over quickly enough by the gameplay in ME1 or ME2 to fall in love with the franchise, so I was surprised when Mass Effect 3 completely sucked me in for a few weeks this year. It tightened up everything I was hesitant about previously, making the shooting/combat fun and the quests comprehensible. Evolved gameplay aside, Mass Effect 3 felt like a crafted celebration of how the world BioWare created has evolved across 3 amazing games. The story, characters and universe were all equally compelling and made me feel like my moment-to-moment actions in this world had real consequences. While that causality was somewhat undermined by the catch-all endings, I thought the 25-30 hours I put into the game were some of the most enjoyable I’ve had in this console generation.

The holidays are upon us and things are getting festive here at Queasy Games! Between launching Sound Shapes, reviews of the game, awards, and an awesome Community, we have a lot to be thankful for – it’s been a great year! And because you’re one of our good friends, we made you a gift. Oh, it’s okay you didn’t get us anything – playing our game, creating amazing levels, and just being you is more than enough.

Go ahead… open it.

Yup, a Holiday Sound Pack. Do you like it? Five new Christmas-themed instruments from classic carols to create your own holiday tunes – because there’s no such thing as too much Christmas music!

How do you get them? Just turn on Sound Shapes on your PS3 or PS Vita, connect to the internet, and they’ll automatically appear.

Oh really, we’re so glad you like them and we hope you enjoy them over the holidays. Anyway, we need to get going (the reindeer are getting restless) but from everyone here at Queasy Games and the whole Sound Shapes team, we wish you and your loved ones all the best and a happy holiday!

PS… if you create some levels, put #XMAS in the title and we’ll play them while chilling over the break. Talk soon!

Hey Sound Shapers, we’re really excited to announce our first wave of DLC: four new packs are coming your way – three Sound Packs and a Curved Terrain Pack. The Sound Packs each include five new instruments, five brand new Beat School levels, and for you Trophy hunters, five new Trophies!

The Sound Packs are $0.99 each, and the Curved Terrain Pack is free. You’ll find everything in our new in-game Sound Shapes Music Shop today. (You can also grab them on PSN, as usual.)

Here’s a short trailer with a track we put together using some of the new sounds. And remember, if you create something you’re digging, tell us on Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr – we love playing your levels.

Oh, and one (ok, a few) more things… So the community has created over 15,000 levels (!) and we’ve been noting our favorites since launch. But how to share them? We have an idea! Coming in December is the Community Milkcrate – the best user-created content in Sound Shapes gathered and organized into themed albums, so you can find the levels that match your mood or play style. Chill, amped, long, short, tough as nails, and on and on. As part of the Milkcrate, we’ve been chatting with some rad musicians and game industry folks, and they’ll also be putting together collections of their favorites for you (their stuff coming in 2013). The new year will also bring a new vehicle DLC pack but before the big ‘13 we have a little holiday present from everyone here at Queasy — stay tuned!

The DLC Details

Bring some clean analog tones to your game with five new acoustic instruments. Strum and pick a masterpiece with the guitars, dance across the ivories on the piano or thumb the unique sounds of the kalimba.

This pack is all about rhythm. Snares, hi-hats, toms, and more let you groove to everything from a cool jazz backdrop to a driving rock beat. There’s even an electronic kit for some 80′s hip-hop style jams if that’s more your style.

Compose in the key of chiptune with bleeps, bloops, and other classic game sounds. It’s more than just chiptunes as you’ll get modern electronic synths, bass lines, and loops too. A variety packed pack for sure!

This one’s for the platforming fans out there. Bend, stretch and shape curves to add smooth surfaces to your smooth beats. Many of you have been waiting for this, and it’s free today. (It’s also key for some future DLC, but we’ll keep that a surprise for now.)

Hey everyone!

Sound Shapes has been out (in North America, at least) a little under a month now, and we continue to be blown away by the response the game has been getting. If you’ve been following our official Sound Shapes twitter (and we hope you have!) you’ve probably been kept up-to-date with our news, but just last week we hit over ten thousand levels in our community (if you’re interested, our ten-thousandth level was Out of the Rain by sunpsyche.)

With so many levels, we’ve been working very hard behind the scenes to make sure that players are able to best find the cream of the crop. For example, not only have we been iterating our search algorithms to ensure the star tab (“Greatest Hits” on the website) is kept up-to-date with the best levels, we also try to make sure if you search you get useful results—oh, and if you missed it, you can search on the website now too! However, we would like to ensure we’re interacting with our community and not just setting up SOULESS SEARCH ROBOTS to do that job for us—so we’re going to try and regularly share with you the community levels that pique our interest. Starting… now.

And I to Fire by jordanbuster

“This level sort of blew my mind a bit” said Jon [Mak], at which point I probably mumbled something like “oh, that’s nice” and went back to doing something else entirely. However, when I finally played this level it was worthy of his praise. To be honest, if you follow the Sound Shapes community you are probably already familiar with this level, so we’re not telling you anything new, but we had to spotlight it because it was the first level we saw that did things that surprised us — and, you know, we made the game. You’d think we’d know it inside out, eh?

Arcade Fireworks by Daftbomb

Here’s a darn tough level with some lovely visual stylings. If you played through our D-cade album you’ll kind of get the theme here—twists on some classic arcade games—but what really sells this one for us is the consistent art (even using a selection of different assets), clever challenges, and general fun times.

Intermission by Zoetroupe

This is a nice short level—an intermission, if we will—that mixes things up by not twisting video games but cinema! It’s musically lovely and genuinely artistic visually, and will leave you wanting more (always a good thing.)

Metamorphose by Tabulator_AT

This level is beautiful but also deserves praise for using one of our creatures in a way that we didn’t expect. It would say too much to pick out which one, but levels which challenge our established view of the game are always winners.

Quick, Dinosaurs! by TheAvengedMarin

Strong themes are always good! This level is an adventure across a dinosaur-filled landscape with a cute ending, with well thought out challenges and lots of cute dinosaurs to spot (we remain impressed at to what you’re all able to squeeze out of our ground shapes!) — it’s well worth a play.

That’s only a very small selection of the levels we’ve been playing—we really do try and play as many as we can manage—and so we do hope to be back soon to share more levels with you (the quality only gets better and better, so we’re sure that there are already new levels that you think we’re foolish to not have included.)

Don’t forget that you can queue up any of these levels to play in Sound Shapes from the website. Simply log in to the site with your PSN ID, hit queue on the level that takes your fancy, and when you load up the community (on PS3 or PS Vita) you can find them in your “favorites” on your profile (once you’ve played through them once, if you don’t choose to favorite them, they’ll be removed from that list.)

Oh! And don’t think we’re just spending all our time playing your levels (as much as we want to.) We’re working hard on getting the first DLC out to you as soon as possible (giving you more to work with!) — we’ll be able to talk about that soon. Happy creating!

Sound Shapes is out on PSN today! It’s the culmination of a long journey for our boss-men Jonathan Mak and Shaw-Han Liem, who worked on the concept for… more years than they probably want me to say before the reveal at E3 2011, and having worked on the game for a year myself now I think I can speak for the whole team when I say we just want you to play it. Like… we don’t want you to finish reading this blog post, or even probably watch the launch trailer we made. We made Sound Shapes for you to play! So when today’s update goes live, get yourself over to the PlayStation Store on your PS3 or PS Vita and pick it up!

The title is $14.99 ($11.99 for PlayStation Plus members this week only) and part of the PSN Play promotion, so if you buy one or more other of the games in the promotion you’ll get an increasing amount of money back. Most importantly, however — Sound Shapes is a cross-play title. Whether you buy it on PS3 or PS Vita, you receive both versions for one price. We cannot stress this enough. We’ve definitely tried to stress this enough. Both versions are yours when you buy it, and all trophies and community levels are shared between them, whether you own a PS3 or a PS Vita, or both.

If you’re looking for more of a general overview of what Sound Shapes is, why not watch our brand-spanking new launch trailer?

If you’re still here, I guess I should recap the information you really need to know, to be sure you’re making the right purchase when you finally dawdle over to the PlayStation Store. So: Sound Shapes is a 2D musical platformer in which every level is a song. You pick up the notes placed in the level to construct the music, but at the same time the creatures (friend or foe) and interactive objects are instruments too. We’ve worked with different graphic and musical artists on each album of level-songs, with the likes of Shaw-Han in his I am Robot and Proud guise, Deadmau5, Jim Guthrie and Beck working with graphic artists like Vic Ngyuen of Capy, Pyramid Attack, PixelJam and Superbrothers. If the game stopped there that would probably have been more than enough work for us but we also decided that players should be able to use these notes, creatures and so on to make their own songs and levels. Therefore we’ve included a full level editor and online community which will allow you to share your creations across the entire world, reaching players on both PS3 and PS Vita no matter which version you’re using.

Oh, and on top of that we’ve also included Trophies (yes, there’s a Platinum). They’re unlocked by conquering Death Mode, which consists of intense platforming challenges based on our main campaign, and Beat School, which hopes to inspire players in the fine art of beat-making by challenging them to recreate a piece of music in our level editor.

So, we hope that’s rather a worthy offering for your $14.99, if you’re still dilly-dallying. One of the nicest things for us is that although we’re super excited to have you play Sound Shapes, we’re even more excited to play the levels you create in the community. To be honest, this could be a total win-win. We get to make the game we wanted to make, share it with PlayStation’s community of gamers, and then have them make levels that we get to play? Amazing! (And don’t worry, we do plan to support the community beyond launch with DLC. Not that we’re going to say any more than that for now!)

If you do find you want to know even more about Sound Shapes, check out our website here! But we wish you’d just pick up the game and get to making levels. Come on, it’s your turn, we’ve been making them for ages!

Fellows! We’ve are absolutely gagging here to get Sound Shapes into your hands. Gagging! We wish it could be in your hands right now! But unfortunately that can’t be, as this week saw the release of The Expendables 2 as part of the PSN Play promotion, not us. However! If you’re popping into PlayStation Store to pick it up at any point this week you can also pre-order Sound Shapes and get an exclusive PS3 theme. That’s not to forget PSN Play’s money-saving promotion: the more games you pick up, the more money you save. So if you’ve already picked up The Expendables 2, you’ll get a cool three bucks back if you pick up Sound Shapes.

But enough of that waffle. Because we’re excited to get Sound Shapes into your hands, we wanted to kick start your imaginations by having one of our founders, Jonathan Mak, walk you through level creation using our level tools. And if you’re the kind of player who is more excited to *play* than create (and that’s fine, too) we’re revealing our Trophy mode. And yes, there is a Platinum.

So, until this point we’ve been showing you lots of different parts of our campaign mode. Just to recap: we’re providing five different albums with several tracks each, with each album including art and music from a different pair of artists, such as deadmau5 and Pixeljam or Pyramid Attack and Beck. Beating these levels will unlock their components, and then you’ll be able to mix and match them in your own levels!

In the following video, for example, Jon quickly puts together a level that (among other things) includes deadmau5 loops paired with Jim Guthrie/Superbrothers hazards, and he throws in some vocals that you might remember from our recent reveal of the Beck album Cities. He even shows off the player’s ability to record timings and change beats per minute… and it all sounds (and plays!) pretty good:

We’ve tried to make creating a song and level as fun as possible, but also effortless to upload and share. We’ve said this before, but seeing what players do with our tools is one of the things we’re *most* looking forward to. We’re certain that, after a couple of days, you’re going to blow away what Jon did here.

Something that we think (hope?) is going to take you more than a matter of days, however, is claiming our Platinum Trophy. If you’re a Trophy hunter, you’re probably well aware of the pain and glory of trying to conquer the intense Trophy levels in our pal Shawn McGrath’s new PSN exclusive Dyad. Here at Queasy Games, we didn’t want players to be distracted by playing albums in a certain way for Trophies, or trying to “game” our community. Instead we created two things: Death Mode and Beat School.

Death Mode is an unusual twist in our campaign mode. Once you’ve beaten our albums, you can flip each album over to a b-side and experience intense, single-screen timed challenges to collect notes without dying based on signature moments from each of the album’s tracks. Each win unlocks a Trophy, and it’s our hope that these will test the skills players have learned in our levels, making each Trophy win hard fought but deeply rewarding. Beat School is a different sort of challenge: here we challenge all players, even (if not especially) those who consider themselves “non musical,” to create beats on a single screen by listening and matching to a beat we have created. With luck, these levels will challenge and inspire you to go into the editor and make your own beats—if Jon’s video above hasn’t already convinced you.

Don’t forget: Sound Shapes hits PS3 and PS Vita as a cross-play title August 7th, but you can pre-order it now, receiving a lovely Cory Schmitz-designed PS3 theme and the ability to play the game on PS3 or PS Vita no matter which system you buy it on. You get both versions for one price! It’s $14.99 (20% off for a limited time for PS Plus members). And oh yeah, the Trophies are shared between both versions, too. Did we mention there’s a Platinum?

Hello chaps and chapettes!

There’s just under three weeks until the release of Sound Shapes on PS Vita and PS3 on August 7th, and it’s time we sat down and had a serious chat with you. You see, we’ve been keeping a secret from you. Yes, here in Queasy Towers, our glittering skyscraper in downtown Toronto, so beloved by the city that they’re building us a moat (they claim they’re upgrading streetcar lines, but we know what they’re really doing), we have been hiding someone from you.

Although to this point we’ve revealed stars that shine as brightly as Deadmau5, Jim Guthrie, and I Am Robot and Proud, it wasn’t until Wednesday that we were able to sneak out the news that Grammy Award-winning musician Beck—mastermind behind Mellow Gold, Odelay and most recently 2008′s Modern Guilt—has been working with us on three brand new tracks for the game.

Beck’s more than just familiar with the world of video games. In fact, with his 2005 album Guero he actually snuck out a wee EP, Hell Yes, which remixed tracks from that album as chiptunes—and we’re thrilled to have him on board. That’s not to say, however, that Beck sent us “video game music.” One of the powerful things about Beck’s music is the variety of styles he’s comfortable working in. Sure, if you’re looking to have a really good cry that lasts about 52 minutes and 24 seconds, you probably want to cue up his (brilliant) album Sea Change, but in the middle of your weeping you decide you want to get “funky” with a capital “KY”, you just have to skip back to Midnight Vultures. It’s cool, Beck’s like that.

As a result, Beck gave us three very different songs that form an album: Cities, Touch the People, and Spiral Staircase. Each song shows off a different aspect of Beck’s creativity, and therefore we had to make sure that we did each of those songs justice. Thanks to Sound Shapes’ level creation tools—the same tools players will be able to use with the in-game editor—this album shows just how well you can build fun levels around song structures.

With each song requiring its own visual identity to match Beck’s musical style, we knew we needed the best artists in the business. Luckily, just around the corner from Queasy Towers, we found Pyramid Attack. They’re an animation, art and design studio that can (and does) bring the goods.

In the following video you’ll hear and see the first track from the Beck album, Cities, and you’ll see the game played on PS3. We’ll also talk to Steve Wilson of Pyramid Attack about the process of turning Beck’s music not only into art but play.

Want more? Say, to hear the other two Beck tracks maybe? Well, then be sure to pick up Sound Shapes. Remember: it’s a cross-play title so whether you pick it up on PS3 or PS Vita, you’ll be able to download it gratis on the other system too. The title launches on August 7th for $14.99, and you can pre-order it starting July 31st as part of the PSN Play promotion and get yourself a bonus exclusive PS3 theme designed by the amazing Cory Schmitz. Oh, and if you’re a PlayStation Plus member, you’ll pick up the title for 20% off ($11.99) for a limited time, including the pre-order period. Bargain!

This year should have been Vita's coming out party.

Sony should have rolled out the metaphorical red carpet to current Vita owners, underscoring why Vita was a worthy purchase, one to pay dividends with quality software for months and years. The press conference didn't drive that point home.

It felt like Vita was just one more thing, not a focus.

Shuhei Yoshida is PlayStation's head of worldwide studios, and he's well aware of that perception.

"I got a lot of tweets," he told me during an interview yesterday.

Yoshida is active on Twitter, which means he's quick to hear from super passionate fans.

"I think that's our fault to not be able to meet expectations," he said. "I understand. We really tried hard this year in terms of planning the conference to make it shorter. We've been criticized and made fun of! Our marketing department said we're going to make it short and sweet, and we were really selective in terms of what to show."

When you walk through Sony's booth, there's a respectably wide-ranging lineup of games coming to Vita, from Sound Shapes to Frobisher Says! to Snapshot. None of those showed up at the press conference, which Yoshida blamed on the many topics Sony's forced to cover during its event.

"We could have focused more on new, exciting PS Vita titles," he said. "That's our fault."

And unless I'm mistaken, there was nary a mention of 3D during the press conference. Much of Sony's event last year was actually in 3D, and there was a big push to show how much Sony was getting behind it. No more?

"While I was waiting for the show to start, I was watching the Twitter feed and one journalist tweeted: 'thank god there's no 3D glasses.'" he said. "I showed it to Mr. Kaz Hirai and he laughed. What's happening with 3D is that it's no longer new."

It appears 3D has been reduced to a bullet point. Yoshida would not confirm what games from Sony, like Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, would be actively supporting 3D. Expect that number to drop off, though.

"I think that initial evangelizing period is over," he said.

Though Sony's E3 press conference will close out today's early E3 festivities, we're already getting a bit of Sony news prior to this morning's Microsoft event. As of this AM, we have learned via the PlayStation Blog that Sound Shapes, Everyday Shooter creator Queasy Games' rhythm-based platformer, will be arriving on the Vita this August 17 for $14.99.

However, that's not all. It turns out that the once Vita-exclusive title is now headed to the PlayStation 3 as well. The PS3 version comes day-and-date with the Vita version, and, in fact, both versions come as one package. If you download the Vita version, you'll have free access to the PS3 version, and vice versa. User-generated content will even transfer between the two versions.

We've made no secret about Sound Shapes being tops among our most-anticipated Vita games, so this news is a more-than-welcome way to kick off the deluge of E3 announcements. We'll be sure to check out both versions of Sound Shapes on the E3 show floor,

Though Sony's E3 press conference will close out today's early E3 festivities, we're already getting a bit of Sony news prior to this morning's Microsoft event. As of this AM, we have learned via the PlayStation Blog that Sound Shapes, Everyday Shooter creator Queasy Games' rhythm-based platformer, will be arriving on the Vita this August 7 for $14.99.

However, that's not all. It turns out that the once Vita-exclusive title is now headed to the PlayStation 3 as well. The PS3 version comes day-and-date with the Vita version, and, in fact, both versions come as one package. If you download the Vita version, you'll have free access to the PS3 version, and vice versa. User-generated content will even transfer between the two versions.

We've made no secret about Sound Shapes being tops among our most-anticipated Vita games, so this news is a more-than-welcome way to kick off the deluge of E3 announcements. We'll be sure to check out both versions of Sound Shapes on the E3 show floor,

Look, E3 is coming up fast, and we know there’s all kinds of hot news coming at you from everywhere. So over here at Queasy HQ, we’ve decided to kick things off a little early with pretty much the biggest announcement we’re allowed to give you right now: Sound Shapes is coming to PSN on August 7th. That’s… like… a few weeks away! Are you breathing into a paper bag right now to avoid hyperventilating? We are, which is making it kind of hard to type. And if you’re not, you should be, because we’re also taking this opportunity to sneak out the fact that Sound Shapes is, day-and-date, also coming to PS3.

Yes. That thing you have under your TV, or maybe beside it (or possibly on top, but that sounds kind of dangerous, man!). And no, we haven’t been looking in your windows; we’ve been too busy making Sound Shapes and pricing it at $14.99 for BOTH VERSIONS. Buy it on PS Vita or PS3, and enjoy it on either system! We know. We’re freaking out too!

Through the magic of crossplay, you’ll be able to share content between the two systems without even having to really think about it. It’s all thanks to the “cloud” which floats above us like a benevolent data god. Save your campaign data up in the cloud, and download and resume on either platform. Maybe you’ll start creating a song at home on the PS3, but then decide that it’s not really the place to compose your latest masterpiece! Just download it to your PS Vita and make some beats on the bus. Then get off the bus several stops late, in a part of town you don’t know that well, and make some beats there! Then get another bus home, probably.

Oh, and the community is completely shared, so if a friend only has a PS3, or you only have a PS Vita (or any permutation of that) they can still see the levels you’ve made on the other system. And you can therefore see ALL the levels everyone has made and uploaded. Which will hopefully be a ton of levels. We’re really looking forward to what you guys do.

In fact, let’s talk about this a bit: You might be aware that we’ve been collaborating with visual artists and musicians for our campaign levels, and most recently revealed that our pals Superbrothers and Jim Guthrie provided the art and music for Corporeal, a four-song concept album that explores the way in which music can free us from the corporate machine… if it doesn’t crush us first.

It’s been a lot of fun working with those guys and we’re really happy with the way the levels have turned out. They mix up the gameplay and offer a classic Jim Guthrie soundscape that’s a fun contrast to other campaigns. And while the levels themselves are cool, it’s super fun to play with all of the music and graphics in the editor–everything, and we mean everything, from the campaign records can be mixed and mashed up with other records to create your own tunes and levels.

Anyway, at the top of this post you can watch a video we made in Jim’s basement where he attempts to clear the levels in his own album (spoiler: he dies). There is also a demo of how the loop-based music system works for remixing campaign tracks in the editor mode. Also featured: One of Jim’s, like, 18 cats. He likes cats.

Is it too late to change the album title to “Chicken Dinner?” The answer is yes. Yes, it is too late.

If you’re coming to E3, we hope you come by and check out Sound Shapes. We’ll have both PS Vita and PS3 on the floor with content from four of our campaign records and we’ll be showing the cross functionality between the two versions. If you can’t make it to E3, that’s okay because if you didn’t notice the game is out on August 7th. Just spend that time regulating your breathing with a paper bag and you’ll be fine.

Alright, back to it. ALMOST DONE! (Seriously, we are almost done making the game.)

Want to see the PS3 version of Sound Shapes in action? Be sure to tune into our E3 2012 livestream — we’ll be showing it off live at 5:30pm Pacific Time during the countdown to PlayStation’s E3 press conference!

A message from a representative at Superbrothers, written in the midst of a spring thunderstorm in the hill country at the Quebec/Vermont border.

It is with immense pleasure that we are announcing our involvement with a video game project known as Sound Shapes. We are extra excited to be contributing alongside sworcery maestro Jim Guthrie. This represents the latest in a series of Superbrothers X Jim Guthrie a/v collaborations dating back to 2005′s musical film Children of the Clone and 2008′s Dot Matrix Revolution, but this will be our first a/v collaboration since 2011′s cult classic videogame Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP.

Much like Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, Sound Shapes is a made-in-Toronto DIY videogame that is unusually collaborative and has a heavy emphasis on synesthetic audiovisual style. What’s more, the people making Sound Shapes are all basically our very best pals – they’re the folks with whom we play board games, drink the beers, go skating and play hockey. On every level it’s an honor and a thrill to be involved.

The Superbrothers + Jim Guthrie collaboration will take the form of a Sound Shapes ‘album’ – a series of thematically connected & musically-linked levels known as CORPOREAL.

Sound Shapes is coming to PlayStation Vita, and it’ll be available before too long. Get psyched!!!

After some initial discussion with Queasy, we chose to explore some of the concepts in prior Superbrothers films including Children of the Clone and Dot Matrix Revolution, so our levels are populated by computers, mainframes, office workers and water coolers. My mom was one of the first female computer programmers in Canada and my father worked as a mainframe computer salesman for decades, so it was nice to set aside the skeletons & space babies of sworcey and get to work on 20th century visual concepts. Meanwhile, the video game design takes the friendly platforming mechanics of Sound Shapes and stretches them in the direction of something like Impossible Mission for C-64 & Spectrum.

With this new collaboration the configuration is quite different. The game design, level design and sound integration are being handled by the Sound Shapes experts at Queasy. The order of operations was a little different this time around too. On S:S&S EP, many of the songs predated the project and I was able to create the world & concepts by listening to specific songs, many of them pre-existing compositions from Jim. In this case, the art assets were created without a specific soundtrack, and then it was up to Jim to craft his sounds to fit the look and concept.

Of course, the real work took place at Queasy & Capy, where a wide-ranging assortment of designers & creators – the Sound Shapes experts – put all the pieces together. Thanks so much for all your hard work folks, it has been a pleasure contributing to your efforts!

So, super excited to share this collaboration and can’t wait for you folks to check it out yourselves. If you’re going to be at E3, be sure to swing by the PlayStation booth for some hands-on time!

It’s no secret that electronica artist deadmau5 signed on with Toronto-based Queasy Games to collaborate on the upcoming PS Vita musical platformer Sound Shapes. But last week we finally tasted the succulent fruits of that creative collaboration. During a media showcase in New York City, Sound Shapes Producer Jason deGroot kindly demonstrated a new set of levels (a “Record” in the game’s lingo) that featured audio effects provided by the mousey maestro and pixelicious art courtesy of indie developer Pixel Jam. You can analyze the results for yourself below — headphones recommended!

It’s worth noting that deadmau5’s album tracks, such as the pop cut “Ghosts ‘n Stuff,” won’t be appearing in Sound Shapes. And that’s by design: the game’s interactive soundtrack synthesizes with your platforming progress, making each “performance” a unique arrangement. But deadmau5’s sounds, loops, and rhythms are showcased in a dedicated set of levels. Better yet, his library will be available when it comes time to construct custom levels, so you’ll be free to cobble together a Girl Talk-esque composition or build a custom remix using your favorite sounds.

Though deadmau5 and Pixel Jam are the first publicly announced contributors to Sound Shapes, they definitely won’t be the last. Other designers and artists will also be contributing to Sound Shapes, with further details to be announced leading up to the game’s upcoming launch. “Each world is a different experience from the last in terms of art, music, and gameplay,” DeGroot explained. “It’s like putting on a Daft Punk record and then putting on a Black Sabbath record. They’re very different vibes.”

It’s Game Developers Conference time once again, and while headlines are a bit light, it’s a great place to find game developers (of course). We’ll be bringing you videos, interviews, and conversations over the next several days, as well as a mega GDC Blogcast on Thursday.

The first game we got ahold of here at GDC is upcoming PS Vita musical platformer Sound Shapes. The game is best seen (and heard), so we present here Jason deGroot of Queasy Games. In this video, deGroot takes you on a tour through a never-before-seen level, as well as sharing the in-game tutorial, so you know exactly what you’ll be seeing when you load up Sound Shapes for the first time.

So when do you get to play Sound Shapes on your own personal Vita? The Queasy Games team doesn’t yet have a release date, but they confirmed that a pre-release demo is in the making. We’ll keep you posted.

The handheld market is in decline. Of this much, there is little to argue with. Though the 3DS has picked up steam in the time since the hardware's price drop and the holiday run on all things video game, its launch was still something of a wake-up call for Nintendo. After sending the 3DS out into the wild with little support beyond the token notion of 3D being awesome and an array of games that barely bothered to showcase the supposed awesomeness, the company found itself scrambling to recapture the attention of gamers who all but dismissed the system outright.

That initial failure of the 3DS sounded a number of alarm bells among the various talking heads of the industry in regards to all things handheld. Suddenly, the iPhone/iPad was the portable gaming device of the moment. Nintendo had begun to look like a stubborn dinosaur, unwilling to adjust its strategy in the wake of the coming iOS tide.

While all of this hand-wringing and shouting was going on, another player sat quietly in the corner of the room. With its own new handheld system on the horizon, one might think that Sony would be doing everything it could to shout down the foretold death of the handheld console. You'd have expected them to come out guns blazing, blasting everyone with the myriad technical marvels of their new system as loudly as possible. You half expected the word Vita to be plastered over every billboard, every TV ad, for the entire six months prior to the system's North American launch in February.

Intriguingly, Sony hasn't done that. Apart from this year's E3, where the Vita's pricing and initial lineup of games featured rather prominently, Sony has been oddly quiet about the upcoming console launch. The company's focus has been squarely on this holiday season's PlayStation 3 lineup, and word regarding the Vita itself has been largely relegated to various Sony press events, where games were simply on display for the playing, without a ton of fanfare.

There is something kind of great about that approach. Rather than trying too hard to capture everyone's attention, one gets the feeling that Sony is quietly preparing to go very, very big. Rather than tire itself out early, before everything was prepped and ready to show, the console maker has simply stayed in the background, silently amassing a shockingly strong lineup of launch (or, at least, launch window) games that more than ably show off the various technical delights of the system. It's like that episode of The Simpsons, where the Yakuza are fighting the mob on the family's front lawn. Sony is like that little guy in the white suit who does nothing. Homer knows he's going to do something awesome when the time is right, but until then, he just stands there, waiting.

While Sony Computer Entertainment America waits to unleash the Vita on the mostly unsuspecting public, its Japanese counterpart has just launched the console in its native country. While the relatively paltry couple of months between now and then likely means that few will bother to import the system, it occurred to me that very little has been said in regards to which of the Vita's various launch games actually look like titles worth picking up a system for. The good news? There look to be several.

Over the last few months, I've had the chance to play the vast bulk of the Vita's early lineup, and while these have only been brief hands-on sessions, I've come away more than pleased with how most of these games are coming together. While it's been par for the course for a while now that consoles tend to launch with a fairly meager offering of games, the Vita's launch (and the weeks that follow it) look primed to actually buck that trend.

But enough chatter. Here are five games that any prospective Vita owner ought to be paying rapt attention to. I can't guarantee they'll be great in the end, but they nonetheless impressed me in the short bursts in which I've played them.

---

Sound Shapes

Jonathan Mak's follow-up to the critically acclaimed Everyday Shooter has garnered much of the buzz for the system coming out of E3, and rightfully so. Essentially a "musical platformer," the game gives you a ball to navigate through worlds filled with notes. Collecting the notes is both vital for completing the level, but also for completing the song that plays underneath the stage. The music itself is timed with the obstacles and pitfalls of the level. It's not completely dissimilar to Everyday Shooter's methodology of intertwining the soundtrack and the shooting of enemies, but here, the soundtrack plays an even more important role.

Both times I've seen Sound Shapes, I've had the chance to check out the robust level creation system, which is one of the game's more heralded features. I am awful with level creators, but the relatively simple interface, mixed with the intuitive front- and rear-touch controls make designing levels not only relatively easy, but actually kind of fun. It's an incredibly sharp-looking, gorgeous-sounding game that, despite its premise, isn't even one of the weirder Vita launch games. It's a perfect example of how for Vita, Sony seems totally willing to embrace the fringe sides of gaming often relegated to the PlayStation Network Store on the PS3. It's also a hell of a lot of fun.

Escape Plan

This is one of the more recently-revealed titles for the Vita lineup, and also one of the most intriguing. Developed by the same studio that previously brought us Fat Princess, Escape Plan revolves around a pair of captives--the sprightly Lil and the lumbering Laarg--have to navigate a series of pitfalls and traps in order to escape an elaborately constructed prison. Similar to the sort of gameplay inherent to the Lemmings series, each character moves as you instruct them on a set path. Your goal is to move them, as well as the various traps, using both the front- and rear-touch mechanics. In one case, you might need to make a path using unextended platforms. Simply tapping on them from the rear will cause them to jut back into a navigable place. Maybe you need to get to a higher place? Just move Lil over to an air hose to blow him up into a balloon. Just be sure to watch out for traps, and to not run out of air before you get to the top.

I am perhaps not selling the cleverness of this game's mechanics to the best of my abilities, but I assure you that's in service of not spoiling some of the cooler late-game puzzles I got a brief look at. The game will often toss a number of different objectives at you in rapid-succession, requiring you to both think critically and think quickly. Coupled with the game's wonderful, black-and-white cartoon art style, and a charming, Warner Bros.-inspired sense of humor (albeit a very violent spin on that kind of cartoon slapstick), Escape Plan really impressed me quite a bit. Fortunately, it sounds like this one will be hitting right around launch. Here's hoping it pans out as well as it showed.

LittleBigPlanet

Perhaps this one is a bit of a given. LittleBigPlanet on the PSP was a pretty great game, and this version looks to be no different. Actually, perhaps that's a poor choice of words. It's actually quite different, thanks to the various touch mechanics of the Vita. Yes, you can still control the game using a proper analog stick, but the levels I saw mixed and matched the front-touch, rear-touch, and motion-detection to craft a variety of new ways to bring Sack Boy and his pals to the end of a level.

Though Media Molecule doesn't have a direct hand in the development of this latest LBP, you'd be hard-pressed to notice the difference. Mechanically it feels very much like the LBP of old, except with a new array of mechanics to play around with, both in the main game and in the robust level creator, which series fans undoubtedly recognize as the franchise's bread and butter. If you're a fan of LittleBigPlanet, and have any intention of buying a Vita, I can see no reason why you wouldn't want this.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss

Here's the interesting thing about Uncharted: Golden Abyss: I've played it twice now, and I sincerely have no idea what the plot really entails. Yes, I know the basic boilerplate we've all gotten, but truth be told, I haven't really cared too terribly much about the few story details I've ingested thus far. They're fine, par for the course even with what this series typically entails--Nathan Drake adventuring his ass off for one reason or another--but my mind has typically focused elsewhere. Namely, on the graphics.

Look, visuals aren't everything, but every system needs a big, flashy visual showpiece at its launch. Uncharted is unquestionably that showpiece. The game looks sharper than anything I've ever seen on a handheld console. Full stop. No, it's not quite up to the snuff of Drake's best PS3 adventures, but of course it isn't. What's wrong with you?

The gameplay is more than functional--Sony Bend, who has been developing this in conjunction with Naughty Dog, has ably captured the feel of the console games on the Vita--but if there is one game you're going to want to show off your shiny new electric video gaming trinket with, it's this one.

Gravity Rush

Known as "Gravity Daze: The Perturbation Born In Her Inner Space On The Way Back To The Higher Spheres" in Japan (how great would it have been if Sony America had kept that title?) Gravity Rush just looks cool as all hell. I use that somewhat glib description because truth be told, I haven't got a clue what the heck is going on in this game. I just know it looks awesome.

All I do know is that you play a heroine named Kat (who actually has a pet cat), a woman who has the ability to bend gravity to her will. As you traverse through various cel-shaded environments, fighting off various bad guys, all you have to do is press a button and use the right analog stick or the system's motion sensing to rejigger Kat's own center of gravity. Doing this will allow her to reach new areas she couldn't previously, and even aid in combat.

It's a remarkably fluid game, filled with colorful visuals and a gameplay mechanic that lends itself toward quite a bit of experimentation and discovery. It's also just a lot of fun, as evidenced by my brief time with it, in which I actively refused to put it down until I absolutely had to. The mixture of the combo-based gameplay and gravity-bending action is just downright addictive. Thankfully, this one also looks to hit on February 22nd, alongside the system itself.

---

The Vita still has a lot of hurdles to overcome. There is the perception issue, the one that has hungover since the days of the PSP, that says Sony isn't ever going to be anything but the third place finisher in the handheld market. There is the very real competition that helps fuel that perception, with iOS gaming continuing to soar, and the 3DS now trending upward. There is the rumored pricing of memory cards ($120 for 32 GB), a number Sony says may not be final, but would be detrimental to the health of the system were it true.

The one thing the Vita won't have to worry about at launch? Games. And that's a huge burden to have off a new console's back. This is a lineup that has, at the very least, convinced me that I want one of these things. Now all Sony needs is a few million more like me.

Here's hoping.