Break a little...
Move a little...
Hurt a little...
Turn a little...

"Cities" by Beck could be to the Playstation Vita what "Shinin'" by Mondo Grosso was to the Playstation Portable. Ironic, I know, as the Vita already launched with an excellent Lumines title. However, where Lumines brought us a familiar sequel to a new system, Sound Shapes brings a breath of something new to a system that has needed a little attention over the past six months since the Vita's launch.

Sound Shapes is described by many as a music game. While music is an important element of the game that you are playing, yes, Sound Shapes is probably best described in execution as a platforming title. The simple controls and numerous checkpoints felt more like a Super Meat Boy than, say, a Guitar Hero. It's an enormously easy game to understand. Get from start to finish, don't touch red things, and you can sprint your character or stick to certain surfaces (but not at the same time) when needed. Speaking of your character... I'm not really sure how to describe it. It's certainly a shape... if a fried egg is a shape.

I bet more people are here for the sounds than the shapes though. When playing Sound Shapes, music is something you are interacting with more so than something you are creating. Want to create music? Okay, there's stage creation mode and an Online universe Little Big Planet style that you can interact with.

Each stage in the campaign of Sound Shapes is based off a single song, with your standard fare of in-house tracks as well as contributions from signed label artists such as Beck and Deadmau5. It should be noted that each stage doesn't just contain a music credit, but an art credit. The premise of the game remains the same... a bare bones loop plays in the background, and you collect items that add music and sound to the loops. Reach the goal as fast as you can while collecting all the items and you can top the online leaderboards! What varies from stage to stage however is the art styles. For example, a Deadmau5 stage with a hint of chip-tune might have a space invaders style theme. Another set of stages, "Corporeal" by Jim Guthrie, invokes an Office Space style setting, where you will find yourself bouncing off heads of drone employees to collect every last item. 

It is the environments that put not just the challenge into this music game, but the style as well. The before-mentioned "Cities" is one of the best examples of this. As Beck sings the lyrics "Break a little... Move a little..." a platform will break apart and move. You probably don't want to still be standing on this platform when it's time to "Hurt a little". Our guest on Orange Lounge Radio this past weekend likened this mode to what you saw the koopa troopas and backdrops in "New Super Mario Brothers Wii" doing when they danced to the background music. Indeed, Sound Shapes is taking those cute interactions, and making an entirely new game out of it.

Sadly, there are only a handful of stage themes present in Sound Shapes. However, at a cost of $15 ($12 for Playstation Plus) for not just the Playstation Vita version of the game, but the Playstation 3 as well, you aren't left feeling that you paid too much for the game. Quite the contrary, one might hope for more DLC to add professional calibur stages in the future.

 To fill the gap, Sound Shapes has a creation mode as well as online mode present. Remember, Sony is big on Play, Create, Share now. Think Littlebigplanet or ModNation Racers. Soundshapes has it built into it's game too, however it sadly doesn't raise the bar from what has been accomplished by previous games. The interface of Sound Shapes doesn't lend itself too well to the online mode at the present time. The popular stages are filled with silly mish-mash art and songs of familiar tunes, making it hard to find new quality content outside of friends lists and constant browsing of the new stages on the server. However, I still appreciated the attempt at valuing the money spent on the purchase even further. Speaking of value, those that play Sound Shapes to completion might find even more incentive to create tracks and master default songs in "death" mode to win shiny silver trophies. 

Sound Shapes is a worthy standard platformer game that brings a new twist and great visual sensations to the Sony platforms. I preferred the experience on the Vita, where a dark room and headphones can allow yourself to be immersed even more, but I appreciate the PS3 version's inclusion if for no other reason than creation mode felt MUCH more precise and workable with a controller as opposed to the often erratic back touch pad.

There is even more I would like to see with Sound Shapes in the future, such as multiplayer experiences and extended creation tools. I think though that it's a good thing when an artistic experience well beyond it's value leaves you wanting more. As a long time music game fan, I knew I'd probably enjoy Sound Shapes, but I think there is a lot here for people who don't really want to create music, but immerse themselves in it.