Dissection: Chime

As I write this gamers are losing themselves in Mass Effect 2, gorging as we all love to do on the latest high profile games – myself included. Such is the quality of Zoe Mode’s new Xbox Live Arcade title Chime, it still managed to hook me into playing many hours despite not being finished with Commander Shepard’s adventures. Chime takes elements from both Lumines and Tetris, but not in a derivative sense, instead it creates it's own fun and unique experience that stays addictive.
In Chime the music is core to the experience, with 5 licensed songs (including tracks from Moby and Philip Glass) having their own different shaped grids. The player must fill the space by forming blocks while placing different shapes on the grid, the space is then “captured” by a line that sweeps across the grid in time with the music. While it sounds simple, the real payoff comes as players form more blocks – which add new layers of sound to the music as the line sweeps over. Blocks can be added to until the line sweeps over and the bigger the block the more pronounced the sound becomes and the more points you earn – you can even build over captured space to get rid of any missed blocks. This gives the player a great sense of satisfaction, as the songs tend to start slow and build to a frenetic pace.
There are two modes in Chime – Time Mode and Free Mode. Time Mode gives the player three, six or nine minute time limits to capture over 50% of the grid. The challenge here is to continually cover space and build your multiplier in order to gain higher scores – with the last two songs being quite the challenge. Free Mode, on the other hand takes out the time limit and sees the player progressing through levels by covering the entire grid as the line sweepers faster and the shapes become more challenging each level.

So in reality, there isn’t much to see in Chime – but if that’s your reason not to give it try then I’m afraid you’ve missed the point. Not only does Chime come cheap – 400 Microsoft Points to be exact – but theres also a charitable cause in mind. Two thirds of the games’ proceeds go to Save the Children and the Starlight Foundation, but the point here is that it’s not a piece of fluff with little depth and it steers away from advertising garbage like Yaris and Dash of Destruction dealt in before it – there is some real meat here that shines with quality.
That said, what Chime doesn’t take from it’s peers is a real layer of polish. What it seems to lack first of all, is any sort of visual excitement to go with the music and gameplay. Where Lumines had constantly changing backgrounds with bright, vibrant colours, Chime seems rather dull – each grid is a static colour (usually purple or dark blue) and dropping pieces and capturing space don’t have any visual flourishes to go with them. The game also seems to struggle when things get hectic – with the music literally stopping as the games’ framerate struggled to keep up. This doesn’t affect the gameplay but it’s odd considering how so little is happening on-screen.
Being able to change the sensitivity of the blocks would also have been welcome. Too many times I tried to put blocks in spots with speed – I only to have my block end up on the other side of the grid despite barely pushing the stick on my controller. It is also rather odd that you can only rotate a block in one direction, often leading to many annoying uncovered spaces during the faster sections of timed mode. So if you’re a puzzle game aficionado this slight lack of tightness in control may be jarring at first.

So by now you might think that all these problems mean that I don’t like Chime, when in reality it’s far from the truth. It might not have the highest production values or a wealth of content, but what makes Chime great is the satisfaction in influencing the music while covering more space and building your score, while keeping in mind that you’re donating to a good cause. Just days after lamenting the state of downloadable content, I urge you to experience Chime.






WHAT THEY GOT RIGHT –


Addictive: Like any good puzzle game Chime retains that constant feeling of “just one more go”.

Challenge: The difficulty in Chime is spot on. Things start off pretty breezy but the last stages are tough customers.

Track list: All five tracks fit the game perfectly – with each having different levels of tempo and varying styles. I would love to see some new songs added via DLC from other artists.

Musical Momentum: One of Chime’s great features is the way layers are added to the music as you progress - almost Rez-like.

Thrifty: As it’s one of the first 400 point XBLA games in a year or two, Chime gets a big tick for value – you even get a fifty point achievement just for buying the game.

Charitable: Two thirds of the games proceeds go to charity – a great idea for a great game.



WHAT THEY GOT WRONG –


No Rainbow: The colour scheme in Chime is very dull, with only a few colours throughout the five songs. A game like this is screaming for some visual flourish.

Lack of Polish: Block movement and general framerate aren’t as tight as they could be. A minor nit pick overall.