Harmonix has teamed up with Disney to create a dance game inspired by Fantasia.
The basis of Fantasia: Music Evolved is that you are a sorcerer’s apprentice, and you must perform and transform songs in order to bring life to worlds created by the sorcerer Yen Sid. You will unlock ‘musical interactions’ by movement in order to bring music – and life – to the world.
Harmonix’s popular games, Rock Band and Dance Central, want you to mimic what’s on the screen, but Fantasia will allow you to be more creative and use your own gestures to bring life to new worlds.
Songs available are more of the ‘Top 40’ variety than the Fantasia soundtrack. The creators wanted to add a modern twist to the classic Fantasia. Besides Bruno Mars and Fun., you’ll also be working some magic with Kimbra, Avicii, and even Queen. When launched, the game will feature tracks from more than 25 musicians, each featuring two unique remixes in addition to the original recording. I’m hoping that more genres of music will eventually be featured.
More Freestyle, More Magic
“In building a gesture system we wanted to give a lot of freedom to people, so it’s not this ‘copy what you see on screen’ thing, which is what we did with Dance Central,” said Matt Boch, Fantasia: Music Evolved‘s creative director. “Here, you’re moving rhythmically, and we wanted to give players the sense of freedom of expression.”
I see this as a great game for toddlers and teenagers. The aspect of music and movement would be great for developing children. The ‘Top 40’ music will appeal to teenagers, for sure. Does it appeal to me? No. I wish that they had kept with the beautiful music featured in Fantasia, then I would be more willing to play.
Although the game is definitely limiting itself with its target audience, I am sure Fantasia: Music Evolved will be a popular gift once it comes it to Xbox One and Kinect for Xbox 360.
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