Jonathan Mak’s Sound Shapes Adds Original Music From Beck

Weve been excited for Sound Shapes ever since we heard that Jonathan Mak of Everyday Shooter fame would be making a musical platformer for the PlayStation 3 and Vita at E3 last year. He sold us with his description of the game: You can use it to make music, but then you can play that music like its a video game. The game is so distinctly his style, it wouldnt be coming from anyone but Mak. If youre unfamiliar with Sound Shapes, it can best be described as a side-scrolling platformer where your actions within the game create the music around you. This is very similar to Maks previous game, Everyday Shooter, which was a dual-joystick shooter that created music as you killed enemies. It was beautiful in both concept and execution. We havent heard much about Sound Shapes since it was announced at the 2011 Video Game Awards that Deadmau5 would be contributing to the game and would have a campaign dedicated to his music. He isnt alone, either; Sound Shapes features music from the likes of Jim Guthrie, I Am Robot and Proud, and now Beck as well. Beck's Sound Shapes debut includes a campaign record titled Cities which features three unreleased tracks that are exclusive to Sound Shapes (for the time being, at least.) These new tracks Cities, Touch the People and Spiral Staircase each represent a different level and will have a unique art style that matches the music. Beck is most notable for creating a new style of music that mixes and collages many different musical styles. As different as Deadmau5s music might be, it follows a consistent style and sticks to a singular genre. It will be interesting to see how Becks signature style will alter the game compared to the other artists campaigns. Its not clear whether his style will have an impact on the gameplay, but that would certainly make for an interesting mechanic. Sound Shapes is available on August 7th exclusively for both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita for one cross-platform purchase of $14.99.