E3 2010: Ivy the Kiwi? Impressions and Music Details

We met Yuji Naka a few days ago and asked him about his thoughts on game music, but his main purpose at E3 was to promote his upcoming game, Ivy the Kiwi?, which is due out this summer from XSEED. While we got our first hands-on with the game at E3, we also learned who is responsible for the game’s music and whether or not there will be a soundtrack release in the future.

With the game set to release on the Wii and DS in just a matter of months, it’s time to find out what Sonic creator Yuji Naka has in store for us this time around. Hit the jump for our impressions.

While Ivy The Kiwi? may be a confusing title with the question mark and all, the game itself is pretty straightforward and is actually a whole lot of fun. It’s simple: Ivy marches forward, unable to fly with her shell still partially intact, and it’s up to the player to guide Ivy to the end of each stage by creating vines with the Wii remote or DS stylus to move Ivy over pits, protect her from falling objects, and to fling her into the air by pulling on the vines like rubber bands. You’ll be able to create up to three vines at once, and multiple players (up to 4) can jump in to assist, each with their own unique color to differentiate whose vines are whose. Like I said, it’s pretty simple, but it’s also really intuitive and quite rewarding.

Players can also collect the ten features hidden in each stage, locate hidden areas, and play a competitive multiplayer mode where each player tries to reach the end of the stage while being able to draw vines on their own screen and that of their opponents to try to mess them up. The fact that you’re limited to three vines adds an element of strategy. In the single player mode, there are 100 stages, and after reaching stage 50, you can play through the stages with a new objectives. I mentioned there will be a Wii and DS version, and the main difference is that the DS version will unfortunately lack the multiplayer modes.

One of the biggest draws to this game is its visual style. You may have noticed that it’s actually a bit different from the Japanese release. While the Japanese release was more monochrome, vibrant colors have been added to the international release to appeal to a wider audience. The beautiful pencil-shaded backgrounds will give you something nice to look at while playing the game, and the game looks so good that it has actually spawned a physical storybook that has been released in Japan.

Now it’s on to the music. What we heard in the game was whimsical and fun, fitting perfectly with the game, even if it wasn’t overly memorable. The game’s soundtrack could even be described as minimalistic, but they hit me right where it counted with the liberal use of belltones throughout the demo. We checked in to see who was handling the game’s music, and we were told it was an internal staff member at PROPE named “Takase-san” (no first name given, and no indication as to whether or not this person is male or female). Interestingly, however, YAM, who you may remember from Let’s Tap, is helping out with additional editing and arrangement. When asked about a soundtrack release, we were told that nothing is planned at the moment.

I’m really looking forward to Ivy the Kiwi? this summer. Everything from the gameplay to the visual style to the music is so unique and playful. I hope this game performs better than Let’s Tap did (it was also a really fun game), and hopefully the tweaks XSEED has made for the US release will pay off and we’ll see Ivy turn into a franchise. With E3 being dominated by sequels this year, it’s refreshing to see something new and promising, so be sure to check it out!

Will you be picking up Ivy the Kiwi? this summer? What do you think of the game’s music thus far, and do you think it deserves a soundtrack release?