Harmonix Studios, of Rock Band and Dance Central fame, have demoed Fantasia: Music Evolved, a new music game at E3 based on the Fantasia franchise. With an apparent shift away from the Rock Band ‘plastic instruments’ approach, the game follows your body’s movements, more like Dance Central but without actually dancing. From the video interview above, created by the excellent Game Trailers website, you appear to conduct the music with hand gestures and broad body movements, almost like interpretive dance, by using the Xbox One kinect. This is a refreshing change for me as I have no interest in ‘plucking’ away at a fake guitar, and I can’t dance.
During the initial unveiling of the game a few weeks back, I was worried by the announcement that the game would include pop and rock music. As a fan of the original Fantasia film I was initially appalled at this seemingly blatant attempt to pander to the majority, while missing out on an opportunity to innovate and push the genre in new audiences. After watching the video from Game Trailers, I now feel that the studio has successfully managed to please everyone while at the same time draw in new players.
(Editor’s note: head to Richard’s blog for the full article.)
Tags: Fantasia: Music Evolved, Harmonix
