Fret Nice

   There’s a good chance that you are like me.  Probably not in a lot of ways, but if you’ve played Guitar Hero (and most of us have) then you might have a plastic guitar or four laying around that rarely get used for anything except checking out new Rock Band DLC every now and again.  I had no expectation of using my guitar for anything other than rocking out, until I heard about Fret Nice, this quirky downloadable title developed by Pieces Interactive and published by Tecmo.

     Fret Nice is sort of an old school platformer where you run to the right and kill enemies.  The twist here is that you are using your guitar to control your character.  You run with the yellow and green buttons, attack by playing note patterns, and jump by tilting the guitar.  It seems interesting, but how did it turn out?

     The main story mode consists of twelve levels with a smattering of bonus stages, bosses, and stores spread throughout the world.  The currency, and progression through the game, come from the acquisition of medals awarded at the end of each level.  There are ten possible medals that are doled out for accomplishments such as finishing the level quickly, destroying a certain percent of enemies, your overall score, and finding hidden items that help to flesh out the “story” of Fret Nice. 

     Progression is a pleasant experience mainly due to the quirky atmosphere that the game exudes.  The art style of the game has this pastiche quality where characters and environment look like cutouts pieced together with some Elmer’s glue.  A bit like South Park, but it reminded me more of this funny yet incredibly annoying music video:

We Like The Moon!!

     The art is enjoyably bizarre, but one complaint I have is that it can sometimes be a bit hard to determine what is foreground that you can land on and what is background.  When you are jamming out it’s frustrating to fall right through your intended platform.  The music in the game complements the art style well, adding a lighthearted flair.  I enjoyed the music and even found myself humming bits of it at night.  It’s pretty good.  As vibrant as this world is, it’s a bit of a drag that you have to play the levels so many times to progress.  Since the levels are not very hard to complete, a lot of the game lies in replaying levels to get medals.  The game generously doesn’t force  you to get every medal to finish, but the repetition of each level  does end up bringing down the experience a bit turning quirky to frustrating.

     The platforming bits that link enemy encounters are rather basic, and are clearly not the focus of the game.  Aside from the aforementioned issue with identifying platforms, movement is straightforward with tweaks such as power ups, lever pulls, and glide (soar) abilities providing the variety and relevance to the levels.  Character control can become quite confusing if you happen to be in the midst of jumping and attacking while trying to aim your landing though, so it’s helpful that the platforming itself isn’t too complex. 

     For me, the highlight of this game is the actual combat.  You are no plumber destined to bop enemies on their noggins, nor do you have weapons to dispatch them with.  Instead, you have the power of ROCK.  When you see an enemy, and get close enough to form a tether with it, you have to give his face (body?)  a quick once over.  How many eyes, horns, mouths, etc does it have?  That determines what you have to play to destroy him.  One eye means play a note, any note, one time.  Four eyes means play any one note four times.  Three eyes, two horns, and a mouth means play three of one note, two of another, and then a third note once.  It is confusing at first, mentally and physically, but becomes very rewarding as you continue to play, get better, and rack up multipliers.  When I reached that point in combat where the enemies were coming fast and I could process their patterns before they arrived, the game really clicked. 

     Regardless of anything mentioned previously, the focal point of the game is really whether or not controlling your character with the guitar peripheral works.  Unfortunately, It toes the line of being straight up broken.  I had my guitar in hand when I started the game and on my first try was dumbfounded.  Initial play of Fret Nice reminded me of a game where the X and Y axes are inverted.  I know what I want my character to do and which button to press, but somewhere from my brain to my fingers, the signal gets crossed.  Even getting the hang of the controls a few levels into the game, they just don’t work very well.  The one glaring flaw is the jumping that I mentioned.  By itself, tilting the neck to jump isn’t hard to do, but when you have to do it dozens of times per level, it becomes frustrating, tiring, and can easily lead to mistakes and fatigue.   My enjoyment of the game really peaked soon after ditching the guitar for a standard controller.

     Once I was about four levels in, I decided I wasn’t progressing very efficiently, and I decided to give my axe the axe.  What a difference that made.  I flew through the game much more quickly and was able to reach a level of precision that I just don’t think is possible with the guitar.  The game became immensely more rewarding and I started racking up medals left and right.  Everything from the jumping and combat to the basic platforming is fundamentally different, and works better with the standard controller.  Gone is the awkwardness and frustration, but also a good sized chunk of the uniqueness.  With the guitar out, you are left with a quirky feeling platformer that is pretty basic and would likely be kind of average stripped of its aesthetic.

     In the end, this game is more of an interesting experiment of what can be done more than it is a game that feels like it needed to be done.  It’s unfortunate that the intended controls are so unwieldy, because the idea is fresh, the art and music are great, and this is the medium where these games should exist.  I would love to see more quirky games along these lines and if you support the idea of games that push boundaries, then pick it up.  If it drops in price at all, I’d suggest picking it up to check it out.  Overall, I enjoyed it, but can’t recommend it that highly.

Review Notes: This copy of the game was provided by TECMO for review purposes.  Game was completed.  Every level beaten using Dualshock3, and about half additionally completed using Guitar Hero 3 guitar.