iPhone Reviews 2.0

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Leaf Trombone: World Stage is a music game by Smule. $0.99

Smule is well known for its revolutionary music App Ocarina. Ocarina used the iPhone's microphone to create music. Leaf Trombone is the first game by Smule, which is an altercation on Ocarina. Leaf Trombone is more iPod Touch friendly, with a mode that performs well on the iPod, as well as an option using for microphone for the iPhone. This game is totally user dependant on being successful, with users performing the songs to judge, users judging the songs and users making the songs for people to perform. I reviewed Leaf Trombone on an iPod Touch so I was not able to try out the microphone mode, but the touch mode works extremely well in basically performing any song as long as someone has created it. The game also puts a bit of competitive edge between friends, with many of my friends buying the game to try and perform the best song. There are no difficulty levels but songs have different ranges of difficulty. Obviously Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is going to be easier to perform than Viva La Vida by Coldplay.

Leaf Trombone isn't a game that needs to wow you with flashy graphics, but it is quite nice. The musical leaf doesn't look real but certainly professionally done. In the performance area there isn't much else that is spectacular with the basic black background and notes popping up on the left of the screen. When judging a performance you can express yourself through a number of smilies as well as adding your own comments, which is a nice touch. These smilies are animated and aren't always pleasing to see as a performer. The game is very smooth, reacting instantly to your movements as you change notes, especially in some of the more difficult tracks. I have yet to have a problem with lag or the game crashing yet. While I can't comment on the iPhone only controls, the touch system works extremely well in creating music. To play your Leaf Trombone you have to tap and hold on certain points on the screen to move the Trombone to make the right sound. A plus and minus button is on the left of the screen to change the pitch of the notes for certain parts of the songs.

The song is very much dependent on your musical skill in this game. If you are terrible at this game and can not hit a single note, it will sound terrible. However you can watch performances by some of the best and the game will sound absolutely amazing. For experimental purposes we will say that the game sounds beautiful and mystical while I am playing. Those musical buffs will enjoy how the notes played match a real trombone, with the ability to change between different types of music such as C# to D are available. Yes, as you may have noticed I'm no expert when it comes to this.

As I said before this game is totally dependent on the users to make this game flow with a tight knit community. You can play and practice songs whenever you like, as well as compose then. To perform these songs on the World Stage you need these incredibly rare items called Leaf Tokens. Three of them to be precise. These can only be awarded to you each time you judge a song on the World Stage. Since there are three people who must judge a song, I suppose the number was chosen to always have judges and songs in high demand. Wait times to be a judge or to have your song judged are very short, generally taking less than 10 seconds on average. Who doesn't like a promo code or three? I just love playing Ocarina at JM4PKHE9W97J and Sonic Lighter at AHKPWARF93KK and Sonic Boom at 6YEWJHJTKT96. The number of songs able to be played also amazed me. I opened the game expecting a few pre-made tunes and the rest had to be made up ourselves. This is basically right but I didn't expect to be able to share them with the rest of the world. Some well known songs have been thrown into the mix as well as jingles such as the Simpsons Theme Song. Playing a song is easy and only requires you to hold down certain notes for so long repeatedly until it starts sounding like a song.

This addictive gameplay is great fun and is a more rewarding online gameplay than Tap Tap Revenge with user feedback helping you to improve your skills. As with any online environment you will get the odd perverted immature teenager but they are quickly sought out and dealt with severely (I hear they get turned into Leaf Tokens). This is by far the best online environment I have seen to date on the App Store, finally giving me something to do that doesn't involve paying $99.99 for 500 Mob Points. If you like Ocarina or online play you will find this an absolute treat to play. I recommend it for both casual and determined gamers. A great pick up for only $0.99. Now if you excuse me I am off to play Viva la Vida just one more time!

Gameplay- 10/10
Graphics- 7.5/10
Sound- 10/10
Overall- 9/10