Vita Memories from the 10s

Part 2: Move a little, turn a little, break a little, hurt a little

I'll be sharing some of my favorite Vita memories of this past decade. Last time I talked about the game that made me buy a Vita -- but I had a couple months before it was to release. What game was there to tide me over until then? It was Sound Shapes, released for the Vita and PS3 in 2012 (and then PS4 a year later).

I unfortunately can not find the Youtube video that first introduced me to Sound Shapes. But I was researching what games were available for the Vita, and was curious what the "hidden gems" might be. In one such video, Sound Shapes was listed as the #1 pick -- and at first glance, I had to admit I didn't think much of it. It's just a basic platformer. It's just a circle for your character. It's just a bunch of random noises. But this reviewer went on and on about how fantastic it was, how much it moved him, that I was convinced to give it a shot and decided to pick it up in my first batch of Vita games.

As it turned out, Sound Shapes is not just a basic platformer, and the bunch of random noises are worth much more than the sum of their parts. (Your character is still just a circle though, lol.) The way I've tried to describe it before is what the game Journey was for a lot of gamers, Sound Shapes was for me. And at the same time, what Mario Maker was for a lot of gamers, Sound Shapes was for me. And then some.

I strongly believe the true Sound Shapes experience is to be had on the Vita. The surreal worlds have got to be held in your hands, your face near the brilliant and bright colors of the OLED screen, and your headphones on so that your mind, your thumbs, and the music are all in sync. Everything you do in the game, everything you see -- everything is directly tied to the music. Everything moves to the beat, and the further you go in each stage the more musical layers are added.

The campaign mode is not long, but it is all A+ material, my personal favorites being Deadmau5's "80s arcade cyberpunk" world and Beck's "hundred dead cities outside" world. But here's what made Sound Shapes extra-cool for me: the online hub where people could upload their own levels. The game includes a Sound Shapes level + music creator, which is both easy to navigate and fiddle around with on the Vita's touchscreen -- and every week, I'd be sure to check the online community and play a couple new levels. Obviously quality would vary, but there was a rating system as well as a difficulty level meter for each stage -- so if you just wanted chill levels to zone out to before going to bed each night (as I generally did), you could do just that. The Vita was my first modern fully-online gaming console, and my favorite game to take advantage of that was definitely Sound Shapes. It doesn't have to always be about competing in video games -- sometimes it's nice to just share brief glimpses into our mindscapes with one another.

Some may call the Vita an island, but I never felt that way when playing Sound Shapes. In a just world, I think this game would've made a much bigger splash in the gaming community than it did. Perhaps it came out a couple years too early, before many people were taking 2D platformers seriously again? (Shovel Knight was 2014, for example.) It was also a release right when Sony was shifting gears from PS3 to PS4, and everyone's eyes were on what AAA titles the next gen would bring us. (Which, of course, meant a lot of people ignoring the Vita all the while -- not just Sound Shapes.)

Unfortunately, like most games with online features, the servers for Sound Shapes eventually shut down (about a year ago). I was able to download all the creator-made levels I could before then, but it's still a little sad. It makes Sound Shapes a little harder to recommend at this point -- but really, it's only $10 (and regularly goes on sale). The campaign is definitely worth that much.