This time we bring you the analysis of One-handed applause. What started as a project led by students at the University of Southern California, ended up being a complete game. The developers of this title are Bad dream games. This study is characterized by the creation of new games that nurture creativity and involve the player in gameplay beyond the use of the controller. The release of One-handed applause It was produced by HandyGames, owned by THQ Nordic.
One-handed applause This is a 2D platform game, in which a series of puzzles or puzzles will appear. In order to resolve them and keep moving forward, we need to use our voice. Note at this point that in order to play this title we need to have a microphone that allows us to listen at all times.
Silence rekindled by the flame of song
It all starts in the city of Silent city. The city is dark and silent. At this moment our character must start singing, in order to light his way. The place is full of dark locals and with a hostile attitude towards us. These dark beings are the critical eyes of silence and darkness. As we follow our path of voice and song, we will begin to illuminate our surroundings.
The adventure continues with our character meeting along the way a series of friends, each with a different musical style or rhythm.. First of all, a few little foxes who will take care of finding the tone of our voice. Later a curious bird which will accompany us thanks to the continuation of the marked melody. Finally, a curious chubby character, who will make us follow the rhythm to the rhythm of the drum. We will travel a total of six biomes where we will develop different skills to move forward in the story
One Hand Clapping will require our voice to move forward
The remarkable mechanics of this game is the use of our voice, with different tones, to be able to activate the elements on the screen.. Our character will move on the screen only from left to right and to jump, for everything else we will use our voice.
We find ourselves in situations where we just have to give a your short and we’re going to activate an elevator, or activate an element. We will also use voice tone variations, either to avoid certain obstacles, to create paths that allow us to reach high areas, or to avoid enemy attacks among others. Finally, voice will also be required for follow a precise melody, with which we will be able to unlock certain parts of the puzzle in front of which we find ourselves.
Not everything will focus on using voice, in one of the biomes we’ll have to follow the beat like a drum, using the LB and RB keys as appropriate for a high or low tone. We will see this mechanism later when combined with the use of the voice.
Throughout the story we will have confrontations against great enemies. These clashes will consist of several parts. In each of them, we have to perform a vocal pattern, follow a melody or fol low the rhythm with the percussion. If in one of the parts we do not reach the minimum required to move on to the next one, the scene will be subtracted to try again. There is no maximum number of attempts, which is appreciated at times, since we will have to find out what we are asked to face the enemy.
Technical section. Graphics and performance
Technically, there is not much to comment on. We are faced with a title with low demand for material. Graphically it is done with a simple, somewhat childish, but well defined and colorful artistic style.. The different biomes that appear in the game are well differentiated and defined. We will go from a dark world, in the center of the city of “Silent City”, to a rather colorful hidden forest. Everything is well done artistically.
In its sound section, there is no type of remarkable aspect. This is because there is no soundtrack to accompany us throughout the game. It might make sense, because if it had been included it would distract us from the main focus of our own. voice. Despite what has been said, the implementation that takes place between the music that connects certain moments of our adventure with the beginning of the puzzles where we will use our voice is perfect. In some moments when we cannot solve the puzzle, the sound sequence will be repeated to make a new attempt to solve it. This repetition is linear and continuous, with no type of jump or cut on each attempt. It is appreciated, because it makes you more integrated in the development of the story.
Conclusions and personal opinion
We have to value this title as something new. Not for the fact of using the voice to manage, if not for the fact of risk in these times with mechanics of this type. This is something that we have to value positively, because we are used to only using the gamepad without combining it with more devices or elements. Since the days of Kinect, we haven’t seen so many games that use different uses of the gamepad, so this may be a bit of a fresh breeze for a genre as mainstream as case-solving platform games. – 2D head.
He left me a little cold in his narrative part. While it is true that we wanted to give greater importance to the use of our voice in the game, it would have given him more interest if he had included a certain narrative, especially at times when biomes are changed or when we meet the different characters that we meet in our adventure. Not including it doesn’t take anything away, but I think that would be a point in its favor.
There are some problems with using the voice to manage our character. Between them I had trouble calibrating the sensitivity of the mic. There are times when I played and in my environment there was more ambient noise. To compensate I had to put a lower sensitivity. This caused the voice to have to be very high for it to be recognized and distinguished among all ambient sounds.
In general this is a game that I recommend because it has a new incentive. Its duration is short, it took me about 4 hours to complete the story. This duration was correct, because this way it won’t be tedious to have to move forward in the story using our voice all the time. The game has no type of replayability, being the only incentive to get it to get any achievements.
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Pro.
- Unusual game mechanics
- Variety of ways to solve puzzles
Vs.
- Poor and spoiled history
- Difficult to match with the microphone sensitivity setting
- You need a microphone to play
About the Author
Passionate about video games for as long as I can remember. Any excuse is good for taking time and having a vice. Always think green.
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