Frederic – Resurrection of Music is a ‘piano hero’ style game with remixes of classical music by Chopin and it’s better than how I just made it sound!
You are Frederic Chopin, who rises from his grave in modern day Paris at the start of the game and you journey through various countries of the world competing against modern musicians.
You begin in Paris, with a duel against a French DJ. You of course play your piano in a Guitar Hero style hitting the notes as they come down from the top of the screen.
If you have played Guitar Hero or Rock Band before then the gameplay will be familiar to you. Though I was hesitant about the iPhone version due to screen size it works really well on both the iPad and the iPhone…. but what gives Frederic its edge is its story!
Frederic travels (on a horse and carriage that fits in his pocket!) from Paris around the world, whipping out his grand piano (which also fits in his pocket, clearly style tips from Mary Poppins) to find out who was responsible for his resurrection and to what his purpose here is. Duelling against various musicians of ethnic stereotypes and accompanying music styles really adds variety to the game and while I couldn’t name a single Chopin piece, most of the compositions used in the game were familiar.
The controls are what you would expect; hit the notes when they reach the keys on the keyboard (white notes for white keys and black notes for black keys). You can grant yourself a “star power” style boost called Super Attack by shaking the device from side to side. You have various levels you can play at, though the iPad version seems to lack the “Too Easy” mode that the iPhone has. Perhaps this is to compensate for the smaller screen I’m not sure. One thing I will say is that it states in game that it’s designed for headphone and I highly recommend you use them if possible. It helps a lot… or maybe my hearing is just naff.
The art style of the game is wonderful and a bit eccentric at times, especially if you watch the background as you are playing the piano, but it works so well. If you are so good that you can just watch everything else going around while tickling those ivories then I recommend it! The cut scenes between each duel are where your story shines through is so I highly recommend watching rather than skipping them.
If you like the Guitar Hero style games but want a different style of music then give this a try!
8 classical composers with tiny horses out of 10