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Chime

Platform(s): PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Zoƫ Mode
Release Date: March 29, 2011 (US), March 30, 2011 (EU)

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'Chime Super Deluxe' (PS3) Coming Next Week

by Rainier on March 20, 2011 @ 9:10 p.m. PDT

Chime Super Deluxe is a unique block puzzle game fused with music creation elements and contributions from a number of famous musicians.

Chime pits gamers against the melody in this all-new puzzle experience: Players place blocks against the clock, remix famous artists and contribute to children's charities around the world. 

Chime is all about placing shapes on a grid to make music.  Gamers control a single shape at a time, and can move, rotate, and then place it on the grid.  A beatline moves across the grid in time with the music, and sets off events when it hits placed shapes.  Quads are created by placing shapes in solid blocks of 3x3 or more. When a quad is completed and the beat line hits, different musical samples are triggered dependent on its shape.  The size of the quad denotes the score, and multipliers can be achieved by having several quads on the screen at once.  Once the beatline hits a completed quad, it is stamped down into the grid, earning the player coverage. Put simply, place blocks to create quads, create quads to gain coverage, and gain coverage to fill the grid.

Superseding the previously released Chime on Xbox Live Arcade and PC, Chime Super Deluxe features new music from a variety of artists in addition to those already included (Moby, Markus Schulz, Philip Glass, Paul Hartnoll from Orbital and Fred Deakin from Lemon Jelly). The line-up includes tracks created exclusively for Chime and provides the largest roster of music so far for players to enjoy.

Also new to Chime Super Deluxe are brand new multiplayer game modes, an increase in the number of game grids, along with a complete graphical and gameplay overhaul which will make this the most visually attractive and refined iteration of the game.

"Play With You" is written, produced and mixed by Sabrepulse, aka Ashley Charles, a London based musician who creates Drum 'n' Bass, Electro and Electronic Dance music. Ashley is an influential figure in the increasingly popular 8-Bit and "Chip Tune" musical movements and uses a 1989 Nintendo Game Boy and a laptop to make his unique blend of sounds and compositions.

For this exclusive PlayStation Network project Ashley worked alongside Jorden Milnes, a writer/producer and previous winner of the Billboard Songwriter Of The Year Award. Milnes explains how the collaboration on Chime Super Deluxe came about;

"My publisher asked if I wanted to collaborate with Ash (aka Sabrepulse) and after hearing some of his work I thought we could come up with some magic together! The track 'Play With You' started off as an idea that Ash sent over to me. I took the parts and created the lyric and melody and a song structure. The vocals seemed to work well so we kept them and then Ash added some extra production ideas to create the song as it sounds today".

On playing Chime Super Deluxe for the first time Sabrepulse responded, "it's created an infinite amount of new remixes of this song, which is brilliant. It would take hours and hours to do that on regular computer software. The fact that gamers can go in there and mess around with the track and create completely new variations of this song, I think is amazing."

"Machine Dream" is the second new track in Chime Super Deluxe from Nathan McCree, the composer and sound designer behind Tomb Raider 1, 2 and 3 among many other video game classics.

Written specifically for Chime, and having worked on the project in the early phases of development, McCree commented on the creation of "Machine Dream" and his time working on Chime Super Deluxe, "It was a real joy working on the project. We spent a lot of time experimenting with and refining the engine until we had something that was not only great to listen to but produced different results every time you played."

The third new track is "Sympathy", a cinematic orchestral tune originally used in a prototype level during Chime's early development and totally updated for its inclusion in Chime Super Deluxe. Written by Joe Hogan, a videogame and film composer and key figure in the development of Chime's unique music systems, "Sympathy" is unlike any other track in the game providing an altogether different mood and atmosphere for the player. 


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