One morning in 1969, Jimi Hendrix took the Woodstock stage: he was wearing one white jacket adorned with fringes and beads and blue jeans and he was carrying a Fender Stratocaster Olympic White. Towards the end of the performance, the notes of the American anthem shot out of that guitar like bullets. The powerful melody, distorted by the Larsen effectcrystallized in the collective memory the end of the Sixties, decreeing the loss of innocence.
The videogame A Musical Storya true pearl of the indie universe and first work developed by small French team Glee-Cheese Studiois a journey on the road, a sound and visual experience that takes the player to Flower Power, that period full of contrasts, illuminated by the kaleidoscope of colors of the posters posted in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.
Il rhythm game by Glee-Cheese Studio harnesses the evocative power of music through 26 musical sequences that tell the story of Gabriel and his group, on their way to the Pinewood Festival.
The opening screen of the game shows the protagonist in a coma on a hospital bed. Concluding the first sound sequence, the dimension of the memories preceding the event is unlocked. The narration takes place in a linear way in a dream level, between dream and memory, which at the completion of each musical sequence adds a visual piece to the story. Fragments that seem to come out of opera by Robert Wesley Wilsonthe American artist who best interpreted the style of the psychedelic era and the aesthetics of the hippy movement.
youtube: A Musical Story trailer
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A Musical Story there is a essential gameplay that uses only two keys of the pad, the triggers of the left and right sides: the sequences to be solved, repeating the melody simply by pressing or holding the keys in time, always have the same circular structure. The themes that are composed are strongly evocative and follow the visual storytelling: first presented inside a small porthole, it expands, just like the sound, and then occupies both the senses and the whole screen.
The 26 tracks composed by Charles Bardin and Valentin Ducloux are explicit tribute to the music of groups such as Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and of course the unrivaled Hendrix. The tribute to the great guitarist can also be seen in the features of Gabriel, the protagonist of the game, who in some paintings is dressed exactly like Hendrix in Woodstock, including a red bandana in his hair.
A Musical Story is a hypnotic experience: it does not want to be a game for everyone, but it is perfect for those who want two hours of absolute poetry. The title of Glee-Cheese Studio is available in digital format for all platforms at a cost of € 14.99.