Resynth review
:: SYNTH SOKOBANPrice: $1.99
Version: 1.0.1
App Reviewed on: iPad Air 2
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Resynth is a block pushing game all about arranging nodes in a sequence to produce a piece of music. Looking at it from a distance, Resynth kind of looks like Sokoban-meets-Lumines. This makes Resynth sound pretty amazing, but the game doesn't really do enough with its music trappings to feel like the cool hybrid game that it should.
Push it
Every level in Resynth follows the same basic premise. You play as a moveable block on what looks like the interface for sequencing a musical loop. Your job is to move around this interface via swipes to activate drums and push notes into the correct spots to complete the piece of music.
Every instrument you activate requires a specific kind of manipulation to have them fall into places. Simple synth notes simply need to be moved onto glowing spots of the level, while drums are windmill-like contraptions that you have to rotate into place, for example.
Beat the beat
Although the game looks like a music creation tool, Resynth doesn't really let you play around with the music that you're arranging. It gives you the spaces to fill and the items to do it with, and it's your job to make that happen.
As an added challenge, Resynth has bonus objectives for competing levels in a certain amount of loops. Completing these grants points which you can use to unlock new skins for the entire game.
Off key
While I like the idea of combining music and puzzle mechanics, Resynth's attempt to do this is pretty weak. The music in the game doesn't have a lot of variety or character and the puzzle mechanics themselves don't really relate to the music at all.
What this leaves is a Sokoban game with a novel aesthetic, but that's about it. The puzzling here is fine, but Resynth really feels like it misses what it's going for.
The bottom line
Resynth is a decent puzzle game, but its musical elements are all pretty weak. The music is there and it's tied to the game's aesthetic, but at the end of the day, these elements don't change the fact that you're pushing blocks around the same way you might in dozens of other Sokoban-style games. As a result, there's no real reason to go out of your way to check out Resynth.