Game Review: Composer World

By Manuel

Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Composer World is a music creation tool that recently released on the Nintendo Switch. Calling it a game is a bit of a stretch, but we'll get into that more later on. Released by Dynamic Voltage Games, Composer World lets you create music using different soundfonts from several styles like pop, jazz, synths, and even retro 8 and 16 bit console sounds too. You can then share your creations online with players from around the world, and gain experience from others listening to your songs, and from listening to theirs as well. It probably goes without saying that this will probably be a difficult game to review, but we're going to give it a go anyway.... so wish us luck!

Lots of options to play with.

The Megasynth (Genesis) bass is best bass.

This game is apparently based on Mario Paint Composer, a freeware program that originally released on the PC and Mac not long after its namesake, Mario Paint. I'm not sure what the history of the program is, but you can play with an online version of it HERE. For those unfamiliar with it, Mario Paint is an art creation video game that originally released on the Super Nintendo in 1992. Mario Paint was mainly a set of drawing and animation tools, but it also had a composition mode that allowed you to create music by placing notes one at a time onto a grid that stands in for a piece of blank sheet music. You then can play your work back and all those hand-placed notes become a proper song. I didn't grow up with Mario Paint, but I've seen several YouTubers and Twitch streamers play around with all aspects of Mario Paint, including the music creation tool. I find it surprising that a separate, though admittedly unofficial, version has existed for decades, but I'm only now hearing about it after it gets a console release. What isn't surprising is that it's currently only available on the Nintendo Switch, as that's most likely due to Composer World's inspirations and the presence of a touch screen. History aside, the sheer amount of time you can spend creating masterpieces, or simply goofing off is incredible. Let's dive into the actual game and discuss that a bit.

I am at a loss as to how I am to review this game as it's not really a game in the proper sense. It's an app or a tool that allows you to easily create your own music that just happens to be available for a video game console. It does that job really well though, and is very easy to use. First impressions are very important though, and Composer World can be quite unwelcoming when you first start it up. There is no tutorial, or even series of hints to ease newcomers into the how things work. I get that the process of making music is somewhat self-explanatory, but there are tons of things to click on, options to mess with, and more that are simply not explained and must be figured out on one's own. This isn't exactly hard to do, and I do think that there's a certain feeling of discovery once you do figure something out, or stumble upon a feature you were hoping the game had, but an intro of any sorts would've been much appreciated. I'm not sure if the lack of a tutorial was intentional, or a product of it being based on an online tool/computer application, but it's best to know what you're getting into and realize that you're mostly on your own for a bit. You'll have a messy-looking series of notes soon enough though, so the feeling of being lost wears off quickly.

Just having a good time.

This was just the beginning.

Creating a song is easy, you pick a style from the first menu option, and then you select an instrument and place it on the sheet music grid. Placement of the instrument corresponds with the notes on the sheet, and you can create chords by combining notes, and also connect notes so that they're held for whatever measure is desired. If you make a mistake you can delete a note one at a time. My first minor qualms with the mechanics is that as far as I know there is no way to mass delete a section, nor is there a way to copy a section over and over again. (As in if you were creating a simple rhythm base.) You're able to mix and max instruments on each layer, but notes of different instruments can't share the same spot. If you do need to have two separate instruments share a spot, you can use a different sound layer. There are three sound layers you're able to use, and you can also mix the instruments and add chorus or reverb effects as needed. There's a ton more options available at creation, such as putting songs in a certain key, and changing a songs BPM, but you get the idea. It is worth mentioning that you can only create any one song with one style's music tools. This means that you can't make a synth song that also has the cat's meows in it. Not exactly a deal breaker, and I can see why this was done, but it would've allowed for lots of wacky creations. Also, the touchscreen is fully usable during music creation and is recommended for some of the tinier changes you might have to make.

You can also make icons for your songs.

Don't forget to play with the mix.

Now the big question is if this is something that is actually fun, or if it's only going to be for music nerds. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't wish that the rest of Mario Paint was somehow included with this game as the package does feel rather one note after a while. (See what I did there?!) However, the music creation tool is so much fun that I found myself spending lots of time creating the absolute worst sounding music you've ever heard. I'm not musically illiterate by any stretch of the term, but I found that messing around was more fun than creating well-written masterpieces, or re-creating popular songs within the game. I'll probably eventually get towards that, but creating a drum track so complicated that even Neil Peart would be stumped on how one would play it for real is quite amusing.  You definitely can create "real" music if you want though, and there's lots of options here for you, I just want to say that my Goblin Era of music creation has been born and nurtured with Composer World and there's no turning back. With all this said, I am a little worried about sharing my music with others since it's definitely an acquired taste, and that leads us to the next thing: the online mode.

Composer World has an online side to it that is also called "Composer World". This is worldwide hub of other users that have created and uploaded songs. I'm not sure exactly how to listen to exactly what you want as the towers spread out around the world seem very clunky to click on, sometimes are repeated, and sometimes have no music at all to listen to. You can add favorite creators and songs too, but I found this a tricky process too. Composer World has only been out for about a week now but there are already lots of great music out there. I had the joy to listen to several players who obviously had more skill and patience than me, as well as others who seem to have taken my school of music creation to heart. Listening to music, and having other listen to your uploaded songs, grants you experience that unlocks more customization options for your avatar as you level up too. Yeah, you have an avatar that really leaves a lot to be desired, but maybe I'll think it's far cooler when I get more levels. Composer World's online mode isn't the most functional and easy to use, but apparently one can use it without a NSO membership, so I have to give it credit for that. I look forward to the future of this online mode, and it's largely for this mode that I hope that this game really takes off.

Listening to the music of randos.

I hope I get more options for this soon.

Composer World is currently priced at $19.99 and can provide countless hours of entertainment. You can spend an entire afternoon on one song and it'd be time well spent. If you're looking for a fun music creation tool, or even a party game of sorts for you and your friends to mess around with, then grab this now. If you prefer your games to have more structure, or be actual games, then you're probably better off skipping this one. Even for the latter group though, I'm willing to bet that there's something here that you'll enjoy. I'm sure that I'll have to take another look at this game later on as there is just so much to it. Anyhow, get the game, get creating, and get those tracks online so I can check them out in Composer World! My user name is "alavic222" by the way!

Check Out Composer World on The Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/composer-world-switch/

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Overall Rating: A

Pros:
+ A really fun music tool that can be used to create "proper" music tracks or just to mess around.
+ Lots of sound and instrument options make it so that you can make the same song sound vastly different if wanted.
+ The online side of Composer World is surprisingly deep and you can share you creations and listen to songs from other users.
+ Priced perfectly for the amount of content you get.

+/- While not promised or guaranteed, there's lots of room for updates and growth here.

Cons:
- A bit unintuitive for casual users.
- Could use a tutorial of sorts to ease people in.
- The Composer World online section is a bit on the clunky side.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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I look forward to future updates!

#ComposerWorld