REVIEW: Dropmix

• Released: 2017
• Played on: Android and iOS, requires Dropmix board peripheral
• Also available on: –
• Time to get into: 1 Minute
• Time to complete: For as long as you are having fun.
• Multiplayer: Oh yes!

When I was deciding whether to write about Dropmix, I was trying to decide if it’s actually a video game; it has cards but isn’t really a card game, it has music but isn’t a rhythm or melody game. It could even be argued that it is just a basic DJ tool that just has a game mode added on top. In the end, after playing Dropmix alone, with The Boy and with friends for a while I’ve come to the conclusion that at it’s heart it is a video game – and that it’s a great thing that it crosses game genres in such a way. It means that Dropmix has appeal to everyone in any situation, no matter how many people are playing or how often you’ve played.

It’s all in the mix
Behind the fun of Dropmix is a pretty impressive technical achievement from Harmonix – the company behind music-based games like Rock Band and one of my favourite recent games, Super Beat Sports. It comes with a large peripheral in the form of the Dropmix Board. This hearkens back to Rock Band and all the guitars and drums that it came with but that is where the similarities end. Here you won’t be playing the music, you’ll be re-mixing the music. This is done by pacing cards onto the board, each of which has an NFC chip in and that represents part of a song. Be it the guitar from It’s Tricky or the drums from Radioactive, once that card is on the board the app on your phone/tablet (which connects to the board by Bluetooth) then adds that part to the mix. The mightily impressive thing is that Harmonix has managed to do some magic by which every single part always works when added to the mix. It’s doesn’t always sound that good necessarily – just because you can, doesn’t mean you should – but none of it ever truly clashes and in fact it is the things that you might imagine would clash that often throw up the best mixes. Really it’s something that needs to be seen rather than told, so here’s a very basic video of how it works:

Gamification
That is Freestyle mode, where you can pretty much mix together whatever you like and experiment and create. There are two further modes, however, that turn the experience into a game. Firstly, Party mode. Here every player is playing together with a deck of the cards to meet a series of requests that the game throws at you. It might be to play a vocal card, or a drum card, or a combination of cards. The faster you can do this collectively the more points you score – communication is key. The other gaming mode is a verses mode called Clash. Here, you are in teams, taking turns to play the cards and fighting to reach 21 points first. Both modes are a little more interesting than just basic card playing. In Clash you have as much time as you want to consider how to make it the hardest for your opponent to play whereas the focus in Party is to make it easy for the next person to play – but the need to do it fast adds the element of drama. It’s all great fun and I wondered at the beginning of my time with Dropmix if the gaming elements would take away from the music but actually far from it – it’s those moments in the middle of matches where you go ‘that actually sounds great!‘ or ‘wow, these songs do not work together‘ that are the highlight of every session.

Universal Appeal
Dropmix is super easy to pick up – literally, just pick up a card and place it on the board! But it has hidden depth that comes out over time. For example, each card has a rating of sorts, from 1 to 3, and in the game modes you can only place a card on top of another on the board if it is of equal or higher rating. Initially, this is just a mechanic of the game but like any good game you learn to use those mechanics over time. In Party mode, keep the cards on the board to 1 rating as long as possible. In Clash mode, jump to 3 rating as quickly as possible to make it hard for your opponent. It’s this and things like it that make Dropmix more than the sum of its, already impressive, parts. Eventually you realise that the possibilities are almost limitless. It can be a chilled and music-focused experience, alone or together, to keep tweaking and improving your mix. Or at the other end it can be a fantastic party game that keeps everyone involved due to the music being created. Dropmix can by anything to anyone at any time.

Conclusion
There’s a bit of an outlay of money to get you into the Dropmix world – the board is not cheap. But this is still an easy game to recommend. The many hours of fun – whether chilled out by yourself or in a long and loud session with a group of friends – far outweigh the initial cost. If you like music (who doesn’t?) and you like gaming (otherwise, why are you here?!) then you should think about picking up Dropmix.

Click here to purchase the game from Amazon.co.uk:

First Impressions: Super Beat Sports

Not since SSX Tricky back in 2001 have I played a game that is such pure fun! That’s not to say that this game is as good as that one – Tricky is one of my all time favourites. But every time I finish a song in Super Beats Sports I have a huge smile on my face! The combination of sports and music is a fantastic idea and one that I will be dipping into for ages myself and then over and over again playing with friends and family.

The premise is pretty simple in Super Beats Sports – you are whacking balls about the place as you would in most any sports title. Here though the timing to get a perfect strike is determined by you locking into the music, just as you would in any rhythm titles like Rock Band 4. It’s a completely genius idea as you get to play sports through each song but get that feeling of satisfaction from nailing a good performance at the end.

There are 5 game modes called wonderful things like ‘Whacky Bat‘ and ‘Net Ball‘ – I’ll look at each in more detail when I come to do a full review but my initial impressions are that they are hit and miss (pun entirely intended). Perhaps as I get more into the latter ones I will enjoy them more but there’s a risk with them that they get too complex and that takes away from the sheer joy of the more straight forward modes. Or maybe I just need to get better!

The Boy is loving this too. It’s simple enough for him to pick up and play but still a challenge to get into the groove and nail each shot. The way winning is rewarded also appeals to him – you can collect things like different bats and different outfits and you get them faster the better you do. In multiplayer it’s also been a blast for him to add the interaction to the mix as well – not since we were playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe every day earlier in the year has he had a game to consistently play with lots of other people.

There’s still a ton for us to do in Super Beat Sports so look out for the full review. I also haven’t got around to checking it out with motion controls Wii-Sports-style yet either – that will probably be hilarious in multiplayer as well. In the meantime it’s fair to say I am totally smitten with this game, if that wasn’t obvious enough already!