Friday 12 May 2006
Attempting to tap into our obsession with digital music, Traxion is an intriguing game for PSP - due out this Christmas - that transforms your MP3s into the basis for a number of rapid-reaction minigames.
We've seen a brace of the 24 minigames that will eventually add to the line-up, and while it's not exactly groundbreaking - Vib Ribbon did a similar thing way back on PSone - Traxion could be the perfect accompaniment to that 1GB memory stick stuffed with tunes.
By using electronic magic - that's the technical term, natch - Traxion measures the beat, speed and rhythm of your selected track. We saw one game where there's a long winding ribbon of sheet music on-screen with coloured blobs hovering over it. Collecting the coloured blobs and avoiding the black ones is the aim, and the track you're playing dictates the difficulty of the task.
Above: Traxion could be the perfect accompaniment to that 1GB memory stick
The other minigame was mad as a bag of chickens, casting you as an acid-faced chef who's bombarded with food highlighted with the shape of a particular PSP button - a triangle highlight means hit triangle, for instance. Your choice of music actually changes the background and the speed at which the ingredients zip around. It'll be interesting to see how the other games utilise your beats for differing gameplay challenges.
The game will also ship with a number of playable tunes, so if you've yet to remortgage your home for the funds needed for a large memory card you won't be left out.
