Composer World is a music creation title for Nintendo Switch. It takes the complex art of music creation and tries to simplify it into a game that aesthetically resembles Mario Paint. It may not be for everyone, but if you’re in the mood to whip up some tunes (and provided you know what you’re doing), this title has your musical styles covered.
The first thing I noticed about Composer World is the sheer number of options. You start by choosing a music pattern. Are you composing a jazz piece or a pop song? In fact, there are nine types waiting for you to try out, including 8-bit, orchestra and synth.
Once you’ve decided on your preferred style, you’re presented with a blank sheet of music. It’s long, too, with 263 bars ready to fill. That’s a lot of music to write! This allows creative types to write pieces of almost any size.
Unfortunately, there is nothing in the way of a tutorial or an introduction. Fortunately, it’s not hard to find what to do. the basic element of the game is to drag and drop various instruments from the top of the playing area onto your music sheet. If you don’t know how to read music, you just randomly assign instruments to unknown notes. While that might be fun for a laugh, I don’t think that’s the point of this game.
Creating music, in general, is not easy. A true composition takes time, with notes, rhythms and instruments to consider. Composer World does its best to capitalize on this fine art and allow anyone to create their own masterpiece by providing you with the right tools. What it doesn’t do, however, is teach you how to read or write music.
This means that Composer World is best suited to those who already know a little about music. Fortunately, I studied music as a child. With that in mind, I set out to compose a tune that seemed half-decent to me. Despite the simple tools and interface, it takes time, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Instead, it means you have a pretty robust tool at your disposal.
Music, like drawing or writing, is a creative process. In Composer World, you create a line or two, play it, modify it, move to the next line, and repeat. What key are you in? Which instruments work well together? What tempo should your song have? These are all items to consider.
Other options include adding sharp, flat, and physical objects. These change the tone of your notes. While it’s nice to be able to move from the default key to C major, I’d prefer the ability to change the overall key of my track instead of adding sharps or flats for every note that needs it. For example, to change to G major, you need to sharpen all F notes. Having them as sharp by default would be easier and more intuitive.
The controls are simple. move the screen cursor to the instrument or option of your choice and press A to select it. Hand-held playback lets you use the touch screen to create your tunes. This works fine for the most part, although some elements are a bit small and require either repeated taps or controller movement.
Graphically, Composer World has an extremely simple interface. On the plus side, this keeps things lean and clean, loading quickly and letting players focus on the task at hand. On the contrary, it’s not exactly a pretty game, especially the menu. It is very simple and lacks personality.
Making music is one thing, but what about sharing? Composer World lets you save your tracks and even upload them to share with the world. This is a fun plugin that lets you name your songs and design an icon. Listening to other players’ songs rewards you with items for your avatar, providing a nice incentive to share and enjoy a music community.
Overall, Composer World is a seamless approach to songwriting. Despite the simple aesthetic, there is a powerful creation tool on offer here. It has its flaws, such as the inability to change keys and the lack of a tutorial. However, if you enjoy composing, this should satisfy anyone looking for a way to release their music to the world.
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