Since rhythm games with plastic peripherals entered the gaming mainstream in 2005, it’s become quite common for gamers to have living rooms filled with fake instruments. These accessories have helped the rhythm genre thrive and evolve over the last few years, but their uses are limited, as only a few games utilize of them. Fret Nice, a downloadable game developed by Pieces Interactive, attempts to break this tradition by adding guitar peripheral controls to a platforming title. Unfortunately, this interesting idea doesn’t quite work out in execution, resulting in an average platformer that doesn’t do enough to stand out.

Fret Nice seems to have a lot going for it at first. The game allows the player to choose and modify his or her character, and while there aren’t a lot of customization options at first, more can be unlocked as the game progresses. The characters, level select screen, and individual boards all have a quirky art style, which is definitely one of the game’s highlights. It looks sort of like a colorful collage, with different sections of the game providing distinct designs. The soundtrack is catchy as well, which is especially fitting since music is a constant theme of the gameplay. However, the potential starts to wash away the moment the guitar controller is brought into play.



For the guitar control scheme, the green and yellow buttons are used to move your character back and forth, while tilting as if activating Star Power is used to jump. Attacks are performed while strumming and hitting notes in the air, and repeatedly hitting the strum button causes the player to run while on solid ground. The major flaw in the controls is tilting the guitar to jump. This can be inaccurate, meaning it may take several frantic tilts before the character lands on the intended platform. Making this even more annoying is the fact that attacks must be performed in the air. There is an option to make the red button the jump control, but even that feels awkward. It does get easier the more times you try it, but never feels completely natural. Attempting to get through levels with the guitar simply isn’t ideal, and it won’t be long before you will want to switch to a regular controller.

The alternative to play through the game with a PS3 controller comes as a relief after several levels of guitar play, and makes it easier to rack up points and kill enemies. Each level in Fret Nice is filled with bizarre foes that have odd facial features. To defeat them, you must hit notes that correspond to enemies’ eyes, antennae, and mouths while in the air. With the guitar, this is done by hitting the colored notes and strumming, and on the PS3 controller attacking correlates to hitting the top four buttons and the triangle. While this seems to make absolutely no sense and can be a little baffling at first, it soon becomes more natural, and it can actually be pretty satisfying to vanquish a group of multi-featured foes at once.



A major point of frustration is the fact that even after a level is completed, a certain amount of medals are needed to enter the next stage. The player can earn medals by playing through a level, with additional awards being given out for good times, scores, and percentage of enemies killed. However, these medals can be tricky to get on the first try, meaning that you’ll find yourself playing the early levels of the game over and over again in order to continue. Tools can be obtained later in the game to make getting those medals a little easier, but by the time you reach the first in-game store you’ll likely have repeated the first few levels several times. If the levels were more inspired, perhaps even this wouldn’t have been a huge issue, but other than the art style, there isn’t a lot of originality in each section of the game. Furthermore, it can sometimes be hard to tell what’s part of the background and what can be interacted with.

Two-player co-op makes these medals a little easier to obtain, and provided you have the right friend, can add some fun to the game. When playing through levels with another gamer, the characters are connected by a strand that gets longer as they separate; move too far away from one another, and one of the players will be pulled towards the other. It’s a simple concept that works, and is a nice addition, since most games are more fun with a friend. However, even adding another player doesn’t change the fact that Fret Nice is a fairly repetitive game with lackluster level design.



Fret Nice isn’t a bad game by any means, and it’s actually pretty entertaining in small doses. The unique presentation and pleasant soundtrack enhance the experience, even though the gameplay itself doesn’t do much to distinguish itself. The fact that the guitar control scheme doesn’t work as well as it could have is disappointing, and playing through levels multiple times just to advance quickly becomes a source of frustration. The developers should be commended for trying something new, and it’s an idea that I would like to see taken further in the future, but controlling this game with a guitar is simply not ideal. Ultimately, Fret Nice is a decent platformer with potential that it never completely lives up to.