Indiescovered: Cosmophony

Cosmophony by Bento-Studio is a rhythm game/scrolling shooter hybrid that was originally released on mobile before being ported to PC and consoles. It features five levels, each with their own style of trippy visuals and a “100% drum and bass” track created by DJ Salaryman. Each of these levels is played by dodging walls and shooting stationary enemies that don’t fight back.

The game’s soundtrack is fairly intense and the levels are modeled to reflect it in as exact of a form as possible. It’s actually fairly rare that I’ve found a game that models the soundtrack so exactly, walls most commonly used to represent lower-pitched sounds while the enemies sprinkled throughout levels most commonly represent higher-pitched or sounds that occur less often. The best way I can put it is that I know the designers did really well because the game’s mechanics allow you to, for example, shoot enemies out of time, but they’re so well-placed that I felt obligated to shoot them when the sound that they represent is played.

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Unfortunately, it is unlikely that most players will make it far enough to appreciate how well-designed the levels are. One of the game’s core issues is that it clearly relies heavily on its difficulty to make up for how few levels there are. There are two modes: Practice, in which you can return to checkpoints if you fail, and Normal, in which each death means a complete reset of the level. You have to complete a level on Normal to unlock the next one. With each level taking approximately two minutes, progressing to the next level could take minutes or, if you’re really struggling, hours. Practice mode will give you a pressure-free environment to work on your ability to complete each level, but, when it comes down to it, you have to be able to play near flawlessly in Normal mode to progress.

The fact that the difficulty level increases gradually only somewhat helps the situation. Each level is more difficult than the last—sometimes introducing new mechanics such as level speed changes and more erratic level design that better represents each accompanying song—but each level is also more progressively difficult in and of itself. Each level gradually eases you into playing it, eventually hitting a point where difficulty ramps up significantly. Should the difficulty ramp up 80% of the way through a level, repeated failures at a point that far into the level can be frustrating.

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I feel it is important to note that I originally played Cosmophony on Android and the experience was less than adequate, primarily due to the controls. I easily made it through the tutorial, struggled my way through the first level, and then hit a brick wall with the second level. On mobile, the buttons that you see at the bottom of each of the screenshots included in this article are the only way to control the game. When you’re trying to play a fast-paced game, using a setup where the left and right buttons are on opposite sides of the screen while the fire button is in the middle leads to a lot of mistakes made on the part of the user. It’s simply uncomfortable and, to make matters worse, the hitbox for each button always felt touchy.

Playing with a gamepad in hand is a different story. Gameplay feels significantly smoother. You can dodge in and out of the game’s various walls with ease. The fire button is mapped to A or cross, far away from the movement controls. I was able to make it through the first two levels in the time it took me to make it through the first on Android. I highly recommend playing a version that you can play with a controller.

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Cosmophony is a fairly short, tightly designed experience that is tuned to near perfection—for its intended audience. I really enjoyed playing through the game and I am recommending it with the stipulation that you must be ready for a challenge. The game does not pull its punches. If you can handle its level of difficulty, though, it’s rare that you will find a non-standard rhythm game that feels as great to play as Cosmophony does.

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Cosmophony is available on Steam, Google Play, the App Store, the Nintendo eShop, and the Playstation Store—on PS3, PS4, and Vita—for $2.99 to $4.99, depending on the platform.