Guitar Hero? How Crude. But Opera Slinger--Cossì Specializzato!
Student Showcase Winner, 2007 Independent Games Festival
In Opera Slinger, you sing opera--into a microphone. It's a quasi-beat matching game, but your score depends on hitting the right notes as well as singing them at the right times; before you play, you choose the male (tenor) or female (alto) role. Your "opponent" is controlled by the AI, and the game's conceit is that you are competing with him or her for the regard and adoration of the audience--which changes more in your direction the more accurately you sing.
The game transpires in a 3D modelled opera house, and periodically you have to sprint to another location to hit your next mark--and can lose points if your "opponent" does so in time to begin the next number while you're still navigating the space.
Opera Slinger isn't quite a complete game; there are only a handful of arias included, and after playing it through, you may well wish there was more. But then, it was a student project, not a commercial game (and consequently is free)--and indeed won the Student Showcase at the 2007 Independent Games Festival.
Still, it's entertaining proof that there's more to be done with music games than whanging at a fake plastic guitar.
Che divertimento!
The developer says:
Opera Slinger is a videogame designed and created by a team of ten students over the course of six months at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy, in Orlando, FL.
Setting itself apart with its key mechanic of pitch detection, Opera Slinger combines the singing fun of karaoke with elements of classic action platforming.
Awards
Student Showcase Winner, Independent Games Festival 2007