I may not be a pianist, but I believe in magic, and that has to count for something.
"Magic Piano" was developed by Smule. who also created "Smule: Karaoke Singing." "AutoRap," and more. "Magic Piano" released in 2011 for mobile phones.
I have a bit of a history with "Magic Piano," I played it in the mid-2010s, I remember back when they had the first level theme for "Castlevania III." However, likely because I got bored with it, I uninstalled it. Should've offloaded it, I lost all my progress.
I'd call this a retrospective review, but my memory of how "Magic Piano" was in the past is hollow. I can't make any comparisons, even if I wanted to. Unless... I fabricate my memories and disguise them as my actual memories... Ho, ho, ho, ho... Delightfully devilish Matthew.
A Magical Piano
General Gameplay
In "Magic Piano," the player taps notes on the screen, from one note to having to hit four notes at once. Each number of notes is colour-coated.
Hitting notes on the line or as close as possible nets more points. Keeping a streak will increase the score multiplier up to four, dropping back to one if a note isn't hit correctly or on time. It's not so much a magic piano as it is a virtual piano, and as a fan of magic, that makes me sad.
Each song has the three stars scoring system. The more stars and the higher your difficulty setting is, the more experience you get. Each difficulty adds notes, for example, the bronze difficulty will only have single and double notes.
Experience lets the player level up to get new songs; Smoola, the game's currency; piano noises, such as classical guitar; and more.
It's simple, but easy to pick up and play. It's relaxing and satisfying to hit notes, and there isn't a hint of delay. It's like petting a dog or cat, it just satisfies the dopamine in my brain. Dopamine feel good. Me like dopamine.
"Magic Piano" is extremely forgiving. Notes can never be missed, notes in doubles or more can be tapped separately too, which I don't think is how these songs should work.
The skill ceiling to get three stars is also small too, even on the highest difficulty. Even if you miss many times, you can still get three stars, it's... Honestly shocking at times how easy it is.
However, this game is aimed at a casual crowd, so I don't mind. Additionally, it's still fun and even quite relaxing. However, there is a challenge to be had, such as in the Daily Challenge section.
Survival of the Fittest
The Daily Challenge is where children go to become adults. You're given the first 30 seconds of a song to try daily. No retries, no starting over, you only have one shot.
The Daily Challenge has a ranking system. If you end up in the top 500, you get 500 EXP and that song for free. If you don't, you get a fate worse than death: no free stuff.
Even if you don't do well in the Daily Challenge, it's still worth playing to get the 2x multiplier for EXP. It's a challenging addition and I found myself getting introduced to artists I've never heard of before, such as Полина Гагарина. I can see why I've never heard of them before...
Every song featured in the Daily Challenge can be bought using Smoola from Smule themselves. However, finding a specific song is a genuine pain. For some reason, you can only search through custom songs, not the songs Smule themselves offer.
You try finding a song from The Four Seasons without knowing they start with Roman numbers.... In a collection of over 200 classical songs! Okay, maybe that's just my lack of knowledge on classical music in general, but a search function would help a lot.
Creative Minds, Missing Features
By using the Composer, "Magic Piano" users can create their own compositions or piano covers of songs. From songs on the radio to video game music.
The quality will vary with custom maps, but I found myself spending most of my time just playing my favourite songs created by users. It's surprising to see niche stuff too, such as "Blue Bird Lamentation" from "Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward."
Songs can also be rated after they're played with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Unfortunately, you can't undo a rating, so if you warm up to a custom song, you can't remove your thumbs down. Besides that though, ratings give you a good sign of whether a song is good or not. Think the YouTube like to dislike ratio before YouTube ruined it.
Also, unfortunately, songs can't be removed once bought, custom or not, at least on IOS. It can be annoying, especially if the song leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I don't even mean a refund, just removing the song from my Songbook.
The Tempo Sacrifice
Playing a song with the right tempo is like playing Russian Roulette, but with five bullets loaded instead of one. A lot of songs, even ones offered by Smule, have the wrong tempo.
[Song Credit: Name: II. Largo (From "The Four Seasons - Winter"); Artist: A. Vivaldi]
Some songs will increase or decrease the tempo. Now, for the most part, I don't mind this. However, when it happens to a song that I'm familiar with, and it has the wrong tempo, it just sounds... So wrong, like 4 a.m. water.
I can easily see this being a massive turn off for people more experienced with these songs, or the piano in general. "Magic Piano" sacrifices tempo accuracy for gameplay, but this wasn't a necessary sacrifice. Honestly, a tempo setting would've worked, setting the tempo as a difficulty multiplier.
The only exception to this tempo problem is with the Smule Jams.
Smule Jams
Smule Jams take isolated vocals from a song and provide the notes like in "Guitar Hero," with the proper tempo. Notes can be missed in Smule Jam.
However, only some songs offered by Smule are Smule Jams, shown by the microphone icon on them. Custom songs can't have the Smule Jams option unfortunately.
I'm mixed on Smule Jams. It's a pleasant change of pace, but the hit detection can be off. It's nice to play the songs with the right tempo, but the isolated vocals sound off in some songs, like the person singer is trapped in the room with me playing a piano menacingly in the corner. Smule Jams has room for improvement.
Miscellaneous Modes
"Magic Piano" has achievements for players to do, such as beating specific songs. It's a neat addition, but the rewards are admittedly underwhelming, boiling down from one to three Smoola, so they aren't going out of your way for.
Solo Mode lets the player freestyle with a virtual piano, with different virtual pianos visually. It's a neat distraction for what it is, but nothing special.
Expert Mobile Game Exploiter Here
Hey kids, want me to show you the real "magic" in "Magic Piano?" Exploits! Well, not really. At least, I don't think it's an actual exploit.
Here's my first trick: skipping ads. Ads play after you finish a song, but this can be avoided by opening the song up in Composer, and then quitting Composer. It saves around 30 seconds of time and your sanity, so you don't have to watch people act as though matching two of the same objects is impossible.
You can also get a ton of experience from the "Easy XP (1 note, 1000+ XP without star bonus)" custom levels. With one note, you can get over 1000 EXP each attempt, over 2000 EXP with the EXP multiplier.
Of course, look at the ratings before buying one of these levels with Smoola.
Sure, you can call me a cheater, but I'd like to call myself an entrepreneur. In all seriousness, given the miniscule EXP received from replaying songs and ads, it'd take a bunch of grinding to get the Smoola for custom songs. Over 15,000 users have done this too.
The only effective way to get Smoola is to watch ads or level up from level 50 onwards, with large servings of Smoola. While I wouldn't say it's pay-to-win to grind, grinding nor paying for VIP Access isn't exactly fun to do.
"Magic Piano" is fun, but I wouldn't pay a subscription fee for it. Besides, if I must pay $65.99USD/$65.99CDN to relax while playing a piano game without being bombarded by ads and Smoola paywalls, I'd rather use an alternative, like playing "LISA: The painful."
Although, maybe I got my karma, my songbook glitched. It just stopped adding songs I'd buy. Uninstalling the app sort of fixed the problem, but this just meant other songs were replaced with the newer ones. Nice, cool, awesome...
Also, ironic side-note. When you make a new account, you can choose from a list of songs, getting one for free. Guess which one popped up when I made a new account out of curiousity?
The comedy writes itself honestly.
The... Visuals of a Piano?
There isn't much to comment on with the presentation. The UI is nice and easy to navigate, except for the lack of a search bar for Smule's songs. The visuals are fine, but for a mobile app, I can give that a pass.
The piano sounds are a matter of preference, but the variety is appreciated. I found myself at home with Retro Gamer, big shock. It makes the game a chiptune paradise.
Overall (B)
Despite many problems, "Magic Piano" is a fun pick-me-up rhythm game to play. The vast library of songs, the Daily Challenge, and the easy but fun gameplay makes this an enjoyable time.
That's not to say it needs some huge improvements such as the tempo problems, frequent ads, grinding, lack of song deletion, lack of a search function for the songs offered by Smule, glitches/exploits, and more. However, despite these problems, I still come back to it and discover new songs to this day.
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