Apple - Games - iPod - Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes

By Brad Cook

The next time you listen to one of your favorite songs on your iPod, you won’t just enjoy the music — you’ll also help strengthen Ziggy’s forces in their quest to defeat the Mechanical Militia and free Ziggy’s brother, Zero, from their clutches. You create the Tune Troopers in Ziggy’s army from the songs on your iPod, allowing you to tie Ziggy’s fortunes to your best-loved music.

You step into the boots of Ziggy, a Conductor (also known as a Song Summoner) living in Melodica, which was a peaceful country before the Mechanoids’ Mechanical Militia overran it and forced many of its citizens to become emotionless machines too. Music is no longer allowed, but Ziggy — astute music fans will notice the nod to David Bowie’s alter ego — has been trained by the Soul Master to summon song-based warriors who will fight alongside him and restore freedom to Melodica.

When we first meet Ziggy, we watch as he and his brother square off against the diabolical Full House and Number 42, Malicious Master of Machines. They kidnap Zero, but the enigmatic Soul Master arrives just in time to defeat the bad guys’ henchmen. He offers to train Ziggy, a process that takes five years. We rejoin Ziggy at the end of his training, when he has earned the ability to create an army of Tune Troopers who will accompany him across Melodica.

Think of Them as Your Spiders From Mars

Ziggy has five types of Tune Troopers at his disposal: soldiers, who are strong in close-quarters combat and possess spells that strengthen allies; monks, whose attacks are highly accurate and come with the ability to launch counterattacks; archers, who can fight from afar while sporting great agility; knights, whose physical and magical defenses are strong and whose spells specialize in healing; and mages, who are adept at long-range magical fighting.

Ziggy and his Tune Troopers feature various statistics that determine how well they can attack and defend. Hit points decrease each time a unit is struck, while skill points are expended when a character uses a special ability, such as healing powers. Other scores determine a unit’s ability to attack the enemy physically and magically, as well as defend against such strikes, while the final set of numbers gauge accuracy of attacks, agility on defense, and the luck factor that may come to the rescue during combat.

At the end of each battle, you earn Pitch Pearls that you distribute among your Troopers to increase their ranks and strengthen their abilities. Between battles, you can retreat to the Rehearsal Room to engage in mock combat that also rewards you with Pitch Pearls, and if you want to return existing Tune Troopers to sound (i.e., delete them) or make new ones, you can do so at the Hip-O-Drome. The size of your standing army increases as you progress through the game, while you can always have up to 75 more Tune Troopers in reserves. Since you’re limited to a certain number of Tune Troopers in each battle, you’ll need to ensure you have a wide variety of Troopers available to satisfy different types of situations.

Hazy Cosmic Jive

Each time you return to Song Summoner, the game will look at the number of times you played songs tied to existing Tune Troopers and convert that statistic to Play Points, which you use to increase your Groove Level before a battle. The Groove Level bestows an overall bonus to your forces, and you can increase it by activating any Groove Boxes you happen to find on the map. You can also steal a Groove Box already activated by the enemy.

The Luna you earn from battles allow you to buy items that also boost your fortunes during combat, as detailed below. There’s even more to discover during the game, however, so prepare to visit Melodica and explore a world where only your music can free the people from the Mechanical Militia’s oppression. Just don’t let Ziggy become a leper messiah.

Bonus Tracks

Melodica’s towns offer shops where you can buy and sell items that confer battle boosts to Ziggy and his Tune Troopers. The better the item, the more luna it costs.

Sound Bite: Restores 50 hit points
Sound Wave: Restores 100 hit points
Ultrasound: Restores 250 hit points
Singsong: Restores 50 skill points
Strongsong: Restores 100 skill points
Swansong: Restores 250 skill points
Chill Pill: Cures heatstroke caused by an enemy attack
Hot Shot: Cures frostbite caused by an enemy attack
Insulate: Cures electrification caused by an enemy attack
The Cure: Remedies any abnormalities caused by heatstroke, frostbite, electrification, or other special enemy attacks; some units can even randomly attack their allies if afflicted by a serious enough abnormality
Rewind: Increases a unit’s deployment by one. The better the unit, the fewer times it can be deployed before it’s returned to sound; the Rewind item lets you extend its usefulness. Fighting in a mock battle in the Rehearsal Room doesn’t count as a deployment unless the unit loses.

iPod Games FAQ

Do you have questions regarding any of the iPod games available from the iTunes Store?

Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes gameplay area.

A Chart-Topping Tune Trooper. Just like in the music biz, a platinum rating represents the cream of the crop.

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System Requirements

Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or Windows 2000
iPod nano (3rd and 4th generation only), iPod classic, or iPod (5th generation only). Not playable on your computer, other iPod models, iPod touch or iPhone. Please check which iPod model you have.
iTunes 7.5 or higher required to download (games cannot be played in iTunes)