Topic: Electroplankton Series Impressions

well the only "new" electroplankton game i bought is luminarrow (i find luminaria to be sooo much more fitting), i got to say its very good, though i wish i had more control of the arrows, like being able to freely rotate them with the stylus (like hanenbow's leaves) insteand of just tapping them so they move a bit in the same direction.
its very soothing and may end up sleepy after a while, which is not bad at all.

my top three (i only have 3 lol):
Beatnes-luminarrow-hanenbow(i wish this one was louder)

Thanks for the impressions. Did you find Marine-Crystals to be worth the 200 points?

I got Sun-Animalcule as per Adam's recommendation. I tried it this morning and I really enjoyed it. It's quite nice.

i just noticed that the planktons you buy appear swiming in the tittle screen of the games

I think it is worth it. But everyone is different. Just remember that this is not going to be as relaxing as the other ones because it does not keep up the melody on it's own at all. That said, the melodies I do get out of it are very pleasant. I haven't hit a horrible sound yet. Losing track of your "keys" isn't all that bad unless you know what you are wanting to play.
This is not as much of a slam-dunk recommendation as Hanenbow or Luminaria or Sun-Animalcules (The only way you can get horrible pulsating melodies out of that one is if you plunk down ALL of the plankton at once all over the screen. I enjoy mixing the sounds of the suns and the moons.); but it's one of the better ones.

So I think it's worth it; but it's up to you to decide. The biggest deciding factor is if you do or don't like the fact that it doesn't continually keep up the melody. If you either don't mind that or actually like it, then get it. If you don't like the idea of having to keep tapping the screen unless it's in audience mode, then don't get it.
That's my recommendation.

Which is better, Trapy or Luminarrow? I'm leaning towards the former, because you have direct control over the plankton, but I want to know if you can make more involving tunes with Luminarrow (It looks kind of random to me).

Pretty much every person in the thread has already suggested Luminarrow over Trapy. I have no idea how you get the impression that a game perfectly aligned to a grid and perfectly in time could be random while the game where you move plankton freely around a screen, generally out of sync, is not random. Both are fun, but if you're trying to avoid randomness, I'd avoid Trapy, not Luminarrow. Personally I like both. The difficulty of getting the tracies in time with each other just makes it more interesting sometimes.

Thanks, JuneBelle. I'll wait for the review to finalize my decision. Still on the fence about Nanocarp from the other update. Anyone really enjoy this one?

I think you will enjoy Nanocarp if you like windchimes because they are fairly similar. The only gripe with it would be that you really can't explore all the different formations that you can make with the Nanocarp out in public unless you don't mind bewildering others with clapping, blowing into the mic, and singing.

lol, that won't be a big problem for me as I wouldn't really play it in public anyway.
Are the melodies nice (the ones you make)? Also, if I clapped for one EP then clapped for another, will it produce the same effect?

The pitch depends on the location of each Nanocarp, and they swim around if you break their formation, sometimes bouncing off the walls. So most of the time the sounds will be random, but not in the way like Trapy where you get a terrible cacophony of sounds, but rather nice, soft chimes that are pleasing.

The 16 Nanocarp together do formations of various shapes so when you do a certain clapping/blowing/note pattern, they will all swim to their position. Choreographing a swim routine is a side attraction that you might want to check out even though that doesn't have much to do with making music.

I think JuneBelle posted a more detailed explanation on a previous page so check that out too if you haven't read that.

I found the post but it didn't go into too much detail.

This Youtube clip may help anyone who is trying to decide on which plankton to get

I hadn't thought about it being hard to sync the Tracies. Yikes, that tracy video is scary.
So I guess I'll get hanenbow and luminarrow. Maybe beatnes, if I have extra points.

Like rpmurphy said, it's just like windchimes but with a synchronized swim team twist. That's a precise description. There is not really any ability to control the tones that come from it. So it ends up behaving like windchimes getting blown around all together or only a couple.

Okay, watch these videos while keeping my previous comments on them in mind:
1. Pretty clear video on what they look like and the different ways they make sounds: the D-pad's vertical and horizontal swipes across the screen, circular ripples when you tap on the screen, and their own little independent tinkles here and there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY0dQVAJp6s

2. These two show more of the formations that you can get from clapping, blowing, and singing. There are probably well over 15 formations. I'm not sure. I haven't taken the time to count.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zq2SDoYwKo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pOO_fwsw5M

3. Here's an official vid that doesn't really show too much; but you can see more clearly what the graphics look like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5IeTZANjZg

Hope this helps.

What do you mean by layering sounds in sun-animicule? can you show me a video or explain what you're talking about?

Here's a good example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlXYYBpSdZk

This plankton can make some lovely stuff if you don't just randomly plunk them down anywhere and ALL thirty some odd ones at once.

@Tony: Thanks for the link.
@JuneBelle: Thanks for the links. I saw some of those already but anyway, I don't think I'll be getting it after all. It sounds interesting but it also sounds like it's not worth the points when compared with the others.

I haven't been following this conversation, but I decided on a whim to click one of these links, and this CuttheCameras person is pretty good. Is this you, JuneBelle?

You're welcome. Sorry I couldn't be of more help; but that's the best I can do. I think that you are making the right choice, though, because it isn't as enjoyable as the others. I like it and like having it in my collection. But it still is not as enjoyable as the others that you have already downloaded. If you ever have some extra 200 points and don't think you will be getting more points any time soon, you might want to consider it; but otherwise, just enjoy the plankton you have.

LOL. No, it's not. I don't have a good enough camera for that. (Well, I do have a digital camera that can record things; but my computer seems to freeze up when I stick in my SD card these days.........)
Besides, I just got Sun-Animalcule for the first time. This video was uploaded in 2008.

I got Luminarrow and was very surprised at how fun it was. I'm planning to get a few more from the DSi Shop- maybe even the whole set! I mean, I know there are some not worth getting, so can anyone tell me which ones to avoid? Varvoice would be one.

On a side note, I noticed Luminarrow was actually in the "iBand". Nice!