Developer: RedDeer.Games
Publisher: RedDeer.Games
Platform: Switch
Tested on: Switch
Music Box – Review
These days, it seems like publisher RedDeer.Games’ new releases fall under four broad categories: actually interesting indie titles, licensed shovelware, hentai games, and apps. Based on the title, can you guess which category Music Box will fall in? That’s right, we’re looking at the latest title to join the ranks of calendar app nDay and the aptly named Notes + Stickers. But what is actually contained inside this so-called Music Box? Let’s find out.
We’re straying away from our usual review format for Music Box, simply because the entire concept of the app doesn’t fit in with this. And yes, Music Box IS an app, rather than a game. Even the eShop description refers to it as such. Music Box fits in alongside a wide range of similar apps released by RedDeer.Games on the platform, such as nOS and AAA Clock. Music Box specifically is a drum machine app, allowing you to to mix your own percussion beats. It’s as simple as highlighting specific squares on the mixing board and setting the speed. Each square corresponds to one of eight different sounds, and there is a variety of different sound styles available. You can also change the visual appearance. There is no tutorial, but given how simple and intuitive everything is, that isn’t an issue. All the buttons are clearly marked and you can make changes to your drum compositions on the fly, even while the app is playing beats for you.
Now, we’re definitely not musicians ourselves, but we can see Music Box being a cheap and useful alternative for budding artists instead of an actual drum kit. It has the functionality, and you can simply connect an AUX cable to your Switch so that the sound plays over your actual music hardware. That said, there isn’t any point to pick this one up if you’re not going to use it for this specific functionality. There isn’t enough to mess around with here to entertain you for more than 30 seconds. It probably says enough that there is more composing utility in the music section of Mario Paint on the SNES than there is here.
One oddity that we should note is that DLC appears to exist for Music Box, at least in-app. When switching between different music styles, three styles are readily available: rock, jazz, and acoustic. Two more styles have icons, and clicking on these leads to the Nintendo eShop. However, there is no DLC visible in the actual eShop itself. Perhaps this is something that will be added at a later date, or in other “versions” of Music Box. We’ll get back to what those “versions” probably entail. For now, we should note that the presence of these icons makes Music Box feel incomplete as is, even if it does what it needs to do. Granted, this is reflected in the RRP of €6.99 being significantly lower than that of other apps in RedDeer.Games’ catalog, but given that AAA Clock Gold has an RRP of €99.00 (for a literal clock app) that isn’t saying much.
Given RedDeer.Games’ track record, we wouldn’t be surprised if Music Box is going to be re-released several times over, with a different subtitle. It’s something that ties into the way the publisher tries to push its titles to the front of the eShop. Take the “regular” AAA Clock, for example. There are over 20 different “versions” of this app, ranging from AAA Clock Extreme Director’s Cut to AAA Clock Ultra Amazing Edition. These are by and large the same app, just re-released with a different subtitle. Don’t be surprised if a year from now, you’ll find Music Box Extreme Ultimate or Music Box Ultra Magnificent Edition listed under new releases. Likewise, Music Box is looking like it will be permanently “discounted” from its RRP of 6.99 to give the impression of better value. This also happened with nOS, albeit in a far more egregious way. Of the 13 “versions” of nOS, for example, at least one is always discounted to €1.99 from its usual €40-ish price point. If this smells like a scummy business practice, that’s because well, it is, but the publisher is just playing the eShop system in a way to maximize profit, and the blame should be put on the eShop needing a rework. Pricing tangent aside, we expect Music Box to share a similar fate.
Conclusion
There isn’t a whole lot to say about Music Box itself, because, well, it does what it needs to do. It’s a simple drum kit that offers different styles and is functional and easy to use. If you are in the market for a virtual drum kit, then this certainly is an option. At the risk of sounding cynical, however, all Music Box did for us was make us long for just a couple of years ago, when a new RedDeer.Games release like Gem Wizards Tactics or To Leave actually got us excited. Those may not have been the best games, but they were at least more interesting than literal bare minimum releases like this one. How the mighty have fallen.
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