There are four levels of play. At each level, the notes you should play stream from one end of the screen to the other. At the beginner level, the notes stream from the bottom of the screen to the top. At the top is a keyboard (color-coded like the actual keyboard you’re playing), and you’re supposed to play the note when it reaches the keyboard. Notes are staggered to fit the rhythm of the music — if they’re close together, you play them quickly; if they’re farther apart, you play them slowly.
The background (for everything lower than the keyboard) can be chosen from a variety of colorful images (fantasy, dinosaurs and so forth). The streaming keys don’t look like musical notes — you get to choose what they look like, as well. Usually, this is something that matches the background image. It really does look like a game, and it’s a good tool for luring kids into playing the keyboard.
At the intermediate level, the keyboard moves from the top of the screen to the left of the screen. The notes stream from right to left, but they’re still funky shapes against a colorful background.
At the transition level, the background is replaced with a normal music staff, and the shaped “notes” are replaced with actual notes. However, they’re still colored to match the color of keyboard keys. At the advanced level, the notes are black. There should be one more level, in which sharps and flats aren’t marked on individual keys, but in a key signature. That’s what regular sheet music has, but Piano Wizard doesn’t quite get there.
There are several options to help create the best possible screen environment for each player. For example, as notes stream across the screen, there are guide lines leading to the correct key. I found the guide lines real distracting the first time I sat down to play, and I was able to remove them. Similarly, you can choose whether or not to have the correct fingering marked on each note.
There are other types of options, as well. One of the neatest is that it will play any MIDI file that you have. That means that you can pick out the tune to a wide range of music. It also divides each piece of music into three ... well, I’ll call them strands. The first strand is the simple melody line. You can play it one-handed (almost with one finger), while Piano Wizard handles the rest of the piece. You can add the second strand and get a more complete (and complex) stream of notes. Or you can go for it all, and tackle the full score. And since it’s an electronic keyboard, you’ve got all the normal keyboard options, like switching from piano to trumpet to clarinet “voices” (and so forth).
Piano Wizard is sort of a game, but not all that much. The only thing you can accomplish, and the only score you get, is how well you play the notes in a piece of music. However, this may be all the encouragement that a kid needs to start picking out music on a keyboard. Even for adults, who can see that they’re not really playing a game, there is the satisfaction of playing something well enough that you can recognize the tune, which can be pretty rewarding all by itself. (Who knew I could play Billy Joel’s “Piano Man”?)
Running back to the question at the top … does it teach you how to play the piano? Maybe — I’d like to see its effect on a kid who plays it over several weeks or months. However, it’s fun, even if you aren’t seriously trying to learn to play.
David, the dad: Got my start in gaming with Steve Jackson Games (paper gaming), first as a tester, then as a developer and editor. Was GURPS and Car Wars system guru for awhile, then edited and developed for TSR (AD&D) and FASA (Mech Warrior, Renegade Legion), before turning to computer games. Spent six years as Origin Systems Publications Manager, then our department spun off into its own little company, Incan Monkey God Studios (IMGS). Since 1997, we’ve been a freelance content and design house, specializing in strategy guides. We created the first strategy guides for MOGs (Ultima Online, EQ: Ruins of Kunark) and now create the best MOG guides (IMHO, of course).
I like to analyze and optimize while playing games, so I much prefer games that require thought rather than action.
Evie is twelve years old and is an avid reader, especially of fantasy. Favorite authors include J.K. Rowling (of course), Brian Jacques, Cornelia Funke and Tamora Pierce. These reviews are her first published writing.
Will is nine years old and loves to investigate, especially dinosaurs and astronomy. These reviews are also his first published writing.
Jesse is seven years old and has just started reading chapter books. He likes Hank the Cowdog and cartoon books, especially Calvin & Hobbes, Baby Blues and Donald Duck.
If you're interested in the (roughly) thousand-year-old triceratops stone in our pic, check out the Dino Art. Some of the accompanying text can be a bit strident, but it's still a puzzle why Central and South American Indians knew pretty precisely what dinosaurs looked like over a thousand years ago.
The Piano Wizard is a game. Its not as fun as the Guitar Hero, and it doesn't teach you how to play the piano. You just learn how to follow a bunch of dinosoar eggs and break them open at the right time to play something. You are more concerned with breaking the eggs, than playing the piano. Kids would probably be just as happy (if not happier) banging the eggs open by hitting a mallet on a table at the right spots at the right time. They should not market this as anything more than a toy.