Traxion (video game)

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Traxion
Traxion logo.png
Developer(s) Kuju Entertainment
Publisher(s) LucasArts
Platform(s) PSP
Release Cancelled
Genre(s) Music
Mode(s) Single player

Traxion was a rhythm game for the PlayStation Portable by British developer Kuju Entertainment. It was scheduled to be released in Q4 2006 by LucasArts, but was cancelled in January 2007. [1] The game was to feature a number of minigames, and would support imported songs from the player's own library as well as the game's bundled collection. The game was received well at E3 2006, with Wired calling it "the best thing they had on the show floor". [2]

PlayStation Portable handheld game console made by Sony

The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console that was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment and competed with the Nintendo DS as part of the seventh generation of video-game consoles. Development of the handheld console was announced during E3 2003 and it was unveiled on May 11, 2004, at a Sony press conference before the next E3. The system was released in Japan on December 12, 2004; in North America on March 24, 2005; and in the PAL region on September 1, 2005.

Great Britain island in the North Atlantic off the north-west coast of continental Europe

Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of 209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island, and the ninth-largest island in the world. In 2011, Great Britain had a population of about 61 million people, making it the world's third-most populous island after Java in Indonesia and Honshu in Japan. The island of Ireland is situated to the west of Great Britain, and together these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands, form the British Isles archipelago.

Contents

Gameplay

The game combined music and puzzles by allowing players to user their own MP3s, stored on a memory stick, as the basis for more than 20 puzzles. [1] From your music collection, the game created 24 minigames around the audio. The style and pace of each game would vary depending on the rhythm of the song and the genre of the song. The background and objects in the game were changed by the game engine to match the songs. The game would have also come with a couple of tracks. [3] [4]

MP3 is a coding format for digital audio. Originally defined as the third audio format of the MPEG-1 standard, it was retained and further extended—defining additional bit-rates and support for more audio channels—as the third audio format of the subsequent MPEG-2 standard. A third version, known as MPEG 2.5—extended to better support lower bit rates—is commonly implemented, but is not a recognized standard.

Memory Stick removable flash memory card format, launched by Sony

Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity and faster file transfer speeds; Memory Stick Duo, a small-form-factor version of the Memory Stick ; the even smaller Memory Stick Micro (M2), and the Memory Stick PRO-HG, a high speed variant of the PRO to be used in high-definition video and still cameras.

A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from musical form and musical style, although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Recently, academics have argued that categorizing music by genre is inaccurate and outdated.

One of the minigames developed before cancellation was one where the player had to hit notes in time with the music. In another, a cooking minigame, food flies at a chef in time to the music, and the player must control the chef to prepare the food, also in time with the music. [3]

The game picked up the award for Technical Excellence from major consumer website IGN at E3 2006. [5]

Cancellation

On 4 January 2007, LucasArts announced the cancellation of Traxion. "Kuju and LucasArts have mutually agreed to sever their relationship with respect to the development of the Traxion product," a representative said. The same representative refused to comment on why it was canceled. [5]

Possible republication

On 9 May 2007 Kuju Entertainment head Ed Daly said that they were still considering finishing the project, mentioning that they could market the game as an iPod game. [6] [7]

iPod A line of portable media players designed by Apple

The iPod is a line of portable media players and multi-purpose pocket computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about ​8 1⁄2 months after the Macintosh version of iTunes was released. As of July 27, 2017, only the iPod Touch remains in production.

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References

  1. 1 2 Traxion loses traction, Gamespot, 2007
  2. ↑ Kohler, Chris. LucasArts Dumps Traxion Wired Magazine.
  3. 1 2 Boyes, Emma. E3 06: Traxion Hands-on. GameSpot, 17 May 2006. Accessed 16 November 2008.
  4. ↑ E3 06: LucasArts to show Traxion
  5. 1 2 LucasArts, Kuju Part Ways Over Traxion
  6. ↑ Zoe Mode working on Traxion still and unannounced PSN/XBLA title Archived 2008-09-07 at the Wayback Machine .
  7. ↑ Zoe Mode still looking at Traxion's 'potential'
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