What's this? It's got a good beat.

I didn’t actually play it, I just leveled-up my characters and then tried making some new ones.

We got married in a fever...

That done, I closed the app. Somehow, I don’t think I’ve got my priorities quite right.

The first one was YouTube. Not a game.

The second one was my contacts information for Richard Gaywood. Not a game.

The third one was Song Summoner, or, to give it its full title, that monstrous bit of text you can see in the title of this post.

I have to admit, I was disappointed. I didn’t really want to play it. Seemed like too much effort. Rules are rules, however, so I loaded my last save.

Thanks for the trooper, Hank III!

First off, I had to watch as all my troops got points based on the music I’ve played in the last month. I got quite a few level increases, but I’m not really listening to the songs I made troops from any more, so it wasn’t as good as it could have been.

After getting everybody leveled, I decided to play one of the maps I’d played before, to try and refresh my memory. Took a decent selection of troops in (soldier, monk and mage) and slaughtered the enemy with surprising ease.

That done, I went to the next story location on the map. I’d expected a fight, but instead I got some cut scenes and found a new town.

The story and dialogue makes me want to die, frankly.

After telling me all about The Joshua Tree – the next location for the story – one of the characters advised me to hit the rehearsal room before venturing on.

So I did. I took my Hip Hop Monk (generated from classic rap track, er, Sweet Caroline) and ran him through the Easy and Normal levels in the rehearsal room. I got him up from a Silver rank to a Gold, which means better stats, but Platinum is a long way away.

The rehearsal room. I'm going to bash a robot's face off.

That’s about it. I’m glad I played the game again. It’s not as good as the epic Final Fantasy Tactics on the DS, but it’s decent enough. I do spend all the time I’m playing wondering why Nippon Ichi haven’t ported Disgaea over to the iPhone, though.

I also love the way the way I managed to take the most dull screenshot possible, there. Well done, me!

Yes, the Hip Hop Monk (created from Sweet Caroline, strangely) is now level two. Hooray!

I should probably actually play the game again at some point, but powering up my characters without actually playing the game is proving strangely addictive.

And then my troopers get experience points. They get a few points every time, but those whose song I’ve listened to get more.

Still haven’t managed to level anyone up yet, though. I’m only in the car for about fifteen minutes a day, after all.

Anyway, for those that asked, here’s the password I got when I completed the Lite version.

I don’t know if it’ll work for you, but feel free to give it a go.

1) The screen is bigger and thus it’s easier to see what’s going on and read the text.

2) The touch screen interface is much, much better than the Click Wheel interface.

3) The game includes all of the iPod version, plus the content from an unpublished sequel.

Still, it’s worth trying the Lite version out before parting with your £5.99. Not only will it give you a good idea of whether or not you like the game, but if you complete it you get a password you can give to the shopkeeper in the full version that will get you a whole load of goodies.

If you’ve not heard of the game before, it’s basically a simple Final Fantasy Tactics title, the twist being that your units are generated from songs on your iPhone.

Let’s try Boulder to Birmingham by Emmylou Harris.

We select the song and then see the results.

Excellent, it’s a Silver-ranked Monk. I’ve not had a Spirit Velocity before, so that’s good. Her stats aren’t great so she only gets a C grade, but that’s good enough. I can up her rank to Gold or Platinum by spending pearls you earn in battle and raise her level by listening to her song a few of times. (Or more slowly by listening to songs I’ve made from other troopers.)

Once you’ve got a team together (and you’ve been through the initial cut scenes and tutorials) you’re sent out into the big wide world on a possibly epic quest to find your brother and, I assume, save the world. You spend a lot of time reading dialogue and playing around in menus, but the meat of the game lies in the battles, which are your standard turn-based tactical affairs.

It’s all very good indeed, requiring thought but not (yet) being overly difficult. I’m very much enjoying it and I’m already much further through this version than I ever got in my iPod Nano version.

The only real problem is the lack of documentation. There are some basic help screens, but you really only find out how things work by getting stuck in to the game. I’m fairly comfortable with it now, but I had to work on it. It’s slightly off-putting to have pages of numbers and tiny icons and no real idea what they mean or how everything hangs together. Still, it’s been worth the effort.

Amy Winehouse’s Back in Black produces a rubbish archer, Half Man Half Biscuit’s Tending the Wrong Grave for 23 Years produces a decent mage. Etc.

Not done much, yet. Initial cut scene and tutorial, the creation of sixteen troopers and the first battle proper. It’s a bit fiddly to control, simpler than the DS FFT game and has some annoying load times, but it’s on an iPod.