Ministry of Sound
Review of Ministry of Sound
Cast your mind back, way back, back into time when Dance music was the preserve of the Underground and Acid House parties took place every weekend around the M25. I just about remember that a DJ in a chill out room had created what was probably just about the first sound to video generator. He had rigged up a MegaCD console with an Atari ST (Please feel free to correct me here – it’s all a bit vague…), and written a piece of software called Flux. Flux allowed clubbers to create mind-bending visuals just by moving a mouse about. At the time it was groundbreaking for those who saw it.
So back to the future and we have ‘Ministry of Sound’, essential 5 hours of non-stop dance music with a sound to video generator bolted on. The DVD has mixed sets by some of the best DJ’s around; Tall Paul, Ferry Corsten, Paul Jackson, Krafty Kutz and Paul Dakeyne. Styles covered include Trance, Progressive House, Hard House and Garage – just about every pigeonholed style imaginable. All the mixes are of excellent quality and feature some of the latest tunes, including some previously unreleased material. Each can be selected to play on it’s own, or can be added to a playlist for non-stop partying. Also included on the DVD are brief profiles of each DJ, and the track listings for each set.
The sound to video generator is basically a program that synchronizes music with graphic visuals on the screen. This will work quite happily left to it’s own devices, but becomes more of an interactive experience by allowing the selection of exactly which objects, patterns, or video clips are displayed. There is a large library of effects to choose from including 500 objects, 1200 images and 200 video clips, ensuring that no video mix should ever be the same. Once these have been selected, the way that the effects work and interact can be messed about with using the controller. For instance moving the analogue stick up and down will change an object’s speed of rotation, and pressing buttons will turn effects on, off or change what’s being displayed. It’s all pretty easy to get to grips with and is fun for a few minutes…
But this is really the problem with this title. The music is excellent, the graphics are smart but it’s last-ability is short, bordering on the non existent. It really doesn’t help that the title is pressed onto DVD. I realise that this allows it to contain over 5 hours of music, which is not bad value, but it can only be played on the PS2 and not a stereo system. This means that the console will be tied up just playing music, while what you really want to do is play games AND listen to some kicking tunes at the same time. The graphic generator is a nice extra but a pretty good one came for free with the PSOne, which many people undoubtedly still have, I know I do…
OUR PLEDGE: We promise that we have fully played 'Ministry of Sound' before writing this review. The scores given above are our honest opinion and were not influenced in any way by the manufacturer or distributor of the game.
This review was written by James Goode © Absolute PlayStation
Click here to view our 9 Ministry of Sound in-game screenshot slideshow
Have You Played Ministry of Sound ?
If you have owned 'Ministry of Sound' long enough to have formed a solid opinion on it, then click here to write your own mini review of Ministry of Sound.
Alternatively, if you would like to read what other gamers who already own Ministry of Sound think of it, click here to view all of our reader comments and mini reviews of Ministry of Sound.
Want To Know More About Ministry of Sound ?