Quick Review: Frederic: Evil Strikes Back

That mask is inordinately pink for a supervillain.

Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin is back, more ‘80s than ever after finding his heart at the end of the previous game, and has to go on the path of musical heroism once more when his muses are kidnapped by a new evil force. (Oh, and his heart has been stolen again. Literally.) Since the last game, our hero has traded his horse carriage for a damn DeLorean, and his grand piano for a damn keytar. Damn right! Once again, in Frederic: Evil Strikes Back, Chopin must travel the world for clues and duel musical opponents in order to find and defeat the villain!

Nice keytar. Unfortunately, "Rock Me Frederic"
doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

The game still plays roughly the same: A seven-note keyboard and partitions to play. This sequel does try to improve on Frederic: Resurrection of Music by including double notes and a stricter system when it comes to winning an encounter, among other things. The partitions are also said to be noticeably more complex than the ones in the previous entry.

More letters that only mean "You win!"

These faces painted in black and white with stars
would be recognizable anywhere.

Something else is different: Instead of levels being themed over famous movements of Chopin’s compositions, the game features a completely original soundtrack. Most levels see Chopin duel against a parody of an existing musical artist – whether it’s KISS, King Africa, Queen, Lady Gaga… The first opponent is based off Falco, a name you might not recognize if you’re not from Europe (and even if you are; it’s the artist behind the cheese-tastic 80’s hit “Rock Me Amadeus”). Another opponent is Michael Jackson – boy, did that one get uncomfortable to play through.

It's getting hot in this fight,
the mercury is rising! I'm not sorry. 

The track for each level is an original song “in the style of” the artist being parodied, arranged to sound like something that could have been composed by Chopin. It’s a double-layered parody! The song played against the Freddie Mercury spoof sounds a lot like the Queen song Radio GaGa, while the Lady Gaga one has sections reminiscent of Poker Face. The Michael Jackson one… I won’t bother checking. What I do know is that the final battle is against a giant Ultron and by that point, having recovered both his muses and his heart, Chopin goes friggin’ Super Saiyan to defeat that thing in the last musical battle. …Have I mentioned that this story wasn’t very serious?

This one looks ready to sing about Rasputin.

Whoa, when did Frederic go Anime?

The cutscenes are of the same artistic quality as the previous game, so no difference there. The new tracks are very good as well, though I suppose only a true fan of Frederic Chopin would be able to tell how each of them represents how that composer would have taken on the style of the aforementioned artists. The harder difficulty is also very much welcome, at least if you felt the compositions in the original game were too simple. This entry does away with the multiplayer option however, a bummer for those who liked this mode in Frederic: Resurrection of Music. It’s also a bit shorter, containing fewer levels and no unlockable extras as far as I know. You also can’t buy the soundtrack, that’s sad (maybe it’s because the songs sound too close to the parodies?).

Oh crap that's a lot of notes.

Still a very good game overall. And a great way to continue Frederic’s story. I recommend these two games. This one is sold for 8$.