Incredibox is a musical game and website developed by the French company So Far So Good. There are characters categorized as beats, effects, melodies, or voices. Each character has a different music loop and can be added or removed from the limited spaces in the track. The combinations of these characters create interesting and fun music, as all their sounds fit together.
What I find most interesting about Incredibox is how there are different musical genres in styles in each version of the game. They make everything from New York City hip-hop to dystopian cyberpunk perfectly fitting and vibrant, which is what I want to delve into.
V0/V1: The Original/Alpha
The Original is, of course, the original version of Incredibox, and Alpha is its remaster. They are both essential the same, though Alpha has updated UI and animations to stay consistent with the later versions.
The art style is rather plain, especially compared to later versions, as it is grayscale. The symbols for each character are also simple: compound geometric lines and outlines.
Like the art style, the musical style is not discernable. It has the same a cappella beatbox feel as the other versions do, but with little flair. The three bonuses don’t help, appearing to be Christian hymn-like church music, something syncopated and sad, and Christmas pop, which don’t point towards anything else.
V2: Little Miss
Little Miss is a transitional point between the first versions and the later versions. It bears similarities to V0 and V1 but is far more distinct in its art and musical style.
The art style is still rather plain as most artwork and all of the characters are in black and white. However, this version adds red highlights in places such as the bonuses, likely using color theory to convey energy (related to the hip-hop musical style) and love (related to the version title and its clear subject: a woman of romantic interest). The characters themselves also have more diverse clothing. V0 and V1 had only solid black shirts. The characters of V2, on the other hand, don hip-hop fashion.
The musical style is explicitly stated to be New York City hip-hop. This style is reinforced by the aforementioned hip-hop fashion of the characters. All three bonuses are about topics discussed in hip-hop, most predominantly romance.
V3: Sunrise
Sunrise is the first “modern” version of Incredibox with full color artwork, more adventurous music, and more detail.
V3 uses full color in its artwork, a departure from the grayscale of previous versions. Each category (beats, effects, melodies, and voices) is more explicitly designated using that color. Even the symbols for each character are parts of their outfit instead of abstract shapes. Something surprising is how each category reflects a historical period. The beats and voices aren’t definite, but the beats seem to reflect hip-hop fashion and the voices ’70s fashion from disco. The melodies all wear American clothing, whether from cowboys of westward expansion (third melody) or the American continents’ natives (all other melodies). This is likely referencing the historical conflict between the groups. The effects all wear futuristic clothing and the second wears clothing resembling Daft Punk.
This version’s musical style is explicitly stated to be electropop. All three bonuses are about common themes in pop music, such as doing what makes you happy or socially maturing.
V4: The Love
The Love is the second “modern” version of Incredibox with a pop feel like V3 but with a dash of local culture.
V4 used the same techinques that V3 did: full color artwork, more adventurous music, and more detail. One difference, though, is each category’s color. The characters do not share fashion, not even across categories, though there are some consistent types of outfits. The first beat and fourth effect are electronic; the second effect, fifth melody, and third voice are in formal attire; the second, third, and fourth beats, the first, third, and fourth melodies, and the first, fourth, and fifth voices seem pop or hip-hop-related; and the first, third, and fifth effect, second melody, and second voices seem water-related. These are largely speculation, though.
The musical style is explicitly stated as French house. While French house is largely unknown outside of France, SFSG may be more familiar with it, as it is a French company. Plus, V4 was an adaptation of SFSG’s France-exclusive Mixforpeace AXE® partnership game for the Axe Boat Festival. It’s no coincidence that the French developers used a French genre for their French audience. Like V2, V4’s subject matter is romantic, though more clearly so. For one, V4 is named “The Love.”Also, each bonus has romantic lyrics and imagery.
V5: Brazil
Brazil is the first “contemporary” version of Incredibox. It tried something foreign (in more ways than one) and succeeded as a new kind of Incredibox.
V5 uses similar techniques in its art style and music to the modern versions. It nonetheless tries something new by going for a more foreign and less familiar aesthetic, which later versions seem to also do. The characters have consistently Brazilian clothing, be it traditional or modern. The art also references the Brazilian flag, such as its colors (all beats and melodies) and charge (first melody), among others.1
The musical style is explicitly stated to be samba, a Brazilian musical genre. Incredibox also describes that it, “…takes you to the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro…” Samba originated in Rio De Janeiro, so this makes sense. They even made the lyrics and names of the bonuses in Portuguese, the language most predominantly used in Brazil.
V6: Alive
Alive is the second “contemporary” version of Incredibox. It combines foreign themes from V5 with some classic ideas from earlier versions.
V6’s artwork is more digitally focused than in other versions. Most, if not all, characters have some kind of cybernetic attatchment on their faces and bodies, strengthening the musical style. Not only are the characters futuristic, they are packed with references to Japan and Japanese culture. This is reinforced by the Incredibox website when V6 is referred to as, “Otaku Trap,” “otaku” being a Japanese word essentially meaning “nerd” or “geek.” Another example is in the characters’ clothing designs, such as the Japanese flag on the first beat’s cap and the fifth melody’s Hannya, among others.1
The musical style is explicitly stated to be trap and suggested to be trap–otacore2 fusion. Despite Japanese culture so frequently featuring in this version, no lyrics are in any form of Japanese. Like V2, the bonuses’ lyrics speak of topics frequently discussed in hip-hop music (of which trap is a subgenre). In this case, rather than being about romance, the lyrics appear to be about freedom of one’s actions and thoughts in adulthood and bettering oneself.
V7: Jeevan
Jeevan is the third “contemporary” version of Incredibox. It takes many cultural ideas from V5: Brazil but uses a completely different, though still interesting, country and culture.
V7 is much like V5 in how its main subject is a particular country. In this case, it is India rather than Brazil. The characters wear traditional Indian clothing, be it a turban (many) or sari (fourth voice). It even extends beyond their clothing, such as their bindis (many) or apparent status as a god (second melody). The bonuses also reference India, such as its colorful spices, flora, and fauna. There are even more references to India and Indian culture that are too plentiful to explore fully.1
Though not explicitly stated, the musical style of this version appears to be Bollywood music or at least some other kind of Indian music. The last two bonuses focus on deeper subject matter such as the necessity of sadness in life, whereas the first simply means “quite fast” and “very fast.”
V8: Dystopia
Dystopia is the fourth “contemporary” version of Incredibox. It’s the hot, new version of Incredibox with the futuristic flare fans love!
All contemporary and modern Incredibox versions went for a rainbow of colors in their character design, but V8 changed a lot. They didn’t go back to just black and white, though! All the characters are dark gray combined with a tinge of cyan and bright, orange highlights. The gray conveys the dreariness and metallic feel of the dystopian setting and the orange conveys its technological feel. This technological feel is also conveyed by the characters’ being actual and complete robots (fourth voice) and having cybernetic attatchments (many). The dystopia is shown through the characters wearing gas masks, implying acute air pollution and/or chemical warfare (first beat) and cloaking themselves in large blankets, implying desire to be hidden from a totalitarian government and/or lack of access to adequate heating (second voice). These are also shown, of course, in the single currently available bonus.
The musical genre or style of V8 is not known. All three bonuses together show a story about a citizen of the dystopia. He boards an aircraft, flies to a large orange pyramid (which appears to be keeping the world a dystopia), and goes inside. He removes his robes to reveal a robotic figure then deactivates the pyramid. It goes from orange to gray and the sky clears, implying a better world.
Timeline
Footnotes
1https://incredibox.fandom.com/wiki/Beats; https://incredibox.fandom.com/wiki/Effects; https://incredibox.fandom.com/wiki/Melodies; https://incredibox.fandom.com/wiki/Voices
2otaku (as previously defined) + -core
Sources
The copyrighted images used belong to So Far So Good and were used legally under fair use.
This webpage was originally published 3 January 2021 and was last modified 25 December 2021.