Everybody likes listening to music. Be it rock, rap, R 'n' B or techno, people around the world are moving to the rhythm. But no band could exist without one kind of company: a label. Without a label the band can't make an album and can't tour or organize any kind of entertainment apart from garage rock.

In Chart Wars 3 your task is to manage a label, attract bands and manage the lives of the band members. Your ultimate goal is to become the label of the chart-leading bands, and rise to the top of the music industry.

Gameplay

Chart Wars is entirely text-based. The menu system is a bit confusing at first, but it can be learned. You start out by forming your own label with a small starting fund and a minimal crew. You must attract bands to your label by approaching them with an offer, and signing them. After that you have a variety of choices. You can release a single or an album from the songs the band already have, you can arrange a tour or a promotion for them or you can ask them to work on their new album by writing songs. Apart from managing your bands you must take care of your company too. You can hire additional staff, get new contracts, scout for promising bands and even build your own studio or distribution firm if you have enough money. All I can say is that this is not an easy task. The game spends a LOT of time loading; more than can be expected from a game of this kind. It gets quite irritating after a long time. The developers did something to solve this problem - they present a "Did you know..?" fact on every loading screen. Those facts and stories are quite interesting too, but it doesn't make up for the long loading times.

Graphics, Sound and Controls

Well, being a text-only game, we can't talk about graphics here. The bluish background and the layout are good enough and easy on the eyes, but nothing fancy. There is no sound or music at all, which I missed in a game about the music industry. There should be at least some ambient music or something like that, but Chart Wars 3 provides none. The controls are easy but, as mentioned above, the menu system can be quite confusing at first.

Technnical issues and Compatibility

The game, at the time of writing, has an enormous number of bugs. It tends to quit or crash to desktop at the most inappropriate times. Heed my warning; save often! The editor is even more buggy, I don't recommend messing with it. The game is being actively developed, so they can fix these bugs. Search for the most recent version of the game, and update.

Final Words

Chart Wars 3 is the only game I encountered that takes on the music industry from within. It is not a bad game, but the number of bugs and crashes tired me out. If it can be improved and debugged, this may be a great game! Don't miss it!