Steven Universe: Soundtrack Attack is a mobile game for Steven Universe, and the second after Attack the Light. it is a Rhythm Game with a customizable player character.
The premise is that a Homeworld Gem — either a Ruby, Pearl or Quartz — has fled to Earth, soon after meeting the Crystal Gems, who help her escape from her superior.
Tropes in Soundtrack Attack include:
- Artistic License – Geology: Downplayed; unlike the Quartz's and Pearl's wide variety of selections, the Ruby's colors are mostly reds and pinks, to match the show, which adheres to real-life gem color schemes. However, she also has multiple orange palettes and even separate brown and purple ones; not only are these inaccurate to the show itself, but in geology, a ruby that is not red is instead called a sapphire.
- Art Shift: The player characters are noticeably less shaded than the Crystal Gems, due to the amount of customization involved with them.
- Book Ends: The first song from the show encountered in the game is Steven's rendition of "We Are the Crystal Gems" from the pilot, in the second level of the first stage. Later, it comes back as the full extended intro in the second-to-last level of the final stage, as the last song from the show to appear.
- Cats Are Lazy: While talking about how lonely Lion must've been living in the desert, Steven mentions the big cat can't go without five naps a day.
- Character Customization: Each of the game's save files house a separate character — a Quartz, a Pearl, and a Ruby, respectively — while their gem placements are set, their colors, outfits, weapons and even some "Earth accessories" can be freely chosen by the player.
- Continuity Nod:
- Before entering level seven of Mask Island, Amethyst comments about how it'd be a nice place to live if they weren't running for their lives. Steven agrees and mentions the time he, Lars and Sadie spent there.
- At the fifth level of the Sky Spire, Steven gawks at a "giant woman temple", causing Pearl to ask if Opal was really that impressive.
- Amethyst adds "Yeah, step off!" to Garnet's Badass Boast against the player character's superior, in reference to her saying "yeah, back off" after Garnet demands the Homeworld Gems leave in "The Return".
- Before the seventh level of The Desert, Steven excitedly points out that this is the place they found Lion.
- Before the seventh level of Rose's Fountain, Pearl fawns over the place, to which Amethyst remarks that it's a great place to heal cracked gems.
- Excuse Plot: The plot of the game is simply "you are an escaped Homeworld Gem, team up with the Crystal Gems to outrun your superior". Anything is that is not the beginning, ending, or level 1 cutscenes are simply cute Continuity Nod flavor text.
- The Power of Rock: The player character's superior rhetorically asks if the Crystal Gems think they can escape. Garnet defiantly responds they can, because they have music on their side.
- Rhythm Game: The game involves tapping, holding, and swipping notes to progress. These actually influence the character, who is progressing through the stage in the background; hit the note, and the character will do their action as intended, such as jumping over a pit or hitting a monster, but miss the note and the character will screw up and get hurt.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Having gotten sick of chasing them across the planet, the player character's superior simply calls it and leaves, believing there's no use to keep trying since Homeworld will deal with the planet soon anyway.
- Shadowed Face, Glowing Eyes: The player character's superior is rendered in silhouette, sole feature visible being her glowing red eyes, done to make her more menacing and hide her using the same model as the player character.
- The Unfought: Despite running from her being the whole plot, there is no final confrontation with the player character's superior, just a short cutscene where she gives up and leaves.
- Virtual Paper Doll: The "edit" section has the Gem of choice on the left and what can be changed and put on them to the right — the outfits are fullbody, only one accessory is equippable at a time, and the hair... is hair. What's put on them carries over to the cutscenes, title screen, and the gameplay.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Each Gem mentions having escaped to Earth with her crew; however, no other Gems are seen throughout the course of the game, and the superior never mentions having to track down other Gems under her.
- "Yes"/"No" Answer Interpretation: Steven stares in awe at a temple sculpted after a Gem, referring to it as a "giant woman". Pearl asks if Opal really impacted him that much; when Steven doesn't respond, still breathtaken by the statue, Amethyst says she'll take that as a "yes".
