Favorite music/rhythm games

[dunpeal2064]

It sort of reminds me of another rhythm game I played a bit ago, Cosmophony, on the ps4. That game was also really intense, and seemed similar in its approach, since it uses rhythm to determine movement, rather than doing the typical "hit the notes" thing that most rhythm games do. Cosmophony was actually rather fun, though through its 5 levels it jacks the difficulty way up. I think it took me about 10 hours to clear the last level, which is only maybe 2 minutes long.

Thumper, visually, looks much more intense though.

[alienjesus]

It sort of reminds me of another rhythm game I played a bit ago, Cosmophony, on the ps4. That game was also really intense, and seemed similar in its approach, since it uses rhythm to determine movement, rather than doing the typical "hit the notes" thing that most rhythm games do. Cosmophony was actually rather fun, though through its 5 levels it jacks the difficulty way up. I think it took me about 10 hours to clear the last level, which is only maybe 2 minutes long.

Thumper, visually, looks much more intense though.

Thumper was also very hard towards the end, but the levels have frequent checkpoints to alleviate some of the frustration. The levels are altogether too long though, some took me like 40 minutes to beat.

[casterofdreams]

The Patapon series on the PSP is my favorite rhythm game. I like the RPG elements and just the whole loot concept behind it.

[dsheinem]

Thumper was also very hard towards the end, but the levels have frequent checkpoints to alleviate some of the frustration. The levels are altogether too long though, some took me like 40 minutes to beat.

I don't know - I have always sucked at games like Guitar Hero and Rez, but I found myself up to the challenge of Thumper...the difficulty certainly left an impression on me but seemed very fair and compromising compared to most of my other experiences in the genre. By comparison, for example, I am currently stymied by the latter half of Polybius (which perhaps bears fear mention in this thread as well).

[ESauced]

The Patapon series on the PSP is my favorite rhythm game. I like the RPG elements and just the whole loot concept behind it.

I completely forgot about here when I posted this. I loved those games. Actually my wife even got into them, and she doesn’t tend to branch out her videogame taste into something like that very often.

[nullPointer]

I always feel like I'm 'cheating' a bit to bring it up in the same breath as other music/rhythm games, but Rocksmith and Rocksmith 2014 are friggin' amazing (if you're new to it, you'd definitely want to just start with 2014). Regardless of ones feelings about Ubisoft, they really knocked it out of the park with these games and continue to provide weekly content updates years after release. Rocksmith (2014) feels like a natural extension of and logical step up from 'plastic instrument games' like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Seriously if you're a gamer that plays guitar or bass you owe it to yourself to check out Rocksmith (2014), IMO*. The catch of course is that it's a lot cheaper to get into the game if you already have an electric guitar or bass (or alternately it will also work with an acoustic guitar/bass and a mic). Otherwise you're into it for the cost of the game, cable, and a new guitar. Still, if you're a new player it's a decent way to jump in and start noodling around on your instrument (though in this case I don't think it's sufficient as a full replacement for lessons … but if paying for face-to-face lessons felt like too much to take on, I have to imagine that mixing Rocksmith and (free) lessons from Justin Guitar would be a pretty great combination). If you already have some playing experience, I find Rocksmith to be a great way to supplement my practice routine. It's also turned me on to new music, and has been a really interesting way to gain insight and perspective on some of my favorite musicians.

At any rate, sorry to sound like an advertisement … buuuuut if any this sounds interesting, Rocksmith 2014 is currently on sale as part of the Steam Chinese New Year sale.

* My experience is not necessarily universal though - I have one close friend who's both a diehard gamer and longtime guitarist but he just couldn't get into Rocksmith. Sometimes the charts in Rocksmith are a bit different, and if it's not how you're used to playing a given song I suppose that can throw you off. Still, Rocksmith registers notes by tone rather than position, so your hand positions can be different than the onscreen prompts so long as you're actually playing the same notes.

[pierrot]

Yes, I absolutely love this genre, and don't feel like I get to talk about it enough. Although, part of that is because I don't play things in the genre nearly as much anymore.

I remember when Parappa came out, and I would play it occasionally on demo kiosks, but could never beat the first level, no matter how hard I tried to match those inputs. I got Um Jammer Lammy sometime in '01, I think, and struggled with it initially. Then something clicked, and I started to understand the freestyling to the rhythms, thing, and cleared the game with ease. I've still never played more than the first stage of Parappa 1 or 2, though, and I only finished maybe three of the Lammy stages with Parappa. I guess I might have some subconscious aversion to him, possibly brought on by latent trauma.

Anyway, I really love being able to clear the hardest difficulties of rhythm games, and I started on that path with Space Channel 5, and Samba de Amigo. In the case of the former, I spent a lot of time getting to max viewership, and saving all the dancing captives. With Samba de Amigo, it was about clearing Maracas King difficulty in the Challenge Mode. Obviously I got Space Channel 5 part 2 when they released the "Special Edition" for the PS2. That game is still as amazing as ever. I think I collected all the costumes and captives in the PS2 version, but I didn't have it in me to repeat that when I played the Dreamcast version last year.

From there, it was on to Guitar Hero, and Guitar Hero II; Both of which I eventually cleared all songs on Expert difficulty. I had been playing the guitar for a number of years before the game came out, though. So, when alternate picking doesn't even involve changing strings, and fretting only means occasionally sliding horizontally by one, yeah, I can play "Jordan." "Less Talk More Rokk" was probably my favorite to play, though. I kind of lost interest in those emulated experiences by the time Guitar Hero III and Rock Band came out. I was also oversees a bit, around that time.

About the same time Guitar Hero II came out, I also got into DDR. I was eventually able to clear a number of Challenge level songs. I picked up Elite Beat Agents in that same year, and promptly beat the cheerleader mode (I don't remember the name of that difficulty). A year later, I picked up Osu! Tatakae! Oendan! 1 and 2, while in Japan, although I never did finish the hardest difficulties in those (or at least not in the first one).

Hatsune Miku: God damn I love Miku, both as a rhythm game, and just as a general concept. I've been playing the games since 2nd came out on the ps2, and have spent the last month basically just playing Future Tone, which is excellent. My wife and I are going to see her in concert later this year.

I actually don't really like Miku--both the idea behind her, and a lot of the music made with vocaloids--but this was the last series of music games I was really into, because the games are friggin' great! I played 1, 2, and Extend extensively. I think I cleared everything on Hard / Extreme between the three games, outside of one or two songs. Those games were practically an addiction for me, for a while. Are the newer ones on PS4 and Vita better in any way? The real shock for me was playing the arcade version in Japan and realizing that none of my skills from the PSP games were transferable to the arcade machine. I guess Sega really found the perfect formula for maximizing profits between the home and arcade markets.


This is all reminding me of the games in the genre that I've been meaning to put more time into, like Guitaroo Man, Cool Cool Toon, Pop'n Music, and Bravo Music.

I also, of course, have enjoyed many of the hybrid genre games like Rez, Child of Eden, Lumines, Bit.Trip Runner, Groove City, etc. My love for music and rhythm games is really just a consequence of my love for music, and dance. So, on that note, I will leave this post off with one of my favorite DDR tracks: Look to the Sky (True Color Mix).

[ESauced]

Yeah I didn’t bring up Rocksmith because it seems like as much a learning tool as a game but I love those games too. I’d actually never really played the guitar but my wife played when she was in high school (I’ve only heard her play once because she doesn’t like to play for others but she’s very good) but she hasn’t really played since I met her. So her beautiful strat has mostly just been hanging on the wall or in its case, until I bought rocksmith. I really enjoyed learning on it, to the point that I bought the sequel too. I haven’t played in a long time but I’ve been wanting to take it back out soon. I don’t have a huge desire to learn to play guitar necessarily, but I just find that game to be the next level up from Guitar Hero and as such, is a ton of fun. Kind of funny using a thousand dollar guitar for a learning guitar videogame though.

@pierrot

I had the experience that you had with Parappa with Space Channel 5. I struggled with the timing and never played past the first level. Seems like we’re both missing out on some good games.

[pierrot]

I've had one of the Rocksmith 1/4" stereo to USB cables for years, from when I was looking into cheap recording methods, and ways to poke around with Garage Band's peddle effects. I might think about just grabbing the actual game. Do either of you play it on PC? Does it actually reproduce the guitar's sound well in the game?

[ESauced]

I believe it does have free play that lets you put different effects on (or not) and essentially use it like an amp, but I don’t imagine that it is actually able to amplify your particular guitar’s sound like a real amp, if that’s what your asking.

I really only played the main mode which lets you play songs ala Guitar Hero and that mode plays the guitar line from the original song (well, what you can play of it anyway).