PixlBit

Thanks to a recent PixlBit contest, I now have an idea for a new blog.  Although I did write something similar to this about a year and a half ago.  But oh well.  Anyway, here are my top ten favorite music and rhythm games!

10. Elite Beat Agents (DS)

I was a little late to the party with this one, but once I finally played it, I understood what the big deal was. I know purists may say the Japanese version, Ouendan, is better, but you know what? Importing games is expensive so I’ll gladly take the changed US one. It was still pretty quirky with a wide variety of songs that I know (I’m partial to songs from the 80’s and 70’s myself). After this game came out, a lot of other companies made DS imitators of this gameplay style. I will say that ones that Natsume released, like Princess Debut and Gabrielle’s Ghostly Groove, were actually pretty good for kids.

9.  Wii Music (Wii)

A lot of people panned this game, but I thought it was creative and fun.  Sure it wasn’t like all the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games out there, but if you looked at it differently, you could still have a fun time with Wii Music.  If you thought of it more as a toy than a game, it actually worked really well.  I hate it that so many people disliked this game.

8. Retro/Grade (PS3)

At first glance, this game looks like a 2-D space shooter. But you start at the last boss, and when defeated, you view the credits.  But suddenly, a space-time continuum rips through and sends your ship back in time!  So now you must control the ship in reverse, catching your shots coming back to you, and dodging the bullets being pulled back into enemy ships.  What’s even crazier is that this is a cleverly disguised music game, as everything is done in time with the beat to some cool chip-tune-y music.  You can even use a guitar controller if you want!  If you have a PS3, I highly recommend you try this one out.

7. Technic Beat (PS2)

This little rarity played like Elite Beat Agents without the touch screen.  Just move your little dancer over the circles and tap when they reach the edge of the big circles.  But what made this game special for me is that many of the songs were techno remixes of tunes from classic Namco games, like Dig Dug, Tower of Druaga, Wonder Momo, Pac-Mania, and more!  As a classic Namco fan, I loved it.

6. LEGO Rock Band (360)

As much as I hate that the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games pushed out some of my other favorite music games (I guess Americans would rather play guitar over Taiko drums, can’t blame them really), I do have to admit that Rock Band is pretty fun.  I never could get the hang of the Guitar Hero controller, but I loved to play drums on Rock Band.  My favorite was LEGO Rock Band because it was silly and lighthearted.  Plus it had gameplay modes to let even very young kids play along, which I’m always willing to support.  And LEGO Rock Band had the Ghostbusters song, too.

5. Mad Maestro (PS2)

You might’ve not have heard of this PS2 gem, but it was released in the US under a company that Eidos started to release niche quirky titles like this and Mister Mosquito. In Mad Maestro, you play as a conductor for a silly orchestra that includes circus animals and aliens. In the game, a dot travels around four corners, and you have to tap the button for each beat, like a real conductor does. You have to watch out for tempo changes and held notes, too. This game was one of the few that used the analog buttons on the PS2 controller, as pressing them softly and hard would dictate how loud the orchestra played. I enjoyed this game for the quirky characters and classical tunes, but also because it wasn’t THAT difficult. I’m not too good at music and rhythm games, so it was nice to have one I could actually beat and unlock everything.

4. Space Channel 5 (Dreamcast)

Ah, Ulala, my pretend girlfriend.  Ha ha!  You know I’m just joking when I say that.  There is a story behind that, though, but I won’t tell it here (maybe if you send me a PM I might). Gameplay is a pretty basic Simon Says affair where you must repeat button presses in time with the music. Unfortunately I wasn’t very good at it, but boy did this game have style! Forget the post-apocalyptic future found in other games, I’d rather live in the obnoxiously bright future of Space Channel 5! That’s another thing about DC games is that they did exuberate a lot of style! And you can play Space Channel 5 and its sequel on modern consoles now, too! I also really liked the characters in the games, like the cute little Morolian aliens and Ulala was a neat lady character, too!  Can’t wait to see her in action in the upcoming Project X-Zone on 3DS!

3. Samba de Amigo (Dreamcast)

Before the Taiko games came along, I think Samba de Amigo was my favorite music rhythm game. It was originally a Japanese arcade game where you shook maracas to the beat of the music and at different heights, but they brought it home to the Dreamcast even in the US. That’s one of the things that was so cool about the Dreamcast is Sega took a lot of chances with it. Guess it cost them in the end, but I enjoyed it at the time! Like the Taiko games, Samba de Amigo had plenty of bright and colorful cute characters, and a wide selection of peppy samba and Latin tunes. I still have my DC maracas under my bed! There is a Wii version of the game, but surprisingly, the DC one still works better. Really the only cool thing about the Wii Samba game is that they put Ulala in it.

2. Theatrhythm Final Fantasy (3DS)

What happens when you take the music gameplay from two of my favorite rhythm games: Elite Beat Agents and Taiko Drum Master, and mix them up?  Then add a song roster from a series of games that had some of the best tunes in history?  Well you get Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.  It’s really fun, and surprisingly deep, too.  You can make a party of classic FF characters, equip and level them up, play various modes and unlock tons of cool stuff, and the multiplayer Dark Notes mode added even more to the table!  I liked this game so much that it was my Game of the Year for 2012!  I wish other companies would make music games based on the songs from other video classics.  Groove Coaster on iPad kind of did this with Taito Zuntata songs, and wouldn’t it be cool to play a Mega Man music game?

1.  Taiko Drum Master (PS2)

This is a drumming game that is huge in Japan in both arcades and home consoles. You hit a Japanese Taiko drum to the beat of the music. It’s kind of like the drum sections on Rock Band, except a lot less complicated (but still no less hard, just try the difficult Oni modes). It was so popular that Nintendo wanted a piece of the action, so they hired the makers of the Taiko games: Namco, to develop one of their own for GameCube. That’s where Donkey Konga came from! Although I think the best use of the barrel bongos was DK Jungle Beat.  But the Taiko games were still better. Namco took a chance and released a Taiko game in the US on the PS2, but it bombed. But I loved it and have even imported all the Taiko games to come out on region free consoles like the DS and PSP.

I think the two main reasons why I like the Taiko games so much is that, one, they have a lot of cute and colorful characters and graphics. And you know I like that stuff. The other reason why I enjoy the Taiko games is the variety of music. Rock Band is great, but you really only play rock songs (it’s called Rock Band for a reason). But the Taiko games have rock songs, folk songs, tunes from video games, classical, and many more. As a big fan of anything Namco, I also appreciated all the songs from Namco games. Unfortunately, the imported Taikos have some J-Pop songs, too, which I’m not a big fan of. But the game is so much fun anyway that I don’t mind.  At the very least it was neat to learn about them.

The End?

And that’s my top ten favorite music/rhythm games!  What are yours?  Let me know in the comments section.  I wonder where HarmoKnight would fit in on my list.  Who knows?