Evening
everyone (or morning, or afternoon, or whenever you are reading this)! I’ve
decided to take some time and go back to one of the things that gave me
inspiration for my earlier blog posts: music. This time, not a list of music or
explaining an underappreciated genre, but a little sub category fusing a couple
of my favorite things: music and video games. Music, video games, and
everything rhythm-y. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect
time consuming piece of digital media, but game developers intentionally added
another ingredient to the mixture, nonsensical rhythms. Enough joking (for
now), I’m talking about rhythm games. I could talk about games like Dance Dance
Revolution (DDR), Guitar Hero, or Rhythm Heaven (fun games, all of them), but I
feel I should explain mobile (as in mobile phone apps) rhythm games since I
play them the most.
Every
rhythm game is classified as a “rhythm game” for one simple reason: you play
the game to the beat (more specifically rhythm) of the music to get higher
scores. The games will have a grade system based on how many points you have in
the end and will most likely have a difficulty measure next to the song before
you start it. Typically the games will use a track that will drop notes that
you need to tap or play to “hit” them. The more accurate you are, the more
points you will get. Others like Rhythm Heaven will use button presses, taps on
the screen, pattern replication, tracks, and more to shake things up in mini
rhythm challenges. Again, the more accurate you are, the better your grade will
be. Rhythm games on console (Xbox, Wii, Playstation, etc.) have, in many cases,
bene proven to provide exercise, help people learn real instruments, and help
rehabilitate because of the coordination needed (just see the Wikipedia article
on them for a quick list of examples). Mobile games don’t necessarily have
these benefits, but what they still help with are coordination and reaction
time. They also are more like game similar to Rhythm Heaven in the sense that
every mobile rhythm game can be different and don’t all conform to a single
type of playstyle. Another good thing to mention is that unlike console rhythm
games, most mobile games have music that is made just for rhythm games. Console
games like DDR may have band music released under label and music made just for
the game or just have the music from official band albums.
To name
a couple of the rhythm game apps I have, there are Cytus and Dynamix. Cytus
uses dots on the screen that you need to either tap, hold, or drag across a
path. Songs are normally a couple of minutes long (with a couple of exceptions)
and songs are rated from a 1 to 9 difficulty scale and have a hard mode and
easy mode. 1 difficulty has a few notes (between 40ish and 120ish) and 9 will
have upwards of 800-1000 notes. A bit of a difficulty spike, no? The difference
between 1 and 9 is pretty huge, but the ranks between will help you be able to
play the songs on harder ranks or settings. All songs are graded out of a
million points, anything below 600,000 is a failed attempt. The game has music
from MANY genres (including a couple orchestral) and there are over 100 songs
for free in the game. I used to play this one a lot and I still do from time to
time. It’s a good game for both new players and those who want a challenge.
On to
the next one, Dynamix. This one is a bit more interesting because it has a
track system, unlike Cytus, but it has tracks on three sides of the phone
screen. Again there are tap, hold, and drag notes. Songs have a casual, normal,
hard, and maybe another rank called “mega” or “giga” and can range in
difficulty from a 1 to 14. Level 1 songs are similar to Cytus level 1 songs,
pretty simple and will only use one side of the screen at a time. Level 14
songs on the other hand, well, prepare to break something. You play everything
you hear and use all three sides of the screen. This game also has around 100
songs, but only 23 can be played for free. Despite that, I play this game very
often and enjoy the challenge it gives. I’d recommend this game to people
looking for a bit of a challenge, but you can still play it if you don’t care
for the hard stuff.
I find
these rhythm games to be entertaining and enjoyable even if I do poorly on
them. The whole subgenre of video games that is rhythm games is very expansive
and keeps growing, so there is probably something out there that is your cup of
tea. Hope you all enjoyed, and please, let me know if you tried a rhythm game
before, it’s fun to see what people have found.
