Tuesday 15 March, 2005

So this is my new favourite game, yet another japanese rhythm game. Explaining the mechanics is more difficult than actually playing the game, but I'll try. Basically your character has to hit on expanding circles following the rhythm of the music; you have to be skillful enough to move the character to the circle on time to hit the note. You can also pick up the circles so that they are close to other circles, or overlap them and make chains.

What I really like of the game is how finely the difficulty increases, without ever feeling too frustrated about it, which is the perfect formula for game addiction. The game steadily makes you use the different strategies; I'm still in the first stages, but my guess is that as songs get more difficult you'll have to choose different characters, with different features, to complete every song.

The other cool thing is that you actually have the feeling that you're playing the song. You can modify the melody by hitting a note more than once; depending on where in a chain you hit you also hear different chords. I can only think of Frequency and/or Amplitude as the other rhythm games that actually achieve that feeling of musical accomplishment. The difference in Technic Beat is that you sort of know how you have done it, whereas in Frequency it was sheer reflexes and some weird twitch in your fingers that helped you get through the most difficult stages.

I just started playin the level 4 songs, so more on Technic Beat anon.

I have GOT to see (and play) this game. I have a really soft spot for music games. Maybe too soft, though I do think that we have seen a lot of gameplay innovation from this type of game recently.

Anyways, you should definitely check out Vib Ribbon (PS1). It is a Masaya Matsuura (works at NaNa On-Sha...he's the guy behind Parappa the Rapper and UmJammer Lammy)
The wesite www.vibribbon.com actually has some semi-decent videos where you can see the gameplay in action. (look at the DJ Cam ones, there are more of them and they show the game at a higher difficulty level). One of the cool features of Vib Ribbon is that you could plonk in any old audio CD and it would make a "level" for each track!