rhythm games

As you all know, two of the biggest things in my life are music and video games. Gaming has been an intense past time of mine, lasting for almost 2 decades now. Music on the other hand has been around in my life a little less, but has become the top passion in my life. In fact, I'm working at my video game store right now bumpin' Live 105 (go figure). So one would think that when these two interests converged into one being, a person such as myself would be ecstatic...

Perhaps I should start in chronological order. The first rhythm game to exist was DDR, short for Dance Dance Revolution. The player would dance on a mat full of arrows that correspond to when arrows on screen would be stepped on. The game appealed to mostly kids and japanophiles due to it's over abundance of fast paced j-pop and j-techno music. The music and the motions were not my cup of tea at all, but I noticed they were onto something.

Next game games directly influenced by DDR. Beat Mania. Drum Mania. Guitar Mania. Arcades were seeing a drop in attendance due to home console systems getting games directly. Suddenly, many interactive simulation games came in. Racing seat and light gun games have always been around, but interactive boxing and fishing games were not. Combined with DDR, more and more of these peripheral arcade games arrived because they were hard to recreate at home. Suddenly games around instruments arrived. You could be a dj, a drummer, a guitarist. I tried some of these when they came out, and I felt as if they were just reskinned versions of DDR. It was mostly in how the software was programmed and presented; it tried to grab the same DDR crowd with little deviation. I view this as the first wave of rhythm games. Somewhere in there Samba De Amigo came out, but I never played it thus I have no opinion. Still, I had no idea what was around the corner in the second age.

Guitar Hero. It came out quietly by a virtually unknown company. A former friend bought it and brought it around to a friend's house. I had my doubts, mainly because I'd played Guitar Mania and felt that experience was piss poor. They were touting it as the closest thing to playing real guitar (a premonition). I tried it, and to be honest I enjoyed it. It was new, innovative, and fun. It appealed to anyone who liked any type of rock music because THAT it the kind of music that's most known for being guitar driven. Guitar Hero 2 came out, and suddenly it was a phenomenon that spread accross the land. I will personally always buy a guitar hero game because truth be told, it exposes me to a new band or two that normally I wouldn't hear.

Guitar Hero 3. Harmonix sold all their rights for guitar hero to Activision/Neversoft. There was an air of anticipation because a different company was handling the franchise with a very fantastic soundtrack. Finally the wait was over, and GH3 came out. If GH2 was the start of a zombie invasion in small towns and suburbs, GH3 was the invasion taking over states and countries. It's popularity was through the roof. I got my hands on GH3, and found myself a bit conflicted. It LOOKED like the guitar hero I'd known and loved... but the difficulty had been ramped up. In fact, more than I could have ever cared for. I still played it though, because for me it was more about the fun factor of doing a song as opposed to getting arthritis. Still, what were the old creators of Guitar Hero doing with their time?

Rock Band. This game took the simple ideas from guitar hero, and expanded them ten fold. You could do guitar. You could do bass. You could sing. You could play drums. You could do it all with 3 of your friends. That's right, 4 people could get together and play in their virtual bands with their custom made in-game musicians. I received this as a b-day gift and was floored. Beyond the instruments, they were releasing new songs every week that people could purchase. Random ones of all rock genres, as not to stay biased and remain diverse. This was a pure evolutionary step for rhythm games: they now became party games.

Where is this all going now? Rock Band 2 is coming out soon. The instruments are rumored to have some redesign, but they are saying they will be doing more with how you play the songs ingame. Guitar Hero 4 will feature a drumset too with cymbal pads to hit. Konami is making their own Rock Band-esque game. Guitar Hero on the Nintendo DS actually just came out.

So there's the run down of the history of rhythm gaming thus far. It definitely has evolved out of the hands of hardcore gamers and into the homes of the casual. It's brought family and friends together to interact with songs they love and enjoy.


BUT WAIT, I AIN'T DONE YOU GARGOYLES!


I like to lay things out as they are w/as many facts as possible before I throw in my opinions. You have seen the silver lining, now embrace the dark clouds. I now HATE rhythm games. I have a solid negative passion towards them in my attitudes. I think they are fun, and I partake from time to time, but I hate them now like I hate Star Wars.

Guitar hero. When I was first handed the controller, people expected me to be some expert guitar god on it. I'm sorry, it's a goddamn video game not a real instrument. I'm a musician, not a jerk off living in an illusion. I did alright due to proxy experience, but in the years to come this would keep happening. Being decent at guitar hero is ok because you make few mistakes but playing Through The Fire and Flames on expert 100% makes you a loser with not enough courage to try and a real instrument. Hell there are a bunch of dickbags that play everything on medium thinking they're hot shit. Oh yea, GH3 officially made me hate Dragonforce because every dickbag out there thinks they're the greatest thing ever because you have to beat the game before playing their dumbass hard song. But do you know what I hate more?

ROCK BAND. YES, YOU HEARD ME. ROCK BAND. I want to put this out there: I do not mind playing these games with other musicians because we both know it's just a game. Yet, not everyone has their heads in reality like we do. Remember how I said this game was revolutionary? It is; it ushered in a new age of disillusioned dickbags. Suddenly asshats nationwide were talking about getting together on friday nights to jam. They talked about practicing songs to get better at them. They started thinking THEY COULD PLAY THE REAL INSTRUMENTS. They had real musician mindsets without knowledge of playing an instrument. Nothing can replace the feeling of playing an instrument. Learning something new, learning how to do it a different way to a similar effect, creating songs, PERFORMING. People singing on rock band get an exclusion from this because it's the only real "instrument" being utilized. People on guitar controllers think they're gods because they can play the hardest stuff perfect as if they're Yngwie Malmsteen. The kids on the drums. OH FOR HELL'S SAKE GODDAMN. For one, the drum pad is NOT setup like a drumset. These kids are ignorant to how many drums are actually in a drum kit. They really believe they can play real drums after this game. Hitting drums to keep time is different than smacking pads to shit on a screen.

If you are knee deep in these games, guess what: you're not a real musician. Real musicians and real bands rehearse and memorize real songs to perform, sometimes finding new ways to do it to mix things up. They play in sync to create something special. It's truly an art form. Do you know what you're doing? You are listening to a song and being told to hit notes when they fly at you. You know what you become when you do things johnny on the spot when told day in and day out? A GODDAMN TOOL!