The five best music games of the last ten years based on concept and execution.
The last ten years have brought us no end of quality music-based video games, but quantity can sometimes overwhelm quality. In order to start filtering through the onslaught of games that seem to be appearing left and right: everything from Rock Band to more abstract game concepts like Raycatcher, I’ll be going over the five best music-based video games from the past ten years.
While many games like Guitar Hero garnered almost instant commercial success, some less mainstream concepts slipped under the radar. These games, often ignored by the majority due to their eccentricity, have offered us some of the best musical game systems on the market, even by today’s standards. My list is one of conceptual successes, not just financial ones.
#5: Patapon Series – 2008 to 2011
These quirky rhythm games involve far more than simply inputting a four-button sequence to a beat as black, cartoon creatures danced around the screen. No, the side-scrolling Patapon series, three games released all for the PSP, present you with a much more complex system than “Attack, Walk, Attack, Walk”, despite that being the central conceit of the game.
The Patapon series offers an in-depth, customizable leveling systems with a variety of Patapons to pick your army from. In order to upgrade each individual Patapon, you have to first collect specific consumable items from various levels. Each branch in the upgrade tree has its own advantages, such as immunity to fire with an ice weakness or maybe a reduction in knockback in exchange for speed. The level of customizability is high, leading to a more satisfying experience, even outside of the main game.
Add the gameplay and the depth of RPG elements in Patapon and you have a game that you can not only play more than once but for hours on end, all the while unknowingly humming “pata-pata-pata-PON!”
#4: Ouendan Series – 2005 to 2007
“Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan”, the first of three games of its kind, feature a rather serious cheerleading team following your rhythmic DS touch commands. By tapping, sliding, and swirling your stylus at breakneck speed, you can cheer for random people as they tackle difficult tasks like trying to ignore their family as they do homework or finding inspiration for their next pottery masterpiece.
Elite Beat Agents, released in North America, Europe, and Australia, featured secret government agents dedicated to helping those in need as opposed to the Japanese cheerleading team. The game is essentially identical to the first Ouendan, save for its American setting: rather than struggling with common Japanese cultural conundrums, the story follows stories like helping a Hollywood director make a career-saving movie.
The game’s frantic pace and use of touch technology makes it stand out against a backdrop of similar “tap-to- the-beat” rhythm games. Not only do you have to make sure you’re tapping available button on the beat, you need to make sure your slides are timed perfectly and your screen-killing swirls are extracting the most from the game.
#3: Audiosurf – 2008
Audiosurf, a game for Windows only, features a floating vehicle on a futuristic track moving forward to the beat of the song you load into it, any song you want. The game designs a course specific to the chosen song, inserting bumps on the beat and increasing the speed of your vehicle as the song increases in feel.
I say “feel” because, even though the tempo of most songs doesn’t actually change throughout, the game still manages to interpret frenetic sections of music as an increase in vehicle speed. This mechanic alone is enough to make you try the game out, but it’s about a lot more than just cruising along a Tron-esque track.
The “game” element of Audiosurf involves the collection of blocks that litter the terrain in a manner similar to Guitar Hero in that they all fall on a beat or significant part of the arrangement. The blocks collect in a shadow grid beneath your vehicle and only clear when they form a series of three or more.
In a manner not unlike Tetris, you have to figure out the best way to clear the most amount of blocks at once. What’s more, there are different colors of blocks, each with their own point values.
The quest for a high score is ongoing with new scores being posted every day along with what song was played. With a community that enduring, it’s no surprise a second Audiosurf is already available on Steam via Early Access.
#4: Everyday Shooter – 2007
Everyday Shooter may seem like a lo-res predecessor to Geometry Wars, but with a little context and a few frustrating hours logged into this PC and PSN game, you’ll come to realize its complexity.
First off, the music was recorded entirely by the game’s programmer and graphic designer, Jonathon Mark. The music, comprised almost entirely of electric guitar sounds, is rich and textured. In the same vein, each piece of audio feedback (and there is a lot) is matched perfectly with the level.
The game itself is much like Asteroids in that you control a small “ship” on a fixed screen as objects fly in from off-screen. Where it differs is that, in each of the eight levels, the way in which you progress is different. I won’t spoil the surprise, as part of the challenge is discovering what it is you need to do to get the biggest combos.
This game, despite being decried as frustrating, is as rewarding as it is challenging. Slipping through spaces between enemies, chaining massive bombs together to create huge combos, jamming to the beat as you hammer a particularly tough baddy: all of these things come together to transform a simple mechanic into a wholly-realized concept.
#1: Sound Shapes – 2012 – Einfo Games Review 10 / 10
Sound Shapes interacts with music on a level I have yet to see in other games. The PSN platformer asks you to collect floating “notes” as you navigate levels in order to complete the pre-written score. What makes the music feel so textured in this game is that notes collected more than three panels from your current location no longer get played, resulting in a more organic sound.
The game uses sounds composed by popular artists such as Beck and Deadmau5 but also allows you to take control in the level editor. Level editors are typically quite clunky, especially when played on portable systems like the PS Vita, but the Sound Shapes editor is the exception to the rule. Simple commands, good use of all the available buttons and touch screen make creating levels a breeze on any system (I will say that the use of the Vita’s rear touchscreen is, as always, a bit frustrating but can be substituted with other buttons).
The result of such a streamlined editor is a fertile community of user-made content. User-made levels with designs beyond anything available in the admittedly short campaign mode are available to play or download for free.
What makes this the best music game of the past decade? Simplicity. Despite being pregnant with possibility, the UI and game mechanics in this game are so simple that anyone can pick it up and enjoy a home-made jam while hopping from platform to platform, picking up notes left and right and hearing the magic that follows.
Conclusion
Even with such a rich history in just the last ten years, music-based video games continue to evolve, spawning new and interesting games like the recently released puzzle platformer FRACT OSC. There seems to be no end to what developers can come up with in terms of creatively integrating music with gameplay.
With new technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality now coming to fruition, I can only imagine what sort of advances musical experiences will garner. I’m looking forward to playing an air guitar that can actually produce sound, finally.
