Blastanova

So it would appear that visual ambiance in music games can be pretty important.  Take most rhythm games…

Background colors change, flashes appear, etc, all in time to the music in games like Guitar Hero and Rockband.  In PaRappa, characters dance and jerk their bodies in time.  What you end up getting is more music video like.

Rhythm games, those games where you have to tap your fingers, feet, or guitar to the beat as part of gameplay can feel more music video like because you end up “playing” the music to some effect.

Reactive games on the other hand, may have to rely on visual ambiance more.  Reactive games, are more often than not, played like any normal game.  The environment in the game may react to music, but you don’t.  So if you’re not required to react to the music, the music can start to take a back seat to the game play, and it starts feeling less choreographed.

This is why visual ambiance can become more important, and probably should be in your face more in a reactive game.  It would seem that when you don’t control the choreography of the game, other musical visuals need to step up to help out and make the game FEEL musical.

I used the example before of AudioSurf (published by Valve).  I crticized it for not tying the visual to the music as well as it could have.  I can’t criticize it for attempting ambiance to tie the music into the game better, because it does an adequate job of this with colors and background visuals.  However, the environmental reactions to the beats still seem too out of touch with the music, and the ambiance is all it has going for it to make it feel choreographed.

So, the closer you can tie in your reactive environmentals the better.  But like I said, even that might not be enough, as your game starts focusing on the goals of the game – which is why visual ambiance becomes a VERY important silent partner.

Well, I’ve been doing some research lately. Back in January I wrote up a a blog post titled “It’s been 10 years since PaRappa – now what?”. I was exploring the mainstream music games. Little did I know that these games are all part of the group known as “Rhythm” games. Of course, many folks know what a rhythm game is, and I do too.

What I DIDN’T know is that Rhythm games are just one of a handful of different types of music games. Rhythm games can include any games that play a soundtrack and must press buttons in time to the game. Examples include “Dance Dance Revolution”, “Guitar Hero”, “Rock Band”, and “PaRappa the Rapper”.

“Pitch” games recognize the pitch of your voice from a microphone, and like Rhythm games, you must keep time with the music, but instead using the pitch of your voice to sing along. “Karaoke Revolution”is one note-able example. “Volume” games include games like “Mad Maestro” and the upcoming “Wii Music”. In these games you can control the volume of the music in the game through various means, thereby influencing the game play.

Next are “Eidetic” music games. These games will play a musical sequence, and it’s up to the player to repeat the sequence back. In this regard, “Simon” is the oldest music game around.

To be short and sweet, I’ll lump “Free Form” and “Generative” music games together. In both of these game types, the player and the elements of the game come together to create a unique sound track. It seems that creativity is more likely in the “Free Form” music game.

The last genre, and the one I’m most interested in, is the “Reactive” genre. Here, a pre-composed soundtrack plays, and in game elements can react to the volume, frequency patterns, and beats in the music. All of these genres, with the exception of the Rhythm game, are hard to come up with examples for.

That said, there are a handful of Reactive music games that I’m aware of. The first was published in February 2008 and created by an outfit called “Invisible Handlebar” and available from Valve software’s Steam game portal. In this game, called AudioSurf, you move a race car left and right over a racetrack. The goal is to collect blocks that appear on the road, and stack them in groups of 3 to get points. You load in your own MP3, and the background environment animates in time with the music. The track itself dips and rises in time with the music as well. Supposedly, the blocks you collect also appear in time with the music as well – however they appear on the road far in advance and far in the distance of when you collect them. As a result the gameplay doesn’t really feel in synch with the soundtrack. It’s only if you really pay attention to your surroundings, and not to the game play to really get that connection. For example, a hip-hop track by “Jurassic 5″ is a little more bouncy than a rock track by “Living Colour”, but it can get hard to tell in gameplay the difference between the songs.

There are a few Adobe Flash examples of this like “Rhythm Night”, but the game play isn’t all that great. Most of the Flash examples to date are either Rhythm games, Eidetic, or just general music lesson games.

Fortunately there is an excellent example to draw from – and that’s “Pteranodon” by an independent game developer from Sweden known as Nifflas. His name is Nicklas Nygren, and “Pteranodon” is a classic side-scrolling space shoot-em up game. The twist of course, is that the enemies appear on screen and fire at your in time with the music. Its a pretty simple game by today’s standards – though the connection between what’s on screen and the timing of the music makes me giddy. Apparently he composes his own music, so it’s no surprise that “Pteranodon” just features one track, but one can just imagine where you can go from there.

In the US at least, it’s been a whole decade since PaRappa the Rapper came out for the Playstation One. It’s described as one of the first rhythm video games. Japanese creator Masaya Matsuura gave a microphone to a rapping dog, and it was a hit! It inspired a sequel on the Playstation 2, and a spinoff on the Playstation One, where instead of rapping, rockstar UmJammer Lammy strummed a guitar.

Pa Rappa the Rapper and UmJammer Lammy

Rhythm games work by making the player, basically, press buttons to a beat. I’m sure you all know this…you’ve probably all played Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero. In fact it seems that the only innovation to come along since PaRappa has been to trade your thumbs for your legs, or a guitar.

Dance Dance Revolution was released in the Japanese arcades in 1998, came to American arcades in 2000, and was finally released by Konami for the Playstation in 2001. DDR, as it’s affectionately called, has spawned countless sequels and spinoffs featuring new music and characters. Like PaRappa, DDR players pushed buttons in time to the music. Only, instead of using a normal videogame controller, players used a gigantic gamepad and pushed the buttons with their feet by dancing.

Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, Donkey Konga, and Rock Band

Next in 2003 came Karaoke Revolution. Karaoke does a bit more than judge your rhythm, it also judges the pitch of your voice through an included microphone.

Karaoke Revolution was promptly followed in the US by Donkey Konga and Taiko Drum Master somewhere between 2004/2006. These games included drums to beat in time with the game’s soundtrack.

In 2005, along came Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero, again lets players push buttons in time to the music, but this time the buttons were on a custom guitar game controller.

And, just this past December, of course, Rock Band was released for XBox and Playstation. Rock Band combined the guitars, drums, and microphone to let a group of people play a song together.

Amidst the sequels and spinoffs, there’s been some creative attempts to stand out from the norm. Elite Beat Agents for the Nintendo DS allowed the player to tap out rhythms all over their screen. Bust A Move allowed players to build up their sequences to fight their opponents. Vib Ribbon looked the craziest, and allowed the user to load their own songs in to play with the game.

Elite Beat Agents and Vib Ribbon

So…in summary:

1. 1997 – PaRappa the Rapper – first mainstream rhythm game
2. 1998 – Dance Dance Revolution – play the same rhythm game, but with your feet
3. 2003 – Karaoke Revolution – play the same rhythm game, but with your voice (OK, I admit pitch detection is pretty cool)
4. 2005? – Donkey Konga – play the same rhythm game, but with a pair of drums
5. 2005 – Guitar Hero – play the same rhythm game, but with a guitar controller
6. 2007 -Rock Band – Seeing a pattern?

I’m not bashing any of these games. Least of all Guitar Hero or PaRappa. Heck, I even loved PaRappa the Rapper 2, and UmJammer Lammy. Unfortunately, all of these games have the same tired gameplay that nobody has revamped in 10 years, no matter what cool hardware controller you stick in front of it. Button icons slid across the screen. When the button arrives at its destination, you’re supposed to hit the corresponding button on whatever controller you have. It’s kinda boring when you put it like that.

PaRappa added a weird, fun story line, and wacky songs, and it was a hit. DDR, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band added hardware and suddenly you’re doing more than playing a video game. What happens when you master all the songs? It’s not really fun anymore. I beat PaRappa the Rapper 2 in 30 minutes, and it wasn’t fun anymore. Guitar Hero was just ridiculously difficult towards the end, and just got a little frustrating.

All in all though, they were fun. But again, same old tired gameplay. So it’s been 10 years since PaRappa. Now what?