I've been a huge fan of music games in general, probably as far back as PaRappa or Bust-A-Groove, if not earlier. It seems as though people forget there are music games that don't require a plastic instrument or a dancing pad these days. But I'll go over a shitload of music games, including my favorites, as well as a few that don't deserve an honorable mention.
Let's start with some of the earlier games. PaRappa the Rapper looked horrible. Models that were literally more 2D than 2D, paper thin animals and weird people danced and moved around. The plot was fairly dumb - impress a sunflower chick into liking you by doing stupid mundane tasks like learning karate or baking a cake. How did one of the worst ideas ever become a success? Because the game was executed wonderfully, was a blast to play, and had great music that was the real star of the game (except maybe PaRappa himself). The same graphics and ideas were introduced in its two sequels, PaRappa the Rapper 2 and Um Jammer Lammy, the latter of which is one of my favorite music games of all time. You play as a girl who instead of raps plays guitar to get through her musical situations.
It's a formula that I wish still existed today. Graphics and idea shouldn't matter if the game is enjoyable. Another example is Bust-A-Groove and its sequel. Known as "Bust A Move: Dance & Rhythm Action" in Japan, this little known music game by Enix focused on fourth beats. You'd be given directions to input, and had to input them all before the fourth beat, where you'd normally have to press X or O to complete. The game was like a hybrid music/fighting game, in which you had to dance better than your opponent.
The game had a few changes that needed to be made, though - one male ganguro character looked more like a "blackface" and was changed to a white man in order to avoid controversy. Likewise, a song included brand names McDonald's and Burger King, which were removed, and two songs had "the N word" in them, which also were edited. Many songs in the games were also changed from Japanese to English. Regardless of all the changes made, the music was still pretty good, and the games are not cheap on the secondary market by any means. I think two of my favorite songs in these games were Heat's "2 Bad" in BAG1, and Strike's "Here Comes Trouble" in BAG2.
There are many other music games out there, but let's move onward to one of the games that changed my life: Dance Dance Revolution. Sure, some of you guys walk through the mall and think this game looks lame. But when you lose 50 pounds in half a year without changing eating habits, or meet some of the best friends you'll ever have through it, it's more than just a doofy game. DDR is one of those things that's so big it's not just a game anymore - like World of Warcraft, or tournament gaming scenes, DDR players take it as a way of life. DDR helped to bring life back in to dying arcades, which is definitely a good thing, and ended up bringing along games that would be harder or better, such as Pump it Up and In the Groove.
Konami and Bemani would later team up with little-known company Harmonix to create Karaoke Revolution, and allow gamers that couldn't sing to think they could. Harmonix had previously worked on two other amazing games that allowed you to create music one instrument at a time, known as Frequency and Amplitude. They were each sleeper hits, and Harmonix was getting it's name out there, before it teamed with a company that was mainly known for their DDR pads to create an overnight sensation...
Guitar Hero was revolutionary when it came out. I mean, sure, make the argument that Bemani did it first with Guitar Freaks all you want, but we know you'll leave out the part where most of the music is fairly bad compared to the classic and modern rock GH gave us, or forget the part where the guitar controller was thick necked, awkward to hold, and only included three buttons. After playing both, it's no wonder why Guitar Hero made it so big over here. That, and Konami is TERRIBLE about doing their music games justice in the states. I'm looking at you, US beatmania and Pop'n Music on Wii... But Guitar Hero was amazing in letting people simulate playing a real guitar, which would then spiral frat boys and posers into a rage because they can play real guitar, and by that I mean they can play "Smoke on the Water" and the intro to "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Guitar Hero II came out and it was just as much fun, if not more so. Sure, each game has those songs no one likes to play, but the number of good ones always outnumbered the bad. The next year would come and Guitar Hero III would be out, now coming out annually - the problem with III, though, was that it didn't have enough good music, and it's like the designers tried to intentionally make it WAY too hard. I like to 100% my achievements. I am not, however, going to dedicate days or weeks of my life trying to pass Through the Fire and the Flames on Expert. III was the mark in which the GH faithful separated from the pack, leaving those that just wanted to enjoy a music game behind. This only lasted for a month or so, though.
Harmonix had left the GH brand and worked with Mtv Games to create Rock Band. We now had Guitar Hero mixed with Karaoke Revolution, and was bringing over Drummania that Konami had also been stupid not to localize, and the full living room plastic band was created. Rock Band was even more revolutionary, not just in having four players rock out, but due to it's nonstop weekly release of DLC, giving players a vast choice of songs to update their library. It's about this time that shit starts hitting the fan in music game land.
Activision, teamed with Red octane for the "Hero" brand, made 25 music games last year. That's right, twenty-fucking-five. Music gaming has gone overboard, cluttering our closets with plastic instruments galore... There's been a recent announcement confirming Guitar Hero 6, a second DJ Hero, and we've seen or know of Guitar Hero World Tour, Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero On Tour, Guitar Hero Smash Hits, Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's, Guitar Hero Aerosmith, Guitar Hero Metallica, Guitar Hero Van Halen, Guitar Hero On Tour Decades, Guitar Hero On Tour Modern Hits, Band Hero, DJ Hero, Rock Band 2, The Beatles Rock Band, Lego Rock Band, Green Day Rock Band, Rock Band 3, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, Rock Revolution, Rock Band Unplugged, Rock Band AC/DC Live, Singstar Pop, Singstar Abba, Singstar Rocks, Singstar Queen, Singstar Party, Singstar 80's, Singstar Legends, Singstar 90's, Singstar Amped, Singstar Pop Vol. 2, Singstar Country, Singstar Motown, Singstar Latino, Donkey Konga, Donkey Konga 2, Karaoke Revolution 2, Karaoke Revolution 3, Karaoke Revolution Party, Karaoke Revolution American Idol, Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore, Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore 2, Karaoke Revolution Country, Taiko Drum Master, Samba de Amigo, Para Para Paradise... the numbers of music games are mind blowing. And these aren't all of them, most of these are just games that include separate peripherals or instruments in order to play them! There needs to be a serious change soon, because this is ridiculous.
Now, not all music games are bad, and not all of the games above mentioned are bad. There's plenty of good games that don't require extra equipment to play that I haven't even mentioned. There's Gitaroo Man, Elite Beat Agents, Rhythm Heaven, Rez, Space Channel 5, Korg DS-10 Synthesizer, Daigasso! Band Brothers, the Mtv Music Generator games... There's a lot of ways to enjoy music without having to drop a bundle of cash on a bundle of instruments, and many of the above listed are fantastic. But I've gotten ahead of myself, named way too many games for me to even begin to get into all of them... I do want to point out, though, that music games can also be VERY, VERY BAD.
And I'll prove it to you tomorrow with our first Epic Fail: Wii Music.
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