Yes, I absolutely love this genre, and don't feel like I get to talk about it enough. Although, part of that is because I don't play things in the genre nearly as much anymore.
I remember when Parappa came out, and I would play it occasionally on demo kiosks, but could never beat the first level, no matter how hard I tried to match those inputs. I got Um Jammer Lammy sometime in '01, I think, and struggled with it initially. Then something clicked, and I started to understand the freestyling to the rhythms, thing, and cleared the game with ease. I've still never played more than the first stage of Parappa 1 or 2, though, and I only finished maybe three of the Lammy stages with Parappa. I guess I might have some subconscious aversion to him, possibly brought on by latent trauma.
Anyway, I really love being able to clear the hardest difficulties of rhythm games, and I started on that path with Space Channel 5, and Samba de Amigo. In the case of the former, I spent a lot of time getting to max viewership, and saving all the dancing captives. With Samba de Amigo, it was about clearing Maracas King difficulty in the Challenge Mode. Obviously I got Space Channel 5 part 2 when they released the "Special Edition" for the PS2. That game is still as amazing as ever. I think I collected all the costumes and captives in the PS2 version, but I didn't have it in me to repeat that when I played the Dreamcast version last year.
From there, it was on to Guitar Hero, and Guitar Hero II; Both of which I eventually cleared all songs on Expert difficulty. I had been playing the guitar for a number of years before the game came out, though. So, when alternate picking doesn't even involve changing strings, and fretting only means occasionally sliding horizontally by one, yeah, I can play "Jordan." "Less Talk More Rokk" was probably my favorite to play, though. I kind of lost interest in those emulated experiences by the time Guitar Hero III and Rock Band came out. I was also oversees a bit, around that time.
About the same time Guitar Hero II came out, I also got into DDR. I was eventually able to clear a number of Challenge level songs. I picked up Elite Beat Agents in that same year, and promptly beat the cheerleader mode (I don't remember the name of that difficulty). A year later, I picked up Osu! Tatakae! Oendan! 1 and 2, while in Japan, although I never did finish the hardest difficulties in those (or at least not in the first one).
dunpeal2064 wrote:Hatsune Miku: God damn I love Miku, both as a rhythm game, and just as a general concept. I've been playing the games since 2nd came out on the ps2, and have spent the last month basically just playing Future Tone, which is excellent. My wife and I are going to see her in concert later this year.
I actually don't really like Miku--both the idea behind her, and a lot of the music made with vocaloids--but this was the last series of music games I was really into, because the games are friggin' great! I played 1, 2, and Extend
extensively. I think I cleared everything on Hard / Extreme between the three games, outside of one or two songs. Those games were practically an addiction for me, for a while. Are the newer ones on PS4 and Vita better in any way? The real shock for me was playing the arcade version in Japan and realizing that none of my skills from the PSP games were transferable to the arcade machine. I guess Sega really found the perfect formula for maximizing profits between the home and arcade markets.
This is all reminding me of the games in the genre that I've been meaning to put more time into, like Guitaroo Man, Cool Cool Toon, Pop'n Music, and Bravo Music.
I also, of course, have enjoyed many of the hybrid genre games like Rez, Child of Eden, Lumines, Bit.Trip Runner, Groove City, etc. My love for music and rhythm games is really just a consequence of my love for music, and dance. So, on that note, I will leave this post off with one of my favorite DDR tracks:
Look to the Sky (True Color Mix).