Showing posts with label Game Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Game Life. Show all posts

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Crossover rhythms

Nice interview at Game|Life with Tsunku♂ -- aka Mitsuo Terada, the J-pop producer behind hit DS game and BeyoncĂ© endorsed Rhythm Heaven. I liked these quotes:

Rhythm games have always transcended nationality, though. Rhythm is something that can be learned without complex theories; it just takes practice and repetition. This is true for children, adults, men and women. This is why I thought a worldwide release of this title wasn't just a pipe dream.
...
I think there will be increased potential for game music to cross over into the mainstream in the future, but avid fans usually don't respond to gimmicks they feel are too contrived. The key is to start with as pure a game concept as possible, and give it the type of music that suits it best. If the fans respond well as a result, performing the song live in concert would be a natural next step. That sort of pattern seems ideal to me.


I was rocking away at RH quite happily this week until I hit the level with the off-beats, and now I'm stuck. Here's a Japanese trailer with examples of many of the mini-games within Rhythm Heaven.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Starting from Scratch

I feel like letting this screenshot do the talking as far as this Wired Game|Life article on Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, goes. Lots more deets on the game, due out this summer, at the link.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Top games sales in January

Wired's gaming blog Games | Life posted January 2009's Top 10 Game Sales By Platform. Let's see how the music titles stack up:

Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii was the 7th best-seller overall, and #4 in the Wii top ten. The Xbox 360 version of GHWT was 18th overall, just behind the 360 version of Rock Band 2 at #17.

In the Xbox 360 top ten, RB2 comes in 7th ahead of GHWT at #8. On the PlayStation 3, GHWT is 5th and RB2 is 10th.

More interestingly, on the PlayStation 2 -- lest we forget, far and away the best-selling gaming console evah -- music games absolutely dominate.

1. PS2 GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
2. PS2 MADDEN NFL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS
3. PS2 GUITAR HERO AEROSMITH* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
4. PS2 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
5. PS2 KINGDOM HEARTS RE: CHAIN OF MEMORIES SQUARE ENIX INC
6. PS2 WWE SMACKDOWN VS. RAW 2009 THQ
7. PS2 NBA 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
8. PS2 ROCK BAND 2 MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS
9. PS2 GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
10. PS2 ROCK BAND* MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS


Not only do rhythm games take four out of the ten spots, but at least four other titles (Madden, WWE Smackdown, NBA2K9 and GTA:SA) are all known for soundtracks with strong exposure effects for featured artists. It's expected that the next-gen consoles will get most of the spotlight, but the PS2 has by far the higher user base -- 140m PS2s sold worldwide compared to 44m Wiis and 28m Xbox 360s, sayeth Wikipedia -- and continues to sell well. The PS2 chart is a stronger indication of music games' overall popularity than the other top tens.