Who Killed Parappa? Part Two

This is Part Two of a two-part article outlining the history of music and rhythm games. By taking an in-depth look at this type of game, we can see how the quality of music and rhythm games is beginning to decline. For Part One, click here.

When last I posted we had left off with what I consider the last plot-driven music game, Gitaroo Man. Here we’ll pick up on a game that was released only a few months later: Harmonix’s FreQuency.

FreQuency (2001) was actually a groundbreaking game. It was the first music game to give you control of all of the musical instruments in the track. The game play was fairly simply: using three buttons, hit the nodes in the correct rhythm for at least two phrases as your “FreQ” moves down one of the 8 tracks in the level’s tunnel. This would “break” the track and allow you to move to the next track; switching tracks fast enough to catch the next phrase would earn you a multiplier. You could get different power-ups to temporarily increase your multiplier, freestyle, etc. It was also one of the first games to implement a progress bar on the right side of the screen that showed you how far through the song you were.

But the two truly wonderful things about this game were the ability to remix the music and the online multiplayer. “Remixing” in FreQuency was much closer to creating your own tracks. While you were limited to the instruments used in the track itself, you were able basically composer your own melodies and beats.

The online aspect was also fairly new for the PS2. The network adapter was actually packaged with a FreQuency demo disc. Once the disc loaded, the full game could be switched in. Online multiplayer supported up to four people, competing for the high score on any give song or remix.

The one gripe that I personally had with this game was that there were some timing issues in the game play, and the visuals were a bit distracting. Harmonix most likely got this feedback, since these issues were fixed in their next game, Amplitude (2003). Besides a new song list, updated visuals and added features, the game was virtually the same. It was really a more refined version version of their previous game, however by this point they had quite a large fan base. The online server for Amplitude stayed up for quite a while, until Sony finally pulled the plug in February 2007.

This is where the problem starts to arise. After Harmonix released Karaoke Revolution(2003) and Guitar Hero (2005), something strange happened in to the music game. The music game was the new cool kid on the block; the new party game in town. Everyone knows the progression of history after this. MTV bought Harmonix and they were able to make the game they had always wanted, Rock Band (2007). This left Activision and Neversoft to carry on the Guitar Hero franchise.

Which brings us right about up the the present time, with the releases of new games for both franchises. If you don’t see what’s strange about this musical history lesson, I’ll give it to you straight: since the release of Guitar Hero, the music genre has become no more than a race to see which company can deliver the best faux rock star experience.

Seeing the success of this type of game, it seems every company wants a little piece of the delicious money pie. However, these companies are in such a rush to create “the next big thing” in music games that the market is starting to become flooded with sub-par clones. Games like Battle of the Bands and even Wii Music had to potential to take the music genre in a completely different direction. Instead, these games just tried too hard to be something they could never be: a direct competitor with Guitar Hero. Rock Revolution is only half-heartedly trying to break the hold of Guitar Hero and Rock Band; they aren’t even bothering to develop their own guitar controller for the game!

The creativity that used to go into creating a music game is slowly becoming lost. The last game that had any sort of plot with likable characters was Elite Beat Agents (2006); even that was one game over the course of about 5 years to do so. What’s even more disheartening is that while Japan got a sequel to Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan(2005), there seems to be no sign of a sequel to its American counterpart. One might argue that Every Extend Extra (2006) is a fairly recent game that uses innovative game play. However what you might not know is that E3 was merely a ported, fancied-up version of a freeware game called Every Extend(2005), a game created by a Japanese university student by the name of Kanta Matsuhisa. The game is till available free for download on her website (probably through torrents as well). So this one idea was rehashed into two more games, without adding and significant new content. The concept of Every Extend is actually quite similar to Otocky in a number of ways. The same goes for games like Boom Boom Rocket(2007): it is merely a redone version of a game (in this instance, Dance Dance Revolution) with updating graphics.

What happened here? People are so caught up in rock star role-playing that other rhythm games are simply clones with tweaks. Where are the plots and characters that have become necessary in almost every other type of video game? There are so many possibilities for innovation in this genre but all of these opportunities have become lost in a sea of mediocre rock’n'roll remakes.