Friday, December 30, 2011

Ten Great Music Games - Before Guitar Hero

Remember when Guitar Hero invaded our lives, swept all before it and left a scorched earth of devastation? In the aftermath of its dominion, music games are reviled creatures offering little promise or glamor. Only the dancing games remain, prancing and preening in a sparkly little world of their own.

It was not always so. Before Guitar Hero, before the fake guitars and living room histrionics, there existed a vista of innovation and magic. We can only hope those days will return.

Here's a list of ten great music games, prior to the era of plastic axes.




Release Date: 1995
Developer: IBM
Publisher: Virtual Music
Platforms/Current Availability: PC – no digital distribution.

Quest for Fame was an Aerosmith-themed PC rocker that came packaged with a light blue guitar pick peripheral. You know, back when the term "peripheral" didn't simply mean "enormous piece of plastic I'll later toss in my closet."

It's also kind of like Guitar Hero, but better in all the right ways.

Though the game suggested you tap the pick against a hard surface, a smacking of the thigh produced the best results via "rhythm EKG," the meter for measuring your progress on-screen. This also meant you looked like a total moron while playing.

It was quick, raw, and fairly dirty, almost like a BioWare sex scene. But it effectively simulated the feeling of "playing" a real guitar. And that meant something. Unfortunately, through repeated use and abuse, the guitar pick eventually only responded when slammed against a computer desk.

It was, however, a fresh look at a genre we'd never experienced before, and it hardly receives any of the credit it rightfully deserves as one of the first truly interactive guitar games.




Release Date: June 4, 2000
Developer: United Game Artists
Publisher: SEGA
Platforms/Current Availability: Dreamcast (original release), PlayStation 2 (port), Xbox 360 (via compilation)



Atomic pink-haired Ulala, a particularly scintillating tentacle scene, and some embarrassingly catchy
Publish Post
electronic pop joined together like undulating Planeteers to create Space Channel 5. By your powers combined, indeed.

With every "chu!" and subsequent "HEY!", the quirky crew liberated groovin' presidents and helpless civilians from the clutches of the terrifying Morolians and those who dared side with them. In classic call-and-response fashion, enemies spewed out a string of nonsensical chants alongside "lyrics" that could only be described as lazy, leaving you as Ulala to repeat them back with the beat. Unless you had the memory of a goldfish, you could save the world.




Release Date: February 18, 2002
Developer: Koei iNiS
Publisher: Koei
Platforms/Current Availability: PlayStation 2, PSP (port – Gitaroo Man Lives!)

U-1 played a magical Gitaroo, or as us normal folk would call it, a guitar. And it was good. Still is. Don't hate.

Gitaroo Man, the classic drag-the-note-via-analog-stick-to-pitch-bend musical adventure had it all, even some particularly horrid English voice acting (why was the demo level in English?).

From cutesy J-Pop to orchestral songs littered with hardcore guitar riffs, to some Day of the Dead-like tunes, it's a cavalcade of songs meant to beat you into submission.

Though genuinely nightmarish in difficulty, it's still flyin' to my heart after all these years. A rare find on the PlayStation 2, saw subsequent release on the PSP for an affordable less-than-$20 steal.




Release Date: October 31, 1997 / August 17, 1999
Developer: NaNa On-Sha
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platforms/Current Availability: PlayStation, PSP, PSN (via digital distribution)

The PSP version of Parappa the Rapper

PaRappa, with all the street cred a talking dog could muster after falling in love with a sunflower and rapping about seafood cake, was pretty darn dope. Lammy adopted the same premise as PaRappa, but you wailed on a guitar rather than relying on your rapping chops to solve every single one of your problems.

Rodney Alan Greenblat lent his magical touch to the games, giving them a "paper-thin" look, as well as some truly bizarre characters that to this day I can't forget. Alas Tupac defines old news, but lines like "In the rain or in the snow / I got the funky flow / But now, I really gotta go" deserve archival for future generations. Spreadin' troof. You know how we do.

PaRappa received a lackluster sequel (minus the bit about the burgers) and Major Minor's Majestic March ranks as one of the worst games ever. So stick to PaRappa or Lammy's first endeavors. And that's the bottom line, 'cause Chop Chop Master Onion said so.

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