Rhythm Games

What I’ve Been Playing – Mobile Edition

One day I will get some sort of actual cadence going on these. I promise 🤞. Anyway, For whatever reason, I kind of dipped in and out of a few mobile card games recently. I came to a universal conclusion, I really don’t care for mobile card games.

Pokemon TCG Live

I don’t know what the actual name for this is, I think it’s rebranded a few times too. I came across some codes for this game that were unredeemed so I loaded it up. After playing the tutorial and playing a few rounds and trying to spiffy up my deck so it wasn’t so shitty, I uninstalled it.

Of the card games I have been playing, I wanted to like this one the most. And I hated it, the most.

I am sorry Pikachu, I tried, I wanted this to be a go-to game. I really love Pokemon in general, as a sort of underlying always there enjoyment. But I hate playing against human opponents and you have to proper vs AI mode.

Magic The Gathering

Like Pokemon, I had some codes to redeem. On Prime Day, I bought an actual set of M:tG cards in a two player starter set. It came with digital versions of both decks.

I enjoyed playing this one probably the most. Especially because it has a way to play vs AI, which I prefer. It’s not souch I dislike playing against people, it’s that I have no desire to play against people who are making out perfect strategies while I am just here being my casual ass self. Like in Pokemon, I had a game where every round my opponent was throwing out like 10+ cards and there was all this in and out of the discord pile and damage counters flying everywhere and I could not even manage to draw any damn energy.

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I actually used to vaguely play Magic like, 20 years ago. I thought I hady cards still but a coworker and I were talking about it and I went to find my cards and they don’t seem to be there anymore. I want to say a lot of them were from an early set, maybe even the original sets. Frozen Realms or Forgotten Realms or something. It was “Ice themed”.

Hearthstone

I have tried a few times to get into Hearthstone. I like the multiple minions aspect like Magic has, but I am not sure I like the hero aspects of the way energy/land/resources works.

Part of why I have been playing this one lately is that my Google Play Pass subscription includes a $5 off coupon all the time, so I have been building up a ton of “free currency”. (Roblox has the same thing, and sometimes PokemonGo).

Pokemon Go

I have finally made it to Level 40 in Pokemon Go. This was the original highest level. There is a bunch of task based stuff that is needed to get to level 50, the current highest, but at this point it’s all “end game” style play.

I am kind of considering stopping again. The experience needs feel huge and like most games, I have never been super into End Game Min/Maxing. I kind of got into that for a bit in World of Warcraft ages ago, around Pandaria, but they kicked it all up and I stopped caring.

Anyway, Pokemon Go recently added this Dynamax gimmick, which I guess is from one of the game I never really played. It seemed like a cool idea, you actually fight to capture Pokemon, but it’s not quite a raid, but then battles are stupidly boring. Plus to actually get anywhere on the Dynamax mechanics you need like a zillion candies.

Hard pass.

It seemed cool, it just… Too tedious.

Also, stop spawning Kanto Pokemon damnit. I need Sinnoh Pokemon fory research task.

Sky: CotL

There are like, 3 “events” happening at the moment, and it feels like 2 at any given time. I kind of like that the game is trying to be a bit more actually interactive. For a long while it was just starting to get dull and repetitious. I may or may not have allegedly been using tools to assist with that tedium, but have since stopped because many people were … having “issues” with it.

I never had any “issues” but I figured it’s better to stop while I was ahead and I was at least caught up on a bunch of traveling spirits.

I picked a heck of a time to stop though, one of the current events is the return of the Shattering Season spirits, and they need like 800 candles to finish out. I have decided to accept that I don’t need everything.

There has also been a new event centered around Riddles and the Moon. Usually these are based around holidays, but I am not sure what holiday this one is for. It’s a neat sort of event where you can leave and answer riddles, but it’s not great since, the riddle lanterns never seem to refresh each day, and half of them are not in a language I can read (well enough).

The last event is the regular seasonal event, the Season of Duets. I’ve finished that one off. I have seen a fair amount of people saying the season was lame but I don’t see it. It had several instruments and the music mini game feels like kind of a core part of Sky.

Fortnite Festival

Speaking of music, I have been playing a lot of Fortnite Festival still. The Rhythm game mode that is the spiritual sequel to Guitar Hero/Rock Band. I have backed off on it some since I finished the pass and I don’t super care about the bonus styles for the Keytar.

Fortnite Festival

Aug 29th, 2024

by Ramen Junkie.

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I kind of really rejected Fortnite Festival, the music mode, when it was launched last year. Which feels kind of surprising because I really like Rhythm games and am a huge DDR fan. I never was super into Rock Band though, and Fortnite Festival.is basically the latest iteration of Rock and, it’s just, built into Fortnite. Harmonix, makers of Rock Band, was bought by Epic and folded in to create this game mode.

Anyway, I have decided to give it another try lately and it’s not that bad. It’s not DDR, but it sort of scratches that itch. It doesn’t replace it and I still want to get my dance pad set up again, but maybe Fortnite Festival can spur that along. I know Rock Band is arguably more popular than DDR, but DDR will always be my baseline for rhythm games.

I think a lot of my hang-ups with Festival stem from that baseline too. I really dislike the downward fall of the notes vs the upward push. I hate that there are not arrows, though not too terribly. I have been using the same arrows based key binds I used to use when I did Stepmania on the keyboard, as in using the left, down, up, right, arrow keys, in that order. Even though every lane has a little bar in it, I still have muscle memory of which key is which lane.

Though this throws me way off on expert level songs, which are 5 lanes. Frankly, even if I were a Rock Band pro this would be frustrating, it’s literally like playing an entirely different game. Which is made worse because in theory, working up through difficulty trains you on how to hit note of increasingly more complicated patterns. Adding another lane is like moving from DDR to Pump It Up (which uses diagonal arrows and the center), and expecting to be an instant expert.

Another “it’s not DDR” annoyance, the songs are soooooo long. Most DDR tracks are like, 2 minutes, tops. Probably partly because DDR is a very physical game. Yeah, you can play it with a controller or keyboard, but if you are playing it the proper way, you’re standing and moving. Even if you use instrument controls in Fortnite Festival, you aren’t moving that much. It uses a lot of popular music and it’s always the full track, so some songs can be 5-6 minutes long. Which really starts to drag on a bit when pushing these sometimes repetitive note sequences in.

I also really dislike that there doesn’t seem to be anyway to adjust the fall speed of the notes. Some of them move way too fast and I would much rather slow them down into a bunch so I can pre-read them, or speed them up entirely so it becomes entirely single note reactions. This isn’t help that all the notes are the exact same color. In DDR, half steps, quarter steps, etc, all had slight different colorings, which made them easier to read.

This feels like it’s just turned into a bit of a random about why I never liked Rock Band. DDR is so full of perfect visual queues, and everything here is just so, flat and identical.

Like, as an example, there is this Billie Eilish track, and the notes are very clearly this sort of back and forth between two notes, and a third that is a regular rhythm. Like left, up, left right, left, up, left, right. It would be a fun pattern in DDR. But in this game, because everything is so samey visually, my brain can’t quite process the changes fast enough. Eventually I could probably memorize it, but I really hate playing rhythm games based on memorization. I want to play based on learning skills and techniques so when I recognize a pattern even in a new song I can get it.

Another one in that same song I think, I am pretty sure it’s a standard “front/back/front back” step pattern from DDR, but once again, it’s all visually identical so it just clutters up.

Or maybe I am just out of practice.

Whatever the case, I am really enjoying the mode.

Rocket Racing is still lame though, and I will stand by that forever. The tracks are boring, the cats are boring, everything in it is just, “like other racing games but way worse.”. They should have just stuffed Rocket Racing into Rocket League and it may have helped make RL actually worth playing.

Review – Beat Hazard (PC)

Jul 17th, 2018

by Ramen Junkie.

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Somewhere along the way, the “Sh’Mup” or “Shoot Em Up” genre evolved and became the “Bullet Hell” Genre. Play styles and enemy patterns from games like R-Type, or Gradius remail but there is a lot more going on in the playing field than older systems could handle. Hell there’s probably more going on in a single screen of a modern Shoot Em up game than happened in an entire round of Gradius. Since the screen is covered in action and well, bullets, the term Bullet Hell is used.

If you want to go way back, Asteroid is essentially the grand daddy of this genre. They come in two flavors, games like R-Type which scroll along in one direction as enemies attack and the player navigates a stage or Asteroid types where the screen generally stays stationary and the player navigates around the screen defending his or herself.

Beat Hazard falls into the latter type.

It has most of the common elements of this genre, lots of action, everything is glowing and neon colored, power ups, score multipliers and a general dependence on score as a game mechanic. What sets this game apart is it’s musical gimmick.

As you play, your weapon becomes more powerful or weaker to the music playing in the background. If there is a quiet moment, you’ll shoot tiny single bullets. If it’s jamming a guitar riff, the screen will light up and glow as you stream energy all over the screen. This is also augmented by the power ups. You collect Volume and Power emblems. The Volume makes the music get louder and increases the spread and coverage of your weapons. Power pickups increases the music’s power, makes it sound less flat and causes your weapons to do more damage. when you max out both Power and Volume you unlock “Beat Hazard” mode and become a very powerful force.

The game’s built in tracks are pretty good but the real fun comes in playing your own tracks. Beat Hazard is compatible with any MP3 files you want to play. For a $1 DLC fee you can add AAC and MP4 files from iTunes (this is to cover the license to play AAC).

The biggest drawback of this game is it’s lack of variety. The levels are more or less randomly generated based somewhat on the music choices but the number of different enemies you encounter are few. There’s some large garbage ball asteroid things, some small and medium ships that simply fly back and fourth, some larger ships that follow you around a small boss which shows up in pairs and a larger boss. That’s it. There’s a new DLC pack slated for release this year which promises to add some more enemies however.

There’s also a bit of a simplicity aspect to the game play. It’s not real hard to beat most levels by dodging things and spinning your aiming target (mouse) win circles shooting everything around you. This doesn’t work on the bosses and often it’s effective to stop and concentrate fire on the landing point of the enemies but when things get busy this simple strategy will most likely pull you through. Also, mostly a minor nitpick, the larger ships that follow you around could stand to be slightly less tough. They tend to snake after you and it’s easy to get trapped in a corner.

The game also features a leveling system that actually does a pretty good job of keeping itself relevant. The early stages and difficulties are easily doable on the lower rankings but the later stages become difficult very quickly without leveling up your a rank. There isn’t a direct “one level means more damage” relationship but you’ll earn helpful abilities like “Start with 20x Multiplier” and “Start with +1 Volume”.

It’s still a blast to play despite it’s flaws. Especially if you are a fan of the genre and fast paced heavy Rock/Techno music. Be warned though, the game itself warns, there is heavy use of strobe style bright effects and anyone prone to seizures caused by such things should really steer clear. the game’s warning isn’t joking.

Beat hazard is available via Steam.

Review – Frequency (PS2)

May 18th, 2011

by Ramen Junkie.

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Frequency
PS2 – 1-2 Players
Gameplay – 7/10

Graphics – 7/10

Sound – 9/10

Replay – 6/10

Overall – 7.3/10

Frequency is generally a hard game to describe. There isn’t really anything that is much like it. The closest thing I can think of is “DDR without the down arrow”, but, there is so much more on in
addition to that so the description doesn’t really fit very well. For one, the tracks are a lot longer. Then there’s a little ship thing that you’ll actually have to control your on top of following the
pattern…

Well, maybe I should start out simple and then get ease you into the more complicated parts of the description. Imagine that you have a line, and that line represents a song. Now, turn that line into an 8-sided extruded tunnel. Your ship travels down this tunnel. There are no branches or forks but the tunnel does twist around a lot to some nice trippy visual effects. Essentially it is still the straight line. Now
take that tunnel and divide it up into several shorter segments. Each song is divided into segments; each segment is roughly 8 measures long.

Ok, now, back up one step to the 8 sided corridor. Each side of the corridor is lined with patterns of nodes that follow the sound of certain parts of the music. Each side represents a different layer of
the sound. For example, pretty much every track has a basic starting side representing the lowest drum or bass line. Pretty much every song has a vocal track. The techno based tracks may have a couple more bass sides or some synth sides. The more rock like tracks have more guitar sides, the hip hop type tracks tend to have several vocal sides.

The trick here is that the music for that side doesn’t play continually until you unlock that side. When the track starts out you’ll have a basic drum line. As you unlock the guitars and vocals, they will join in. It’s really cool to hear the songs sort of unfold as you complete more sides. It’s sort of like getting a custom made remix each time you play through the track.

To complete a side you have to follow patterns of nodes. You must complete two consecutive measures of nodes on a side to unlock it. Then the side will play on its own for the rest of that segment. See each segment has its own set of sides. Though some of the sides repeat throughout the song in more than one segment, it’s probably not possible to collect all 6 sides of a segment in one pass.

But wait; I said there are 8 sides in our tunnel yet only 6 sides to capture. You see, after you’ve unlocked 5 of the 6 sides you’ll unlock freestyle sides of that segment which can be used to collect bonus points. There are two type of freestyle sides, Axe and Scratch. Some tracks have two of one type but most have one of each. The scratch creates a record scratching effect as you move the analogue stick as well as placing different sound samples into the music as you press the buttons. The Axe track adds digital
sort of “crystal” sound effects to the music as you move the analogue stick and hold one of the buttons.

As mentioned before, you also collect nodes along each measure This is the part that is comparable to DDR. You move along and hit the nodes as they pass under your target, the nodes have left right and middle and work similar to DDR’s left, right, and up arrows and correspond to the Square, Circle, and Triangle buttons respectively. The X button is used to activate power-ups you collect. There are two power-ups. Auto-Capture will complete a side for you, and multiplier will increase your score. You can also use the L and R buttons to capture nodes but honestly this could have been better designed to alow you to turn between the sides of the tunnel. Instead, you move between the sides using the left and right control pad buttons. Also, unlike DDR, you are penalized for hitting an incorrect or non-existent node and must start over on your 2 measures in a row sequence.

Sound thoroughly confusing enough? It’s not really as bad as it sounds if you’re at all familiar with Rhythm style gameplay, especially DDR.

The object of the game is to make it through all of the segments to the end of the song. The number of segments varies with the length and complexity of the song. Harder difficulty songs tend to be longer. As you travel along the song your life bar is depleted as you miss picking up nodes. It is increased when you complete a side. You pick up power-ups by completing a measure with power-up nodes. In addition to the main game, there is also a freestyle mode where you create a song of your own using samples from the in game music. You can even play the homemade tracks in the regular game mode. This mode is sadly fairly limited in what it really lets you do. You aren’t really so much making music as telling the game when you want the pre made music to play.

The game comes with 25 songs, some by popular known artists such as No Doubt or Fear Factory, others by less well-known artists such as Funkstar De Luxe or Symbion Project. Pretty much all of the music is good though. In Easy mode, only the first 15 songs are available, in Normal there are 20 songs and Expert lets you play all 25 songs. The songs are divided into 5 song stages and you must complete the first 4 songs of an earlier stage to unlock the next higher stage. Each stage has 4 songs initially playable and a 5th song that is unlocked by getting a combined high score of a certain amount on that
stage. To complete a difficulty you complete all of the songs on that difficulty.

This is fairly frustrating for anyone who is unable to complete the harder difficulty levels. It also means a fairly limited song selection for those same people. Twenty songs isn’t much when you consider DDR tends towards 70-80 or so tracks. All that keeps a rhythm game going is variety of music and needlessly limiting what music choices this was isn’t a good idea if you want to keep the player interested. The remix mode isn’t a very fun addition to help keep up interest either.

The difficulty doesn’t help either.

The game starts out fairly simple but becomes excessively difficult in the later stages of the game. The highest difficulty is certainly more difficult to complete than the highest difficulty on say, DDR. I can pass most Heavy DDR songs with a controller, I can’t pass a single one in Frequency. The overall difficulty is compounded because of the extra interaction required by changing sides. Also the tunnel moves around at weird curves and whatnot which can be slightly disorienting, Additionally the node patterns tend to become extremely complex and the game is pretty unforgiving in regards to mistakes. This can lead to a lot of frustration and a pretty unsatisfactory game experience.

All in all, Frequency is a pretty fun game as far as rhythm games go. There is also a sequel called Amplitude that is supposed to be even better but in my opinion it drops a lot of what makes this game
interesting in favor of making things a bit easier. Unfortunately maybe easier is what this game needs. Though the visuals are interesting, the music is good and the game play is unique without being lame, it’s a bit repetitious and limited in what can really be done. The steep difficulty later in the game hurts as well.