Retronomicon: The Death Of Quirky Rhythm Games

Pata pata pata pon.

For this week’s retronomicon, I want to talk about the death of quirky rhythm games because it is something near and dear to my heart and a genre that mostly died about ten years ago. I started getting into these games in the early to mid aughts and out of all of the games that I purchased or had bought for me over the years these are the titles that I never traded or sold.

I think most people who got into these games had that one friend or classmate who was importing Japanese-only games and who turned them on to these titles. For me it was a classmate who owned Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan and showed me the splendor of a little website called Lik Sang. Lik Sang was later shut down by legal expenses because Sony didn’t like them shipping PSPs internationally before the international release date.

So I wanted to use this column to talk about my favorite quirky (dead) rhythm games. I sadly never got the opportunity to play Gitaroo Man or Donkey Konga.

What are your favorite rhythm games? Let me know in the comments below!

Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan

Thankfully Ouendan is in the tier of games that have not become disgustingly expensive collectors items. Ouendan is a rhythm game where you take on the role of a Japanese cheer squad who evidently work for a nearly omnipotent organization and are dispatched to assist people in their time of need. Each story ranges from the mundane (guy needs to study for school) to the ridiculous (doctor moves to a town where the doctor fixes everything from bruised muscles to toasters).

The gameplay is a simple button tap to the rhythm but ridiculously difficult on higher levels with very little leniency for failure. The series spawned a western sequel (Elite Beat Agents) and a Japanese sequel that took much of the lessons learned from the first two games and improved upon them.

One level that never fails to send chills down my spine is in Elite Beat Agents. In this story Lucy is saying goodbye to her father who is going on a business trip. Lucy makes her dad promise that he’ll be back for Christmas, and dad departs. The cheerful music goes dead silent. We flash forward six months and dad’s not back. Mom tells Lucy that dad’s been in an accident and won’t be coming back. The two fight and mom leaves.

Normally in an EBA level this is the part where the character shouts “HEEEEEEEEELP!” and we switch to the command center where Kahn dispatches the agents with an “agents are go!” This level is different. Lucy drops to her knees and begs for her dad to come home. The camera pans out silently.

We now see Kahn in the command center. He stays silent, the only sound now being the faint beeping of computers.

The song that this level plays to is You’re The Inspiration. At this level EBA ditches the over the top dancing and heavy drum beats and whistles of the other levels. The Ouendan squad does not shout or interject, they merely stand there and offer their moral support. The clap of the button tapping is replaced with a nice gentle chime.

As the story progresses we see Lucy basically being motivated to cope with her father’s death; cleaning his study room, remembering his birthday, and just keeping her in his dreams. It all culminates with Lucy’s dad appearing (as a ghost) one last time to fulfill his promise and be home for Christmas.

All of this comes to a head in the final mission which is basically Footloose with aliens. The Earth is invaded by aliens who hate dancing and despite their efforts the agents get turned to stone. With everyone resigned to their failure, who appears to motivate the crowd? You guessed it, little Lucy.

Patapon

Patapon is a great game because the series hasn’t had a new release in nearly a decade but it’s one of those games that buries itself in your head indefinitely and refuses to leave. Just in referencing the title I’m sure some of you have instinctively started thinking about the commands and button presses that have been committed to memory and shoved in a dark corner somewhere just in case they need to be revived at some point.

And Patapon was one of those games that you could play in public and it would get the interest of people who didn’t even really play video games. It was challenging, cute, fun to play, and you could play it in smaller bites if you didn’t have a lot of time. That was always a plus for rhythm games is each level was a few minutes long at best.

Patapon was also responsible for some people in my school actually getting to play video games, as quite a few parents believed games were murder simulators created by Satan, and Patapon along with other PSP games like Katamari Damacy and Locoroco helped calm those concerns.

Rhythm Tengoku

I was never a big fan of the Rhythm Heaven games on the DS and the Wii, I hated the controls. The game I did enjoy was Rhythm Tengoku, a Japanese-only release on the Gameboy Advance that predated the western versions. This is one of the games I own that has become sort of expensive.

Rhythm Tengoku is a collection of rhythm minigames each with their own theme and play style. The controls are incredibly simple and the rhythm isn’t too difficult to get down. What you’re aiming for are the mashups at the end of each “world” that compile each mini-game into a new song.

It’s also a game you can impress people with looking over your shoulder, since there are no on-screen indicators for the remix songs. You’re expected to know what to do in each mini-game as it appears as it has already been beaten into your head during the training portion. And you have to do quite well during the trianing missions otherwise the game will not let you progress.

Jam With The Band

Also known as Daigasso! Band Brothers DX, Jam With The Band is a DS rhythm game that lets you play as all of the members in a band and I do mean all of the members. It’s also one of the few games I imported from Japan only to have an English release (while not coming out in North America).

The controls can get insane, using all of the face buttons plus the shoulder buttons. One quirky thing about Jam With The Band is that the game has the ability to download 100 songs from wifi but with the caveat that you can’t delete them. Ever. You have to pick which of the thousand plus songs you want because once you have them, they are yours forever.