Ever since playing the original Rhythm Paradise on my DS, I’ve been a fan of rhythm games big and small. The recent release of the Rhythm Bundle got me five extra musical games. I want to look back to my many years of rhythm gaming and pick the best experiences out, and sum up what exactly makes a rhythm game good.

The key to making a rhythm game is usually simplicity. Some games just use a touch screen for all input. Others are slightly more complicated by allowing you to use all buttons and features of the system you are using. But if you’re looking for a rhythm game that is just as complex as, say, League of Legends, those don’t exist yet and I wonder that if something like that would exist, that it would be any good.

Rhythm Paradise (DS) is a good example. The game uses the touchscreen for all gameplay related imput (except for one minigame where shoulder button R is also used). But it doesn’t stop at just tapping the screen. As you get started you’ll also learn the flick: much like what we call ‘swiping’ nowadays. The flick is awesome, it doesn’t feel gimmicky at all, and in my opinion it really adds something to the game. The later released sequel on the Wii also did a great job at keeping the gameplay simple and exciting at the same time. The controller was replaced by the Wiimote. The developers were smart enough to understand that motion controls wouldn’t work in a rhythm game (which was confirmed in Rhythm Thief, where the gyroscope minigames are the least fun to play.)

Jam with the Band (for DS as well), is on the max of complexity as it exists for rhythm games. The easiest mode of the game just uses one button, which you have to press in time according to the triggers on the screen. Once you put the difficulty up to Master, you can use all buttons on your system to honor your favorite songs. It doesn’t stop at that: you can play a song on all of the instruments that make up the song, or you can play the song together with all your friends playing a different instrument, or you can just write your own songs in the game and play those as well. There is even an option to connect the DS to the Wii and have the TV output the song you’re playing.

If there is one game genre that absolutely celebrates perfectness, it’s rhythm. Some games reward a 100% upon finding all collectibles, finishing all levels, eating all cake, getting high scores, and so on. Rhythm games usually only reward this upon playing all songs without missing a single trigger. If the game wants you to get a ‘Great’ on every trigger for this then you’re in trouble. However, playing songs perfectly is actually quite a nice challenge. I personally perfected ~40 of all mini-games in Rhythm Paradise DS and some of those were actually quite easy to perfect. Some were somewhat more challenging, and some of them are nearly impossible (like the Tap Troupe mini-game in the Wii version). However, most of the time these are nice challenges which usually give nice unlockables.

Retro/Grade has a challenge mode where all unlockables are spread on a big map with lots and lots of challenges. There are only ten base levels in the main campaign which are recycled here, but have a modifier attached: things like ‘The level speed is 125%/80%’, ‘The camera is zoomed in’, ‘The level has been mirrored’, and so on. Of course, there are also challenges to play levels perfectly. Just one miss results in a game over. But Retro/Grade has a twist: it lets you rewind levels. If you make a mistake, you can just go back (more specifically, forward) in time and address your mistakes. This, however, resets your multiplier, so for the perfect score you will still need to play perfectly.

I feel a special mention to the BIT.TRIP series here is also on it’s place. All BIT.TRIP games and levels are set up in such a way that they can be perfected. It is, however, freaking hard. A ‘normal’ level in the BIT.TRIP series usually takes up to ten or fifteen minutes, and even if you make it that far, there’s still a boss to take down. However, if you manage to do it, the color flashing word PERFECT appears next to your score. A reward for insanity.

So let’s get to the verdict. First of all, a rhythm game needs really awesome music. Get some guest artists, maybe licence some awesome tracks, or play with a music making tool until you’ve got some perfect creations. Also, the more songs, the better: the player won’t get bored quickly and has more songs to get high scores on. For some genres, quality is more important that quantity, but in rhythm games you can also do that the other way around by including lots of songs and keeping the gameplay simple. That brings us to our next point: keep the gameplay simple, but experimenting is allowed. So did Sequence an amazing job with combining RPG and rhythm, while Rhythm Thief almost plays like a Layton game with rhythm minigames instead of puzzles, and the music minigame in Let’s Tap which had you put a Wiimote on top of a small box and checked how firmly you tapped on the box and used that as input for the game, and so on! You’ll also want to reward the player for doing well- something you would do in every genre, but it’s extra important in these type of games. For example, you’ll want to reward the player for clearing a track perfectly. Rewarding the player visually- of even musically (again, a special shout out to the BIT.TRIP series!)- is a good idea as well.

That about sums it up! I really hope so see more great rhythm games in the future. What weird rhythm games can still show up? When will someone make an rhythm MMO, for example? Maybe someone can do cool rhythm stuff with the Occulus Rift or another VR device! Make the future of rhythm games- keep the beat alive!