Full Stack of Flapjacks: Rhythm Games

One of the “issues” with many of the arcade rhythm games I play is that they have such a breadth of content and high difficulty curve that I rarely reach the point where I’m comfortable talking about them in the context of a full review. However, since I published my guide to rhythm game critique last week, I wanted to also provide some quick thoughts on some rhythm games I’m not quite ready to dedicate an entire review to.

DJMAX Respect

IIDX-derived slop: just waves and waves and waves of notes to hit, no turntables in sight. Granted, as a pure test of rhythm chops, you could do much worse with such a simple foundation, especially since the game can use up to 10 buttons (eight primary buttons and two “side-chain” buttons for additional holds) and is not afraid to throw IIDX-style patterns with a heavy emphasis on finger independence at the player; it’s the only weapon it has in its arsenal. While the original released primarily for PlayStation 4, the Respect V version on PC adds in the “SC” alternate charts, which take advantage of the true per-finger button chords as compared to the controller-optimized charts of the original. The basic patterns aren’t that different from IIDX, except for an increased focus on thumb kick notes as compared to lane-1 kicks, and an overall focus on symmetry between hands rather than assigning particular roles to each, but what really divides the two is the music roster. DJMAX is desperate Bemani worship, which has its own niche in the sense that it’s less common than one would think, but at the same time misses on average song quality. The trance songs in Respect (the song list of which draws from the Portable series as well) have thinner drums, arpeggiators that titter instead of surround, and sterile pulses for melody. That’s not to say they don’t always hit – check out XeoN or some of Forte Escape’s stuff – but the top-of-class Bemani talent is missing here. In other genres, the comparisons feel more comfortable; DJMAX has plenty of the idiosyncratic pastoral and/or baroque electronic that also fills Pop’n Music or jubeat, and it frequently captures the same childish air and eclectic instrumentation that makes those songs stand out from their hard dance peers. If these don’t do enough for you, having access to plenty of crossovers (especially Tekken, thank god) helps sweeten the pot.

Ongeki

Ongeki perfectly showcases many great rhythm game design ideas: physical routing on the control surface, keeping players from resting in the home position, and non-rhythmic elements overlaid on top of the primary gameplay. It’s a sit-down cabinet with six main buttons (red, green, blue on both left and right), a horizontal lever in between, and two purple buttons on vertical struts on either side of the cabinet. The game has light shmup elements interleaved, where you’re fighting an enemy along a track by shooting at them (hitting the right notes), and damage is only dealt when you’re within the physical confines of the track, which sways back and forth. You follow it with the lever independent of the notes that are being played, and given that the lever eats up a full hand, you’re likely going to spend most of your time with one hand on the lever and one hand on one of the sets of buttons. Add in the distance between two purple buttons and the RGB buttons and sections where you’ll play both sets of main buttons simultaneously, and you’ll be swapping your hands between the five main button zones constantly on higher level charts. This gets expressed most often during long sequences that center around the RGB button trio, with each hand alternating on hitting the purple buttons or sliding the lever on accents. With these and a smattering of additional mechanics (enemy bullets, life pickups, holds, lever-based notes) comes a decreased reliance on actual rhythmic acrobatics; don’t expect much syncopation or any reliance on finger independence. Once the charts move into the highest difficulty, Lunatic, these issues become more apparent as the game lapses into gimmick charts, such as holding notes for dozens of seconds while dodging dense bullet patterns (that do little against your generous health bar) or scrolling the screen backwards. There’s plenty of meat there on the physical routing side, and these gimmicks on top are certainly not centralizing or overstay their welcome, but the bounds on what the designers perceive to be top-level play becomes more apparent.

Nostalgia

Bemani’s answer to the 2010’s shift towards rhythm games with horizontal touch-pads, Nostalgia superficially resembles their classic Keyboardmania but without the lavish devotion to actual piano knowledge. Even though the individual key buttons are individual and separated (ignoring the black keys), most of the notes in the game allow you to fat-finger a couple keys at a time as long as you’re in the vicinity of wherever the note is on the attached screen. These keys at least serve one useful purpose: they make glissando up and down the keyboard more than just dragging one’s finger, necessitating pressing fingernails with a back-of-the-hand swoop or a couple fingers pinched together pushing against the keys in succession. These sensations from real piano performance factor in heavily to chart design, with an overall scheme built on independent rhythms between the two hands. Individual fingers matter somewhat less than anchoring two (or occasionally three) points on each hand and giving them their separate assignments, often with alternating rhythm on the left and snappier melody on the right. Since the most rhythmic variation then happens on the right, the main chart-reading wrinkle is knowing when to lock in on the right hand’s section and when to ease back to a more general view when the bass part deviates from the beaten path. Once you get to the higher levels of the game, the tightly placed, short notes make determining which finger to squeeze in where more of a challenge than before, and little microrhythm plinks across notes appear increasingly often. Otherwise the mechanics are slim, perfect for a game meant to appeal to a more casual crowd. And as a bonus, many of Bemani’s finest get to show off their piano chops, both between original tracks and crossover remixes with a contemporary classical flair.