Music video game
A music video game, also commonly known as a music game, is a video game where the gameplay is meaningfully and often almost entirely oriented around the player's interactions with a musical score or individual songs. Music video games may take a variety of forms and are often grouped with puzzle games[1][2][3][4][5][6] due to their common use of "rhythmically generated puzzles".[7][8]
Music video games are distinct from purely audio games (e.g. the 1997 Sega Saturn release Real Sound: Kaze no Regret) in that they feature a visual feedback, to lead the player through the game's soundtrack, although eidetic music games can fall under both categories.[citation needed]
Overview
Music video games are games where there is typically some type of interactivity of the gameplay with the game's music. This may be where the music is generated in response to the player's actions, or where the player reacts to the beats and notes of the music.[9] As the genre has gained popularity and expanded, music video games have demonstrated the ability to support a range of different styles of gameplay, making the genre itself rather diffuse. A game such as Rayman Legends features levels that are based on endless runners but where the player scores better by matching their actions to the musical cues, which could make this a music video game.[10]
Instead, it is easier to consider the sub-genres of music video games based on how the player interacts with the music in the game, of which there are four main types as described by the concepts of "matching, making, mixing, and metonymy" as described by Michael Austin, the director of the School of Music at Louisiana Tech University.[10] These ideas correlate to the subgenres as described below. Music games may feature multiple modes; for example, Frequency is primarily a scored rhythm matching game but also includes a music mixing gameplay feature for players to make their own mixes of the available songs.[9]
Rhythm-matching games
Rhythm-matching games or simply rhythm games require the player to respond in some fashion in time to music as it is played and shown via the game, all generally to emphasize the rhythm of the song being played. This may be by performing specific actions on a controller with precision timing as the note is played. Players are generally scored by not only hitting the right control but how precisely they hit it in time with the music. To improve in such games, players often begin to learn the required actions to memory as to be able to anticipate difficult sections or areas where high scoring is possible.[10]
The wide variety of possible player input has created a range of rhythm games, from
Rhythm games are the most dominant form of the music game genre.
Hybrid rhythm games
A further class of rhythm games is hybrid rhythm games or music reactive games. In comparison to the forementioned rhythm games where the rhythm matching is the primary focus and the player's action helps to generate the music that they hear, reactive games let the background music guide the player action, leaving the rhythm gameplay elements secondary to the main gameplay form.
Music-making games
Music-making freeform music games are those in which the creation of music takes predominance over gameplay and as such these games are often more similar to non-game
Music-mixing games
Music-mixing games are those in which players take premade sounds, music, or other audio tracks and interact with them in the game to create new works. These games are similarly sandbox in nature a music-making games, though by creation of certain combination of sounds, the player may be awarded points or unlock additional features. Such games include Incredibox and Fuser.[10]
Music-themed games
The fourth subgenre of music games are those that are related to the
Music games for live performance
Some music video games, regardless of their fundamental gameplay, may offer modes to allow players to use the game for creating live performances, typically using freeform or non-scoring modes with multiple local players. Games like Guitar Hero and Singstar offer such modes that also give the player the opportunity for physical presence as part of their performance for others.[9][20]
See also
References
- ^ "GameSpot's Best of 2005 - Genre Awards". Gamespot.com. Archived from the original on 2013-03-19. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ "The Best Videogames of 2005". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ "Mizuguchi on Lumines Interview // PSP /// Eurogamer". Eurogamer.net. 2006-11-09. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ "GameSpy.com - Reviews: Frequency (PS2)". 2006-02-11. Archived from the original on 2006-02-11. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
- ^ "Games and gear - Rhythm - ZDNet Reviews". Zdnet.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-09. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ "Music Rhythm | Games and gear - Puzzle - CNET Reviews". Reviews.cnet.com. 2010-10-13. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ "TenSpot: Top Ten Rhythm Games". GameSpot. 2006-03-22. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ Gudmundsen, Jinny (2007-08-24). "Songs from 'High School Musical' showcased in rhythm game". USA Today. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ a b c d e Pichlmair, Martin; Kayali, Fares (2007). "Levels of Sound: On the Principles of Interactivity in Music Video Games". Situated Play, Proceedings of DiGRA 2007 Conference: 424–430.
- ^ ISBN 978-1501308505.
- ISBN 9780133435719.
- ^ Webster, Andrew (2009-03-04). "Roots of rhythm: a brief history of the music game genre". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2014-07-05.
- ^ Reilly, Luke (October 9, 2020). "How Rhythm Games Blew Up (And Then Burned Out)". IGN. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
- ^ "Otocky". Siliconera. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ "Hz #9 - "The Composition-Instrument: Musical Emergence and Interaction "". Hz-journal.org. Retrieved 2011-06-30.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Krotoski, Aleks (2007-02-07). "Interview with Tetsuya Mizuguchi". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- S2CID 31150829.
- ^ "Salon 21st: This Note's For You". Salon.com. 1997-04-03. Archived from the original on February 17, 2002. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
- ^ Machkovech, Sam (March 7, 2021). "A music video you can play: Indie rock inside the Unity engine". Ars Technica. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
- ^ Lieberman, David 2006. Game Enhanced Music Manuscript. In GRAPHITE '06: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Australasia and South East Asia, ACM Press, Melbourne, Australia, 245 - 250.
External links
Media related to Music video games at Wikimedia Commons