Musical game commentary

Sure wish I could’ve been at DICE last week considering who’s speaking at it. For those who don’t know (which probably means all of you), I’m a huge fan of both Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Masaya Matsuura (my other two favs being Fumito Ueda and Suda51).

But Matsuura, who used his own original compositions for PaRappa, expressed concern about the Guitar Hero model, in which music gamemakers license hit songs, then build their games around them.

I think this is already much better than it currently is with most non-music games where the music is largely tacked on at the end. Also I think this model, while perhaps not ideal for innovation in the musical game genre; provides like well needed stimulus to the music industry in general (although the health of the “music industry” is a topic for another discussion entirely)…

This comment however:

Matsuura suggested that Harmonix allow players to “make their own game course with their own track, and share it with each other, or sell it to each other.”

I found a wee bit on the odd side since Harmonix’ earlier titles like Frequency and Amplitude did a far better job of that. Granted both used licensed music, they both still offered modes where you could still generate your own music from gameplay as well. I also found Mizuguchi’s take on this intersting as well:

Mizuguchi, creator of acclaimed music games Rez and Lumines, said that there are pros and cons to using licensed music. By writing original music for a game, he said, “we can make the sound and music fit the game design. But nobody knows this original music.”

With Lumines 2, Mizuguchi licensed tracks from groups like the Black Eyed Peas and Fatboy Slim, which helped draw in gamers who wanted to play his game with familiar musical tracks.

Personally while Lumines II I think was the better game in terms of mechanics and gameplay options, I found the music of the original far more interesting, unique and memorable. In fact with some of the levels basically being like a live music video in the backround, I found it rather distracting compared to the more subtle graphics of the original.