Almost every video game contains music. It’s a powerful combination as the soundtrack allows the developer to set the tone of the game and allow the player to pick up audible queues as to what’s going on. That’s why you’ll find music featured heavily in the crowded slot game market, for example. Online casinos often offer bonuses to new players when they sign up, but having games with a killer soundtrack can help gain them that extra advantage in a crowded sector.
Of course, it’s not just slots games that have great music. Even from its early 2D releases, Grand Theft Auto has featured a mix of tracks that you can bop along to while you drive around the streets.
Doom is also widely regarded as having one of the best soundtracks thanks to the developer’s choice of high-tempo metal tracks that complement your monster-shooting objectives.
But in all of these examples, the music was there to accompany the main elements of gameplay. It provides ambience to make the title feel more complete and polished.
However, there are some games that are entirely based around music. The main functionality is to make music, sing along, or dance in some way.
Some have become cult classics, spawning several sequels and building a sizable following. What are the biggest best ones? Let’s take a look.
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution is a series of video games that are, as its name suggests, based on dancing to music. The first was created back in 1998 and released to the Japanese market by Konami.
It helped to spawn an entirely new category of video game, requiring players to interact with their feet rather than their fingers.
Essentially, players are required to dance, though they’re not given permission to simply freestyle. Instead, they must stand on a mat that has different sections laid out in a cross formation.
After selecting a song, the player is then shown a series of directions on the screen and is required to place their feet on the corresponding portion of the cross on the mat.
The sequence of movements is unique for each track rather than simply being generic, producing variety and, effectively, creating the sense that the player is dancing to the music.
There have been many copycats that took the idea from Dance Dance Revolution and added their own tracks and dance sequences. However, none have managed to sustain their popularity over more than two decades.
Dance Dance Revolution has been available on just about every console that has been released since the first version of the game was came out, including the Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Modified versions that use different mechanics have also found their way onto smartphones and the Nintendo Wii.
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero takes the concept of pressing controller buttons to music and turns it on its head. As its name suggests, it is based around guitar music, like rock songs.
The original game came with a guitar-shaped controller with a series of buttons that corresponded with the coloured inputs on the standard console handset.
In a similar way to Dance Dance Revolution, players would then be shown a series of instructions on the screen that corresponded with the song. They’d have to hit the buttons on the guitar to match what they saw on the screen.
The different songs came with varying degrees of difficulty, with some being all-but impossible to anyone not prepared to dedicate hours to mastering the game.
The most difficult of all was in Guitar Hero 3, where players who attempted Dragonforce’s hit Through the Fire and Flames would be sent into a finger-smashing frenzy for almost eight minutes.
Like Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero spawned many sequels and inspired a number of copycat games. However, it has been unable to match the longevity of the Japanese dance title.
Beat Saber
Beat Saber is one of the most recent additions to the music video game genre.
It works differently to the others we’ve already discussed because it’s played inside a virtual reality environment. This means there are no buttons to press and, instead, players interact with the music by waving their arms around.
Holding the two controllers, players must slice through differently-coloured boxes in the direction prescribed to them. Higher difficulty levels also require movement to dodge large objects and for players to follow a certain path from one box to the next to unlock extra points.
Beat Saber is one of the best-selling VR titles ever made, thanks to its simplicity and the fact that it offers players a free demo version.
But that alone wouldn’t be enough to make it so successful. Beat Saber’s novel take on the traditional dancing game, mix of different tracks, social elements, and continually expanding library of music, all combine to make it one of the best music games of all time.
SingStar
While the other games focus on movement, SingStar does things differently. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004, SingStar is a karaoke game that challenges players to hit the right notes as they sing along to their favourite tracks.
It was designed for playing at a party or in a group, rather than alone, though budding pop stars could also enjoy solo play.
The game came with two microphones that connected to the console, allowing the game to hear what (and how well) the players were singing.
Across the long list of releases, players had access to a diverse library of tracks covering almost every imaginable genre.
Following the success of the other music games, Sony decided to augment its singing game with dancing and guitar playing (like Guitar Hero).
To track the dancing, players would connect a camera to their console and need to follow the directions in addition to singing.
Unlike the others, however, SingStar is no longer available with no new releases since 2017. The games’ online functionality was also switched off in 2020, meaning only offline modes remain available for those that still own the game and microphones.
It is a shame, as it was a great addition to parties by including a competitive element to an already popular group activity.
