Rythm based games are very popular in Japan. They often can be found in arcades and are the most fun when played together. Rhythm games come in many forms, like pressing buttons to the beat, drumming a drum to the beat or dancing by tapping arrows with your feet.
The origin of these games can be found in the Japanese arcades in the 70’s, but it isn’t until the late 90’s before these games truly blew up in popularity. Here’s the top 5 of the most popular rhythm based games from Japan.
PaRappa the Rapper
PaRappa The Rapper, released on the PS1, was the first rhythm game to succeed in establishing the genre and many rhythm games that followed took inspiration from it. Not only that, but its characters, unique (paper thin) art style and songs have become iconic and well-known around video-game media.
PaRappa the Rapper is a rhythm game in which the main character, PaRappa, must make his way through each of the game’s six stages by rapping. As the teacher raps, a bar at the top of the screen will appear, showing symbols that match up to the teacher’s lyrics. The player must then make Parappa rap in response to the teacher by pressing the buttons with the correct timing to match the teacher’s line.
Taiko no Tatsujin
Taiko no Tatsujin is a series of rhythm video games created by Bandai Namco Entertainment. In the games, players simulate playing a Taiko drum in time with music. The series started in 2001 with the release of the first title, Taiko no Tatsujin; and along these 20 years the developers have been publishing more than 20 games, including the last one, Taiko no Tatsujin: Nijiiro Version in 2020.
The main objective of Taiko no Tatsujin games is to hit a simulated Taiko drum following a chosen piece of music, corresponding to notes[b] scrolling from the right. A song is cleared when the spirit gauge is filled past the target[d] by
playing accurately enough.
Arcade releases are equipped with simulated Taiko, which can register hits when played with drum sticks (bachi). Console versions mainly uses buttons to play, while certain devices can support additional methods of input: A virtual Taiko drum
is provided on devices with touchscreens (DS, 3DS, Wii U, iPod touch, smartphone, Nintendo Switch), played with either styluses or fingers.
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA is a Japanese music/rhythm game series developed by SEGA and Crypton Future Media. Since 2009, it was widely acclaimed as one of SEGA’s most successful game franchises in Japan, leading sequels, spin-offs, and even a popular Japanese arcade title. This video game series stars virtual singer Hatsune Miku who was released on 31 August 2007 for the VOCALOID2 synthesizer engine and has led to become one of the biggest singers ever since.
Gameplay is similar to that of other rhythm games, in which players must press a series of buttons according to the sequence on the screen. The game primarily makes use of the 4 main symbols, cross, circle, square and triangle, which are the face buttons for the PlayStation controllers. Various floating gray buttons of those symbols will appear on the screen, and the colored version of those symbols will begin to float in from the various sides of the screen. The player is required to press the face button once the colored symbol lands on its grayed version and based on the player’s timing their accuracy is rated. Accuracy is described with a word displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen, ranging from “Cool” to “Miss”.
Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution (ダンスダンスレボリューション, Dansu Dansu Reboryūshon) (DDR), also known as Dancing Stage in earlier European games, is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, Dance Dance Revolution is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance genre in video games. Players stand on a “dance platform” or stage and hit colored arrows laid out in a cross with their feet to musical and visual cues. Players are judged by how well they time their dance to the patterns presented to them and are allowed to choose more music to play to if they receive a passing score.
The core gameplay involves the player stepping their feet to correspond with the arrows that appear on the screen and the beat. During normal gameplay, arrows scroll upwards from the bottom of the screen and pass over a set of stationary arrows near the top (referred to as the “guide arrows” or “receptors”, officially known as the Step Zone). When the scrolling
arrows overlap the stationary ones, the player must step on the corresponding arrows on the dance platform, and the player has been given a judgment for their accuracy of every streaked note (From highest to lowest: Marvelous, Perfect, Great, Good, Almost, Miss).
Beat Mania
Beatmania (ビートマニア) (styled as beatmania) is a rhythm video game developed and distributed by Japanese game developer Konami and first released in December 1997. It contributed largely to the boom of music games in 1998, and the series expanded not only with arcade sequels, but also moved to home consoles and other portable devices, achieving a million unit sales.[1] The Bemani line of music games from Konami is named after the series, was first adopted in the arcade release of Beatmania 3rdMix and kept ever since. The series came to an end with the last game being Beatmania The Final, released in 2002.
The player is a club DJ who must manipulate the controls according to the instructions on the screen to win the praise of the audience. Each game consists of a set number of songs of various difficulties, and each song must attain a certain degree of satisfaction from the audience in order to progress to the next.
Swing to the beat to beat all your friends in these fun rhythm games…GLHF
