iPhone developer para9’s muBlip ($1.99) was a standout title in this year’s IGF Mobile competition, earning a finalist spot in the Audio Achievement category. The finished product is now available for download from the App Store.
muBlip is a rhythm-based puzzler in which players must match touch-based cues to the beat of a background music track. muBlip demonstrates a series of taps, drags, and holds at the beginning of each segment, and players must duplicate the cues in sequence, all while maintaining a steady rhythm.
muBlip’s excellent ambient music complements the simple geometric visuals, and the result is a unique and enthralling experience. Give it a shot, why don’t you? A brief gameplay video is below.
FaceFighter and Zombie Pizza developer Appy Entertainment branches out into the rhythm genre with its latest App Store release. Tune Runner is a free-to-play action title that automatically generates levels based on the rhythms and melodies of music tracks in your iTunes library.
In each level, an animated boombox runs through an obstacle course consisting of letters, numbers, and geometric shapes. To safely pass through an obstacle, players must draw the approaching object by dragging a finger on the screen. Succeed, and a combo is started. Fail, and a bit of health is lost.
Though Tune Runner includes one default song — an exclusive remix of Angels & Airwaves’ single “Hallucinations” — Appy Entertainment notes that it will not be releasing additional paid content. Appy assures that Tune Runner will remain a free download, and players will always have the option of creating additional levels by importing new music tracks into their iTunes library.
Similar to the release strategy adopted by ngmoco with titles like Eliminate Pro and Touch Pets Dogs, gameplay in Tune Runner is initially limited to ten songs. Players can then complete an advertisement-filled minigame to play more levels, or may purchase additional plays from an in-game store.
Users may purchase the ability to play 40 additional songs for $0.99, or 100 for $1.99. Unlimited tracks and ad-free gameplay can be purchased for $2.99.
Tap Tap Revenge series creator Tapulous has launched Riddim Ribbon ($2.99), a rhythm-infused action title featuring licensed music from The Black Eyed Peas.
Riddim Ribbon challenges players to navigate a twisting, obstacle-filled ribbon by tilting the iPhone’s accelerometer. All hazards, items, and ramps are synced to the beat of a background music track, making for an immersive audio-visual experience in the vein of titles like Vib Ribbon and Audiosurf.
The core version of Riddim Ribbon includes three songs by The Black Eyed Peas, and boasts a total of eight remixed tracks in all. Three additional levels featuring songs by Tiësto and Benny Benassi are available for 99 cents each.
You like Music?
You like Platforms?
You like pink bird-like things?
You like the Jungle?
It’s hard to argue with any of those things! If, like me, you also enjoy all of the above, then Bulkypix suggests that you’ll love its upcoming rhythm-based platformer Maestro! Jump in Music – Green Groove Edition.
Created by French indie developer Pasta Games, Maestro! Jump in Music stars a pink bird-like thing out for a leisurely stroll across a series of floating platforms. Players must “strum” the platforms to the rhythm of a background music track to make the bird jump to collect items and avoid bottomless pits.
Later levels add new rhythmic challenges, including enemies that must be tapped to the beat and platforms that can be rubbed rapidly to play sustained bonus notes.
Maestro! Jump in Music originally debuted for the Nintendo DS in Europe last year, but has yet to see a U.S. release. The iPhone version will launch worldwide at the end of this month for 99 cents. A preview video is below.
Rhythm genre pioneer Konami has launched the latest title in its expansive music games catalog. RhymePlayer ($1.99) challenges players to tap song lyrics in time to the beat of a background music track.
RhymePlayer’s gameplay closely resembles Konami’s iPhone dance game Dance Dance Revolution S. Scrolling lyrics appear at the bottom of the screen and approach a timing line at the top.
Once the appropriate lyric reaches the timing line, players must tap a button at the bottom of the screen to sync the words to the song.
RhymePlayer includes a selection of five officially licensed music tracks:
Bell Biv DeVoe – Poison
The Cover Girls – Show Me
Jackson 5 – ABC
Lady Gaga – Just Dance
Lifehouse – First Time
Konami has a neat concept here, but with only five songs and two difficulty levels, there isn’t much variety or replay incentive. An in-app store offering new songs would be a great addition — here’s hoping that Konami adds one in a future update.
iPhone developer Tapulous announced that its Tap Tap Revenge rhythm franchise generates nearly $1 million in monthly revenue.
Citing data collected by research firm ComScore, Tapulous reports that the Tap Tap Revenge games have been downloaded more than 20 million times since the release of the original Tap Tap Revenge in July of 2008.
While previous Tap Tap Revenge games were free-to-play, Tap Tap Revenge 3, released in October, was the first in the series to be released as a paid download. Tap Tap Revenge 3 features a wide variety of songs from a number of artists, all of which may be purchased for play from an in-app store. Tapulous also earns revenue from in-game advertising in its free releases.
Over 600 million levels of Tap Tap Revenge have been played across all versions to date. Tapulous notes that over 33 percent of iTunes App Store customers have played one of its games.
Developer: Glu Mobile
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Graphics / Sound Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Game Controls Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Gameplay Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
User Interface Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars
There are a ton of music/rhythm games these days, but none quite like Beat It!. Instead of tapping a button while some song plays in the background, Beat It! asks you to reconstruct its tracks from their core instruments. It’s like using a beat machine to solve an audio puzzle. It’s a cool concept that is made even more impressive by the vibrant pixel art theme strewn throughout the app. As the throbbing music builds in complexity, the backgrounds come to life with an ever-increasing array of fanciful characters and animations. When you combine the unique gameplay and art style, you get a game with a very high level of personality and creativity that just can’t be ignored.
Each stage in Beat It! starts with a short musical track that loops a few times for you to listen to. You’re then presented with a 16 column grid that has a row for each instrument in the track. You can lay down a beat simply by picking a square on the grid. You need to correctly place all the beats of the song in order to complete the stage. In order to help you with this task, the grid itself is sectioned into 4 measures. When you place the correct beats in one of the measures for a particular instrument, those beats sparkle accordingly. This gives you an indication of how you are doing, and helps you to tackle the track in smaller chunks. There is a blue line that travels across the screen as well that visually indicates where the looping song is within the track, and you can switch back and forth from the completed song to your work in progress. You can also mute any of the instruments in order to single out particular sounds.
At certain points throughout the stages, one of the rows will light up and give you a limited time to complete it in order to receive a power-up. The two power-ups in the game are Bomb and Lock, and they help you by either removing or filling in random parts of the grid. Once you complete a track, you are given a score based on your time, accuracy, and obtained power-ups. Each stage increases in general complexity and number of instruments, often building on the previous one, and will sometimes page across two screens worth of beats.
Beat It! comes with a total of 50 levels spread across 5 uniquely-themed worlds. These worlds are The City Part 1, Bunnies, Candy Heaven, Glu Office, and The City Part 2, and they come with their own particular instrument sets. As you can imagine from the names alone, each new world is also loaded with their own collection of over-the-top visuals. If you want to create some of your own tracks, Beat It! lets you use any of the unlocked instrument sets and backgrounds in an included Free Play Mode. You can create songs that span up to 8 pages, and record them for future listening.
Since a lot of Beat It! is about listening to and distinguishing layers of sound, you will definitely want to play with headphones as the game itself suggests. Since it is really a must for doing well, the game might not be the best experience for commuters with lots of background noise, etc. Hints will eventually appear in the form of glistening squares, but could maybe be doled out a bit quicker at times, or via a limited use option for when you are frustratingly stuck on a section. Switching between pages can be a bit sluggish as well, and could maybe be sped up by allowing you to skip looping through the entire track when you just want to hear a specific page.
The Free Play mode is also barebones at this point, and is an obvious future avenue for user-created levels. Glu Mobile has already indicated a desire to provide such a collaborative experience in an eventual update, and have shared some mock-ups with the user community regarding an area to listen, play, rate, and delete shared content. This would be a great boon for the app, and would really make it an elite title. Besides user-created levels, more official worlds, levels, and instrument sets would be great as well, even as a paid download.
Beat It! is ultimately a treat for the eyes and ears. The marriage of pixel art and beat machine is a match made in heaven, and brings some welcome innovation to the rhythm game genre. The whole experience feels fresh from the start, and has great potential to evolve into even more. If the concept of the games sounds at all intriguing, grab your headphones and proceed to download. Beat It! may not be the best game you play this year, but it will definitely be one of the coolest.
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Each stage in Beat It! starts with a short musical track that loops a few times for you to listen to. You’re then presented with a 16 column grid that has a row for each instrument in the track. You can lay down a beat simply by picking a square on the grid. You need to correctly place all the beats of the song in order to complete the stage. In order to help you with this task, the grid itself is sectioned into 4 measures. When you place the correct beats in one of the measures for a particular instrument, those beats sparkle accordingly. This gives you an indication of how you are doing, and helps you to tackle the track in smaller chunks. There is a blue line that travels across the screen as well that visually indicates where the looping song is within the track, and you can switch back and forth from the completed song to your work in progress. You can also mute any of the instruments in order to single out particular sounds.
Beat It! comes with a total of 50 levels spread across 5 uniquely-themed worlds. These worlds are The City Part 1, Bunnies, Candy Heaven, Glu Office, and The City Part 2, and they come with their own particular instrument sets. As you can imagine from the names alone, each new world is also loaded with their own collection of over-the-top visuals. If you want to create some of your own tracks, Beat It! lets you use any of the unlocked instrument sets and backgrounds in an included Free Play Mode. You can create songs that span up to 8 pages, and record them for future listening.