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The greatest music and rhythm-based videogames

by Steven Williamson on 22 July 2008, 11:41

Tags: Sony Computers Entertainment Europe (NYSE:SNE), PS3

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We've thought long and hard and now we've made up our minds on the 10 greatest music and rhythm-based games to have ever graced our consoles.

Without further do...and starting at number 10:

10. Music 2000: Music Creation

The original European version of Jester's music making sequel to Music -- it was later converted to become MTV Music Generator in America.

Music 2000 was essentially a music studio with a comprehensive database of samples and an easy to use interface that meant that even non-musical folk could easily experiment and put together a few great tunes.

The greatest feature in Music 2000 though, was that you weren’t confined to just using the samples on the disc, you could also cut your own samples from CDs in your own collection.

Although creating a simple track was easy, the studio had a great deal of depth to it, meaning that musical-minded users could really create some amazing tunes.

Music 200 isn't as good as many PC mixing studios out there, but on console, it was the best available.



9. Amplitude

Quite simply,in Amplitude, you needed to trigger drum, bass, vocal, and guitar tracks by tapping the control pad in time to rhythm. In return for your efforts you're treated to an amazing light-show to accompany your musical stylings.

It’s no real surprise that the developer of Amplitude, Harmonix went on to create one of the biggest selling music franchises of all time, Guitar Hero. In 2003, the developer was already showing that it had got to grips with the genre with a sequel to its previous rhythm-based game, Frequency. In Amplitude on Playstation 2, Harmoix stepped it up a notch with a graphical makeover and a brilliant soundtrack boasting a broad range of music from David Bowie to Weezer.

You could also play Amplitude online, thanks to Sony's online PS2 adapter.