Penguins and teddy bears skating around with hoola hoops to make music. Huh?
User Rating: 8.4 | Technic Beat PS2
To my knowledge, Technic Beat is the only music game where spacial positioning is just as important as timing(not counting the directional element of Gitaroo Man), which adds an interesting element and level of depth not found in most music games. In Technic Beat, your character actually has to skate around the stage to a series of markers that look like hoola hoops and activate it when an inner ring reaches the outer ring. Increasing levels of difficulty has the markers popping up more frequently and with very small time differences between them. Each character has different special actions, but they all involve moving the markers around, which is often necessary for setting up chains or activating markers that are spaced far apart but are timed the same. Each character also has a special panic button, but these are limited. There are also different types of markers for even more challenge, such as multihit markers that require you to activate it more than once, or a string of markers connected together. This game also has mixup elements that allow you to play a song slightly different each time. You can echo a note or bend its pitch. Hitting a string of markers in different spots also produces different effects, either as several notes going in one direction in the orchestration, or going in the opposite direction, or just one or two notes of the sequence. You can also choose to play the notes in a sequence, or touch several markers at the same time and produce a chord. And while you're busy making music, you're also rewarded with dazzling sparks and effects for good timing. Musically, this game is top notch. There are way too many jungle and trance songs for my taste, but the repertoire of the game is well rounded, and there are many bouncy classic Namco songs, such as a song dedicated to Pac Man. The songs in this game are just as varied, and possibly even more fun to listen to, than the songs in DDR. Like all music games, this one doesn't have a lot to offer to mainstream gamers beyond just making music. There is only the arcade game, multiplayer, free play, and sudden death, where you keep going until you make a mistake. But the library of songs is huge, and you unlock more as you play along. You also get rewarded with pictures as you go along. To sum it up, if you love the music and rhythm genre, Technic Beat is definitely a look. 
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