Video Games, Music and DK Jungle Beat

Posted By: Shagz
Date:

A short missive and look back at one of my favourite games on the GC, Donkey Kong Jungle Beat by Boing Boing's video game site, Off World. Author Margaret Robertson makes an interesting (and strangely obvious, once you hear it) comparison between games and musical instruments, code and orchestral scores, players and, well, players.

I contest that Harmonix knew all along what they were doing when they made Guitar Hero, that they made the explicit connection between musical rhythm and game rhythm. I think they just transferred Dance Dance Revolution onto a fret board.

What I'd like to see is more games like Jungle Beat, where a musical instrument control device is used to play something other than a musical simulation game. Imagine a House of the Dead rails shooter controlled by guitar, or an RTS played on a 32-note keyboard?

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