Best Music Game: Rhythm Heaven (DS)
Rhythm Heaven is the sequel to the Japan-only game, Rhythm Tengoku. Tengoku was an exercise in musical brilliance, tying together simple game mechanics with vibrant and eclectic artwork to create a memorable experience. Unfortunately, Rhythm Tengoku came at the tail end of the Game Boy Advance’s life and never saw wide release in any other territories. Thanksfully the same fate will not await its sequel since Rhythm Heaven already guaranteed to be localized in 2009 for American audiences. Few music games bring out more pure joy in combining these non-sequiter images to catchy tunes, whether you’re helping a chemist find her true love through shaking beakers to helping a monkey clap to a music idol.
2nd Best Music Game: Audiosurf (PC)
Audiosurf is a wonderful success on two levels. First off, before Braid and World of Goo, Audiosurf was the indie game for 2008. With its near-perfect timing of its IGF awards combined with its Steam release Audiosurf reached levels of success most indie games would merely dream about. And second, its goal of dynamically generating a track from just about any piece of music was ridiculously ambitious. And yet it wonderfully works. It doesn’t matter if you put in Pink, Michael Jackson, or Sigur Ros. That’s not to say Audiosurf is perfect. But when you’re perfectly zoned in as you’re zooming downhill in Ninja Mono, there were few experiences this year that came close to touching the pure essence of games.
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