Frequency

"More addictive than crack and flashier than a thousand Wipeouts."

At first I had my reservations about this game. I tried the whole Parappa/DDR thing a few years back and was unimpressed. But the thing that really attracted me to this game was the bevy of songs by some of my favorite artists including, yes, Meat Beat Manifesto (perhaps there is a god!) and even metal superstars like Fear Factory and (blah) PM5K. In short there's some sort of music for just about everyone from hip hop to metal to synth pop to alternative to trance. The music is simply amazing.

Game Mode:
Well ok, usually music is just icing on the cake, so why is it so important that the music kicketh butt in this particular game? Because you really get INSIDE the music, you cruise down this tunnel and have to ''capture'' beats or notes by pressing square, triangle, and circle in the right sequence at JUST the right time. Pretty standard fare for a rhythm game but it gets more complex. You earn points depending on how few mistakes you make, and once you clear a certain sequence it gets locked in and starts looping, forcing you to move onto another track. You get bonus points if you can move from one track to another without missing a beat, and there's also little helper tools. Its just too sweet, it really is. My only complaint here is that in the later levels and higher difficulty the songs are damn near impossible for a rhythm game newbie like myself, and for a game that seems to make itself accessible to the masses dispite its niche existence this is a no-no.

Remix Mode:
Almost formless, you get the chance to go through the pipe much like the game mode only there's no push to do anything, you put in whatever pattern you like. This is where i spent most of my time since I'm a musician myself, and it makes it just a pure joy to gently remix some of these great tunes. What I'm waiting for is some contest by Harmonix to see who did the best remixes. I know I'd win :D

I think this is the type of game most people would think ''oh, that looks kinda different, maybe i'll rent it'' and its a fantastic rental game cuz you'll be glued to your ps2 the whole weekend, but i bought it and i have no regrets cuz i'm still playing it constantly. Its that addictive. Rhythm game fans absolutely must buy this, and puzzlers will certainly have fun too, but i'm neither and i'm addicted too. What of that? Well it packs the adrenaline rush of a racing game and the first time i played it it brought me back to those good ol' days when i first played Wipeout XL.
Everyone should play this and i'm confident that most that do will end up buying it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/03/01, Updated 12/03/01