“When Rhythm Heaven was first launched, it opened up a Pandora’s box of musical minigame mania that tipped the weirdness scale with its goofy rhythm challenges and cartoony antics. Tapping out complex rhythms while harvesting beets in the garden or juggling scientific beakers filled with dangerous substances offered some refreshingly oddball ways to get your groove on, and for the series’ console debut, Rhythm Heaven Fever brings even more creative craziness to the table. It’s easily as bizarre as its portable predecessors, and it’s just as challenging. But the ever-rotating array of charming activities keeps the sometimes frustrating difficulty curve at bay long enough for the addictive gameplay and infectious tunes to take hold.”
Check out the full review here at GameSpot.
“In 2007, Ubisoft made a big splash in the handheld music game world with a nifty little program that turned your DS into a fully functioning, virtual acoustic guitar. Jam Sessions was really more of a music making tool than anything else. It turned out to be a lot of fun for gaming musicians who got a kick out of crafting and performing songs on a handheld system, yet some players were left feeling a little lost due to the lack of any solid goals or gameplay in the title. Developer Plato has made a lot of changes for Jam Sessions 2 in an effort to beef up the musical making capabilities of the program while also offering a stronger gaming component to appease the average player who might not be as inclined to dig deeply into the song-crafting toolbox elements.”
“One of Rock Band’s key selling points – and the main thing that initially set it apart from the early Guitar Hero games – was the fact it let you sit around with a few pals, pick up a bunch of plastic instruments, and bash out rock hits as a group. For the series’ portable debut on the PSP, Harmonix has taken things in a completely different direction. Rock Band Unplugged does away with the need for fake instruments, ditches the multiplayer-centric experience that made it so great in the first place, and introduces a new style of play that feels more like a juggling act than rocking out. Sound lame? Surprisingly, it’s not.”
Nathan Meunier - Freelance Writer / Author / Indie Game Developer 