Once "Guitar Freaks" and "Guitar Hero" established the basic interface for music sims, there was a natural extension to bass and drums, but one reason hip-hop games haven't caught on, a "Scratch: The Ultimate DJ" designer told me, is because hip-hop doesn't naturally lend itself to gameplay.
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The popularity of "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" means consumers have certain expectation for how to play a guitar or drum game. That expectation doesn't exist for hip-hop music, but we'll see two games this year, "Scratch: The Ultimate DJ" and the now-confirmed "DJ Hero" try to create one.
"Musically speaking, translating hip-hop into compelling gameplay is a lot less straightforward than rock or electronica," explained "Scratch" creative lead Dan Lehrich in a recent e-mail interview with MTV Multiplayer. "And, unfortunately, hip-hop can be scary to people that hear 1 gangsta rap song and decide that is the only thing that hip-hop can be. But I know that there is so much more to hip-hop than that… And I know there is compelling gameplay in hip-hop music if you know how to tackle it."
Music games have largely been based around eletronic and rock music, from "Beatmania" to Harmonix's pre-"Guitar Hero" offerings like "Frequency" and "Amplitude." Outside of Eidos Interactive's panned "Karaoke Revolution" take on hip-hop, "Get On Da Mic," the genre has remained absent from games.
"Rock has been around for what – 50, 60 years?," said Lehrich. "So everyone knows it and almost everyone loves some of it and it really transcends age and cultural boundaries. And on top of that, most rock songs come with natural, built-in gameplay. Every band member has a prominent and clearly defined role, and the music has verses, choruses, bridges, and solos – built in variety and tension & release."
"I think our contribution is a music game that’s actually about making music, not just repeating it"
With "Rock Band 2," Harmonix introduced a "no fail" mode to the game, an optional toggle that prevented players from actually failing the song, no matter how poor their performance. Fundamental to most music games is the concept of failure and largely stay away from musical freestyle. Though Lehrich can't explain the specifics, he said "Scratch" won't work that way.
"I think our contribution is a music game that’s actually about making music, not just repeating it," he claims. "When you break it down, all these rhythm games are really just glorified games of Simon Says – you have to do exactly what they tell you to do at all times and nothing else or else you fail. But there’s so much joy in music making – jamming, experimenting, putting sounds together and just seeing what happens – that those games just can’t capture. So what we want to do is introduce those activities to people and allow them to get creative and improvise in an accessible and fun way."
We've seen screens that give us an idea what "Scratch" will look like, and it won't be long before we play it, but for the time being, we -- and gamers -- have to base expectations on Lehrich's word alone. What do you think so far?
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