In the first scene, set in present-day Paris, Fryderyk Chopin climbs out of his grave, speaks with the Muses, and rap-battles a French DJ with dual-wield keyboards and a jetpack. After this, he rides a horse-and-carriage to Jamaica and gets high with a reggae artist named Rob. Amazing.

As he travels the world in his mystic carriage trying to unravel the circumstances of his undeath, Chopin runs through a series of musical duels with local artists. Mechanically, this translates into a rudimentary version of Piano Hero: notes travel on a track toward a touch-screen piano keys, and players are scored on their accuracy and combo streak.

The songs in Resurrection are modern remixes of Chopin's most famous waltzes, nocturnes, études, and marzukas, re-imagined in the style of whichever locale our hero finds himself: country in Texas, Celtic dance in Ireland, chiptunes in Tokyo. I actually like most of the music -- the Resurrection soundtrack is available for purchase on iTunes [$5.99] -- but they all tend to suffer from repetitive melody and relatively simple arrangements. Still, the lighthearted pop remixes fit into the game's absurdist aesthetic much better than an orchestral score would.

With only nine songs, Resurrection is relatively short, though some players might be able to extend its shelf-life by trying to improve their scores. But even on its hardest difficulty, at its most complex, Resurrection goes out of its way to indulge and empower the player, not defeat them with impossible challenges.

Like Climber Brothers [$0.99], the real joy of Resurrection is the one-to-one relationship between tactile input and feedback: tapping the screen of my iPad is more or less a reasonable facsimile of pressing down a physical key. This is a relatively simple pleasure, but Resurrection goes to great lengths to extend it by being overly-generous  in its design -- players have a relatively large window to hit notes in, and it's almost impossible to miss enough notes to fail a song. The goal here is to listen to the music and soak up the strange animations going on in the background.

Since failure -- and, by extension, most of the game mechanics -- is largely an illusion, Resurrection's real hook is its insane premise and matching art direction. In both its art direction and treatment of ethnic stereotypes, Resurrection draws on the bande dessinée style of mid-80s Lucky Luke. The voice acting, too, is hard to place: British English re-routed through Forever Entertainment's Polish roots.

But Resurrection's essential Europeanness isn't limited to animation and cut scenes, and this isn't a game so much as it is a rewriting of Chopin's cultural identity. During the Cadet Revolution in 1830 Chopin, the son of a Franco-Polish immigrant, fled Warsaw for Paris, never to return. Resurrection ultimately leads him back to a culturally reinvigorated Warsaw, but only after he uses his musical gifts to destroy the stereotyped, corporate shills that populate the rest of the world. Chopin is cast as the savior of music, but it's odd that he uses modern remixes, not his traditional compositions, to further his cause.

By fudging its rhythm mechanics, Frederic -- Resurrection of Music actually presents itself as more of an interactive cartoon than a game. But when viewed as such, Resurrection often comes off muddled and directionless and, even at the end of the game, it's not clear why Chopin was resurrected, who he's "saving" music from, or if he really succeeded.

Nevertheless, Resurrection is a bold product, unafraid to be campy, kitschy, and surreal, and presented as a labor of love from a team full of ideas. This game is larger than the sum of its parts and everyone I've showed it to has enjoyed basking in the art and music and in the fact that Frederic Chopin uses his second chance at life to smoke dope on the beach and learn the keytar.

Cytus plays similarly to Elite Beat Agents – note bubbles appear on your screen and must be tapped to the rhythm of the song. An ‘Active Scan Line’ moves up and down the screen to the beat of the song and helps you time the hits on each note. In addition to normal notes, the game also features holds and slides which add some variety to the gameplay. Hits are scored on a system ranging from ‘Perfect’ to ‘Bad’ with a final ranking at song completion dependent on the length of your hit chain and the amount perfect hits.

As you can imagine, the gameplay is pretty simple, but well executed. While the note positioning is mostly done well, there were a few songs where the notes seemed slightly off or not in tune with either the beat or off-beat. There weren’t too many instances of this, but it was still annoying nonetheless.

Where Cytus really shines is in its music selection and presentation. Song-wise, players can choose from 15 songs ranging from J-Pop to Techno with a little bit of Synthpop thrown into the mix. The song selection is very much Bemani-inspired and should sound familiar to anyone that has played those types of games before.

While I imagine some gamers may immediately scoff at the music genres I just listed, I’d plead with you to give it a chance. One of the things I loved about each song in Cytus is the approachability regardless of whether you’re a fan of that sort of music. It’s not very often that I play through a music game and I pretty much like every single song that’s thrown at me, which should speak volumes of the care put into the selection in this game. Just make sure you play with some headphones in order to do the music justice.

The overall presentation, meanwhile, is one of the more striking aspects of Cytus. Everything has a very clean, minimalistic feel accompanied with some beautiful artwork. It’s hard to explain what in particular is so appealing – maybe it’s because the whole game looks like a modern Final Fantasy-menu. Also included is Game Center support as well as social network integration. There were a few instances where the interface was a little too bare (for example, the tutorial fails to explain the various pop-up mode options), but otherwise I came away impressed.

While Cytus gets a lot of things right, there are a few elements missing that are typically standard in most music games. For example, there’s no ‘life meter’ in Cytus, meaning that you could just simply launch a song, not do anything and still see the level through (technically, you ‘Fail’ the level, but you don’t know until after the song ends). Granted, you actually have to get a ranking higher than the minimum in order to unlock the ‘Hard’ difficulty and new songs, but some of the fun with music games is working under the pressure of an all-powerful meter judging your performance (or maybe I’m just a masochist).

Another weakness in Cytus is in regards to the hit detection. Basically, the hit window is relatively loose, meaning that you have a wide margin of error between what is considered a ‘Perfect’ tap and what is considered merely a ‘Good’ hit (or between ‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ for that matter). While some folks wouldn’t necessarily consider this a bad thing it does decrease the overall challenge, particularly for those of us that are veterans of music games that were rather unforgiving.

Despite these omissions, Cytus still does a great job executing the features it does have. Considering its relative minimalism, I think Cytus is a good title for gamers looking to get into the music genre on iOS devices. I would have liked to have seen more songs, but I’m hoping the developers will add more in the future. Regardless, with a great selection of music, simple but well-executed gameplay, and a good, clean overall presentation, Cytus is well worth a recommendation for anyone interested in rhythm games.

We aren't the only dudes digging Beat Sneak, by the way. It's up for Best Mobile Game in the IGF awards, and has received honorable mentions in Excellence in Visual Art, as well as Excellence in Audio. Not too shabby, eh? Then again, this is the studio behind Bumpy Road [$2.99]. So awesome.

This purity of design might become something of a hallmark for the Swedish company. I've just spent some time with its upcoming title, Beat Sneak Bandit. It's as artful and as delightfully cutesy as Bumpy Road, and it boasts another kind of one-touch control that feels just as satisfying. Color me impressed.

Beat Sneak is a little abstract conceptually. I've started to think about it like this: it is what would happen if Kojima decided to marry 2D Metal Gear Solid to Grove Coaster [$.99], and knock out all of the former series' fat in the process.

In Beat Sneak, you control a bandit (duh) on a 2D plane in tightly constructed, object--filled vertical levels. Your goal is pretty basic: steal a huge clock without security systems or people detecting your presence.

What makes this interesting is the injection of puzzle mechanics and the game's unusual control method. You move lockstep, but only if you tap correctly to the level's beat. If you played Groove Coaster, imagine a scenario in which you were only able to access the next note if you correctly hit the previous one. This is how you move in the world.

Moving is simple, but devilish in practice: in addition to having to keep the beat, you'll need to avoid pitfalls -- sliding doors, strobing searchlights and other kinds of bandit-catching obstacles. In the game's first chapter, a lot of the mainline puzzle solutions can be boiled down to knowing when to wait for an opportunity to open. This is roughly the equivalent of resuming a Rock Band song midway through, so it ain't easy.

Another thing: there are other, smaller clocks in levels. If you're into optionals, you can grab these, too, but they require serious thought. You'll need to observe movement patterns at every turn, evaluate the best way to turn Beat Sneak the Character around, and then get him back to the main prize -- all without being caught.

In my demo session, I played through the entirety of the first chapter in the game and that took around 30 minutes. I failed a lot because I'm no music game master, but I also failed because the optional clocks are flat-out hard to obtain. I also noticed while I was doing all this failing, by the way, that there is a baby mode "skip" option that'll whisk you away into the next level with no penalty. Not even a tutu.

I think the biggest challenge facing Simogo is keeping players feeling the groove and in the moment as they ponder and then experiment with the environment. Music games are odd beasts in general, as the experience tends to snowball into an icky mess if you fumble the timing of a song.

Speaking of that, Beat Sneak's quirky music is fantastic. I also dig how the entire game seems to revolve around the beats and the general offbeat tone. In the trailer, you'll see how the bubbly world bobs and weaves with the music.

I'm overwhelmed by this idea. Conceptually, Beat Sneak is cool, and the execution on the remarkably pure concept seems to be panning out extremely well. We'll get our hands on a final version a little later this quarter when the game hits iOS.

Oh! And in the spirit of the holidays, Groove Coaster, Space Invaders Infinity Gene [$2.99], and Cooking Momma [$3.99], have gone on sale for a "limited time" -- or until the iTunes freeze clears we're presuming.

In Beat Sneak, you'll play as the Beat Sneak Bandit as he reclaims all the clocks Baron Von Clockface has stolen and tucked away in his curious mansion. You'll move, er, sneak by pressing a finger to the screen in beat with the game's oddball music. The wrinkle here is that you'll also need time your timing in order to avoid roving guards or other things that can spot you and end your home invasion.

Simogo is one of the most creative App Store developers out there, so we're definitely stoked to give Beat Sneak Bandit a go. In fact, we've been talking with Simogo and it seems like we'll be able to give you a pretty good taste of what's to come in the very near future.

Oh! Speaking of the future, Beat Sneak Bandit will release at some point in early 2012 for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

[Via IGN]

Taito has also added “new album versions” of Play Merrily, Not Get Wish, and Breach of Faith in this update. Neat!

I’m not the kind of guy who usually gets into rhythm games, but Groove Coaster's crazy level progression system and with its insane visual style and direction hits just the right notes for me. Plus, the music isn’t so bad. I heartily recommend you check it out, or at least, read our review.

[Via GamePro]

It happened for me on the PC with Magicka’s brilliantly funny video campaign earlier this year, and when I saw the trailer for Radballs [$2.99] a gigantic smile spread across my face. I knew that if the execution of the gameplay was even half as clever as Glow Play’s promotional efforts that I’d have a pretty wicked time on my hands. Now that the game is out? Well, I shan’t mince words any longer; my expectations were both met and exceeded.

Radballs is first and foremost (for me) an 80's retro lovefest. Don’t confuse my meaning here; I’m not talking 8-bit sprites but rather the type of art style that screams Breakin’. The colors, the patterns, and entire aesthetic are simply spot on nailed. As a gamer raised in the 80's, I found myself awash in memories of parachute pants, Z Cavariccis, Hypercolor t-shirts, Front 242, KMFDM, Ministry, New Order, and adolescent shame grown fuzzy over time.

The music for the game is fantastic, and kudos to Neil Voss’ (New Tetris, Tetrisphere) work producing the soundtrack. I know I just mentioned a bunch of new wave and industrial bands, but that's not what this game is about. It’s a mix of original electro tunes, tracks from lesser known artists but excellent dudes like Daze and Com Truise, and even some remixes of a few songs by Ok Go. Despite being from contemporary musicians, the electro/synth angle on all the tracks complements the games 80's vibe, dare I say, to the max?

Honestly, the phrase “match-3” has such a stigma on it now that it’s hardly fair to use it for fear that you will turn people off before they’ve given a game a fair shake. But, that’s the inspiration for Radballs’ gameplay. Instead of lining up 3 Radballs, the goal is to build at least a 2x2 formation that then fuses into a MegaRadball. You can add additional Radballs to the formation to increase the size. The larger the MegaRadball is when it is cleared from the board, the more radness gets added to your meter. I’ll come back to the meter in a bit.

The way music is integrated into the game mechanics is simple and elegant. Timed to the beat of whatever track is playing, a wave will periodically travel down the screen and clear any formed MegaRadballs it passes over. The cool mechanic here is that you can directly manipulate the wave. Touch the wave and flick it back upwards, and you can buy yourself more time to build larger/more MegaRadballs to increase your bonus.

Even more tubular, however, is the fact that you can grab the wave and scratch it back and forth over a MegaRadball to charge it up for extra radness. Manipulating the wave directly affects the music as if you were scratching or cutting on a record. It’s this integration of the auditory experience driving the gameplay and vice versa that transforms what might otherwise be horribly vanilla into something unique and outstanding.

Now, back to the radness meter. Radballs handles its difficulty curve better than almost any game I’ve ever seen on the App Store. The game is not over when your screen fills with Radballs, it just gives you more material for matching. The only way you can lose is if your radness meter depletes over time. As you progress through the different levels, the meter depletes faster. This requires you to employ more advanced tactics and learn to effectively use the few available power-ups to be successful.

For example, setting up a cascade where a MegaRadball being cleared results in another fusing together creates additional radness. Even though it took me some time to get the hang of setting up those complex formations in advance, if the meter ever started running low, I could buy myself just enough time on the radness meter to keep from losing by relying on the techniques I’d already mastered.

So, while the game forces you to get better, you aren’t punished as you’re learning. The skills you’ve practiced will keep you alive enough to evolve your strategy as the game ramps up. This makes for a smooth and enjoyable ride throughout the course of the game, and eliminates the ragequit factor so prevalent in titles where time is a factor. This gives Radballs a bump up in the “just one more round” category.

Contributing to the game’s longevity are two important features. Going to the settings on any level will allow you to switch from arcade mode (which ends when you clear 8 radness meters) to an endless mode that only stops when your meter depletes. This is perfect for when you just want to zone out to the music; pick a difficulty level that works for your chilling out needs and then just kick back and get rad.

Taking nothing away from the stellar soundtrack that comes included with Radballs, the music for any game gets old over time. Glow Play’s masterstroke here was to build in the ability for players to use their own music tracks. Following the trail blazed by games like Audiosurf and Beat Hazard, this feature takes your songs and synchronizes the beat wave accordingly. You aren’t just listening to your music – you’re playing to it. Scratching with the beat wave has the same effect on imported tracks as native ones, making for some fun emergent experiences with songs you know and love.

Add tight and responsive touch controls to a list that includes fabulous art design, awesome music, a new twist on an old mechanic, and the ability to bring in your own tracks and you end up with an experience easily worth your time and money. Oh, did I mention it’s universal? Well, it is, and I highly recommend it. Your friends and peers in the forums already know what the score is. Fire up a John Hughes flick and download it when you get a chance.

"It will actually be our first iOS release as a studio, coming out relatively soon," Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said in the interview. "I can't say anything yet about what it is, but in parallel with all these huge console game productions we have underway, we're commencing our first iOS development project."

These are screens from Rock Band, FYI.

Harmonix has been responsible for, or in part responsible for, a couple of App Store games. Naturally, it helped create Rock Band [$4.99] for iOS, but it’s also the studio behind the Guitar Hero-like click-wheel game, Phase for the iPod. I suppose the distinction Rigopulos is making is that this is the first in-house title completely made by the studio? Something like that.

Provided VidRhythm does appear soon, it will be among the first projects the studio has put out since regaining its independent status. Viacom, who picked up the studio in 2006, dumped the studio in 2010 after the release of, roughly, eight billion Rock Band titles not named Rock Band: KMFDM.

Another Dance Central and several other titles are in the works at Harmonix in addition to this iOS app / game.

[Via Gamasutra]

The premise of Say What?! is simple: as lyrics to a song are displayed at the top of the screen various images scroll across the bottom portion from right to left. When portions of the lyrics light up, you must tap on the image that corresponds to the highlighted lyric.

On easier difficulties the relationship between image and lyric is simple. However, as the difficulty ramps up, the relationships become more abstract and require greater thinking and comprehension. This is further amplified by the fact that a lot more images start going by faster on the harder difficulties.

Make no mistake, while Say What?! may be classified under the music genre, this is less of a music-based game and more of a puzzle/word comprehension title oriented around music lyrics. Fans of Rappin' Granny [$0.99] will be somewhat familiar with this type of gameplay and should enjoy it, as well as anyone that can handle games that require snap thinking. However, for everyone else this game will probably seem like a frustrating exercise in futility.

Until you play it a few times, that is. One of the biggest issues I have with Say What?! is that the highlighted lyrics and images associated with them appear to be set pieces. This means that, assuming you play the same song enough, you should be able to memorize the patterns for each song and thus raise your score with ease. Sure, the surrounding wrong images appear to randomize each time, but if you know exactly what image to look for, you really won't care about the other 'noise' images.

This is further compounded by the fact that Say What?! only has three free songs, with a paltry seven more songs available as IAP for $1.99 each. The IAP seems a bit expensive considering that there's not even any way to preview the songs being purchases (although I suppose one could just search online for a preview of them). Finally, while I don't have a problem with the songs I tried, I feel that the limited variety of genres will be a turn off for some players.

While I did enjoy Say What?!, it's a game of limited appeal and limited content. If you're looking for an interesting twist on the puzzle/music genre, I'd say give Say What?! a try. Unfortunately, even if you enjoy the experience, it ends up being way too short. Hopefully the game will continue to expand and add more songs of various genres, which would be a good first step of creating a fan base around this interesting game.

I’m stretching the word “free” to its limits here. With a download, you get a whopping total of three tracks to play with: “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Hell To The No,” and “My Cup.” If you want to pony up some cash, though, you can purchase up to 50 additional tracks via IAP. More music will apparently hit every Tuesday until the powers that be decide to pull the plug on the project.

“There has never been an artist-branded Tap Tap game with the breadth of music, features and social media integration that Tap Tap Glee has, and that really speaks to the unique premise of the show and its music,” said Tim O’Brien, VP of Business Development and Marketing for Disney Mobile said in a statement.

“This game brings together two of the most popular franchises in music to create a must-have gaming experience for all GleeKs,” he continued.

A GleeK, by the way, isn’t that one move where you spit through your teeth at an unsuspecting person, presumably sitting next to you in study hall. Apparently, it’s a name for Glee fans. I think. I found a Web site that confirmed as much, at least.

One cool little bonus I haven’t mentioned yet about Tap Tap Glee is the fact that it includes a promotional video from “Glee: The 3D Concert Movie.” You and I might not care about that, but I’m sure fans are all about catching a sneak peek before it hits theaters later next week.

An iPad version of Tap Tap Glee is in the works and should appear soon. If lyrics are more your thing, don't forget about Smule's karaoke Glee game, the oh-so-cleverly titled Glee Karaoke [$.99]. I can't believe I just downloaded any of this.

It’s easy to be wooed by Groove Coaster’s striking vector graphics presentation in the same way that it was hard to look beyond another Taito title’s visuals in Space Invaders: Infinity Gene [$4.99]. But even without the trains of retro baggage behind Groove Coaster, it manages to feel aged, yet refined and re-imagined in the same way. It’s a unique approach that really adds a certain flavor to the action and adds to the experiential edge of the project.

The thick wire-frame rail guiding all the action, by the way, isn’t static: it zigs, it zags, it ducks, and it circles alongside a given music track’s ebb and flow. Your cursor, which can be an assortment of objects including Taito-branded characters, helplessly runs along these tracks, speeding up and slowing down with the beat as thematic particle effects, ranging from flowery explosions to plain ol’ particle-vomit, crop up all over the place. Groove Coaster is a music game, sure, but it’s also a visual treat in addition to an audio one.

In this vein, the backgrounds and their respective effects are cool, too, especially as they morph and throb thematically as songs change tempo.

It’s not all great -- there’s an exceptionally fundamental flaw nestled within the visual design. Sometimes, instead of ratcheting up the intensity of a song and the beats you need to hit, Groove Coaster uses its presentation to conceal your cursor and thus hamper your ability to hit the glowing “beat” orbs. This comes off as a tactic to obscure its fairly rudimentary play, and a needless one at that. So, what? This game is easy to play. Who cares?

I’m not sure how to classify the music used in the game. There’s a mix of J-Pop, new wave, house, and other fast-paced highly electronic stuff. Most of it, actually, appears to be pulled from other Taito titles, but they all seem to fit with the visual stylings. In particular, Arkanoid DS’ “Happy Smiling - More Happy Mix” sticks out in my head as on of the best songs, as its thematic qualities and the music line up pretty well.

Most songs introduce some neat visual elements and mechanics to the fold. “Happy Smiling,” for example, is the first level to add a merry-go-round of beats that swirls and rotates as you hit (or miss) each one. As you move up in difficulty, new “beats” are added that make you do things like swipe and flick, or even hold and jiggle your finger. All of the songs seem to have a new mechanic, which makes for some compelling replay opportunities.

Oddly, but somehow fittingly, Groove Coaster features a fairly advanced “perks” system. As you beat levels in the game, you increase your own experience level. As you do, you unlock new avatars and upgrades that net you bigger bonuses or special in-game perks. It’s a pretty standard carrot-on-the-stick approach, but it’s effective. Additionally, you can purchase IAP items and avatars that do the same things these bonuses do, except they really push it to the max. I’ll stress that the IAP options feel entirely, well, optional.

Groove Coaster is a good game with a fundamental flaw. It also has a few nit-picky problems, too, like it’s spectacularly abrupt ending and horrible “How To,” but the strength of its presentation, music, and RPG-lite systems make up for anything that could sour the experience. I’m generally not too into music games, and for what it’s worth, I’m suggesting this one to whoever will listen. It’s fun, it’s sharp, and it’s an experience.

Japanese publication Famitsu scored the first look at the new title. The first video here demonstrates the basics of the game in what must be one of the easier levels:

The second video shows what appears to be a more difficult level, with tons more beats to hit and visual effects to accompany them:

For what it’s worth, you can tell this is Ishida’s. As Joystiq notes, it’s all wire-framed out and ready to grab some glow sticks for this evening’s rave. Infinity Gene had a similar look and feel and that certainly panned out well for a title, that, overall, really had a spring in its step and some awesome mechanics to share. Here's to hoping this has more than meets the eye... but even if it didn't, I think I'd be pleased with it. Our collective gut says that this is definitely a game to watch and review whenever it’s slated to hit.

Rhythm games work well on iOS devices, but I've always found myself quickly getting bored of games that just have you tapping on colored dots without any over-arching goal beyond your high score or any potential unlockables. Rice&Shine adds an additional layer to this in that your rhythmic taps are actually translated to ninja-centric sword fighting. It remains to be seen how much of an effect all this ninja business has on gameplay, but I'm really hoping there's some depth to it beyond eye candy.

Anyway, check out the trailer:

Details are rather vague right now, limited to little more than this trailer and an ambiguous "coming soon." Needless to say, we're going to keep a close eye on this one.

That's hot stuff, right? Puzzle Family has one of the weirdest trailers we’ve seen in a long, long time. Vivid, flashing, and possibly seizure-inducing lights? Check. Horrible animation, but adorable art? Check. Promise of insane antics in convoluted games? Check.

If the trailer didn't clue you in, Puzzle Family is a mini-game collection that puts you in the shoes of Akoo or one of his 20 fascinatingly eccentric family members through three initial mini-game experiences: block matching, Guitar Hero-style rhythm tapping, and a puzzle memory exercise. There are a total of eight mini-games in all, five of which can be unlocked through an in-game currency (of sorts).

Puzzle Family will launch as a ad-based "free" download this July 7, but you'll be able to support the title and get a leg-up on unlocking the extra five modes and other in-game items by purchasing the premium ad-free version, Puzzle Family Starpack for $1.99.