So I made an error, like I have many times before, I got myself a new rhythm-game, this time I bought “Rift of the necrodancer” and I love it, and hate it, most of the reason is my love-hate relationship to rhythm games in general, it’s one of my favourite genres, but at the same time I can’t play them too often, mostly because they just completely suck me in, and by that I mean to an unhealthy degree.

Rhythm games have this ability to completely hi-jack my focus and put me into a very strong flow state, which I love, but the problem is stopping, and getting out of it. And be it as it may, this saturday I lost 9 hours of time to just completely flowing into the game, and the only reason I stopped was that it was 04 in the morning and I was getting exhausted.

Rhythm games have this perfect blend of needing skill, to always have a challenge that is just outside of what you are able of doing. The visuals are usually cheery and upbeat, and the music just wants you to keep on dealing with it. There is also the pleasure of a more tight connection to the music as being aware of the rhythm of the music itself makes it so much easier, or on harder difficulties possible to follow the mayhem on the screen.

Rift of the necrodancer on the surface is a simple game with only 3 inputs, just a tiny bit more complicated than Taiko no tatsujin’s 2, but that doesn’t mean that the game is any less complicated. The cool thing with rift is that it’s markers are monsters, that all follow their own patterns, so while some are just normal hits, others needs to be hit twice, some need to hits and moves in a predictible pattern, yet others move down the board in different patterns and have their own way of being special.

The thing about these movements is that on well done tabs, not only is it pleasing to hit the notes at the perfect time, but the patterns of the movement, and how they match the music just really sucks me in, the bats grouping together, the sceletons retreating up the board, or the bouncy sprites, that makes the music feel even more bouncy and floating.

This visual element (mostly) really does make a difference, I love taiko no tatsujin, but it’s more focused on the audio element, and it feels really pleasing when you get the drum patterns in and it flows, but the presentation of the tabs themselves are more normal with mostly just the rest of the interface doing wild crazy things around it.

Another thing that I really enjoy by well done tabs in rhythm games are that they often have small jokes built in, like a rhythm change, a last note that comes in at a weird time or something like that, and it’s a weird kind of game design joke that I actually get, most of the other ones I am not really well enough versed to get, but these ones just really hit me each time.

Oh how I love rhythm games, but I can’t play them too often, becuase they grab me too hard and don’t want to relinquish that hold of my complete attention.