Written by Derrick Sanskrit
Yes, I'm paraphrasing Biz Markie in that title. Thanks for noticing.
It should be obvious to readers of 61FPS that I love games where play and music collide. A personal favorite of mine, Gunpey DS, is an engaging puzzler, but I would be lying if I said that the primary reason I picked it up wasn't its built-in sequencer (click the bottom-most button on the left hand side of this page to see it. No YouTube vids, somehow.)
Well, after a year-and-a-half of misuse, it may well soon be time to give up my copy of Gunpey, because Korg DS-10 is coming out soon. A recreation of the music giant's legendary MS-10 synthesizer, the portable Nintendo DS version includes two patchable dual-oscillator analog synth simulators, a four-part drum machine using sounds created with the analog synth simulator, a six-track/16-step sequencer, and more effects than you can shake a stylus at. Plus, as all good portable music "games" should, it supports multiple DSes for simultaneous play, so you can have an electronic jam session with your friends or set up a sweet DS DJ rig like this guy right here:
Plus, Nintendo's getting in on the DS music fun this summer with DS sequels to its cult favorites Rhythm Tengoku (think WarioWare meets PaRappa the Rapper; characters shown above) and Daigasso! Band Brothers. There are no videos available for either of those yet, but if you've played or heard of their previous iterations, you already know how blissfully sublime they are as both games and as musical instruments.
Daigasso! Band Brothers DX comes out in Japan June 26th. Korg DS-10 comes out in Japan July 25th. Rhythm Tengoku Gold comes out in Japan July 31st. Korg DS-10 has already been confirmed for an international release, but there should be little to no language barrier on any of these games, and since the Nintendo DS is region-free, that means music-loving gamers like myself should have no problem importing these soon-to-be cult hits and rocking out all summer long.
Related links:
OST: Soul Blazer and other OSTs
Alternate Soundtrack: Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Ratatat and other Alternate Soundtracks
Whatcha Playing: Keeping the Beat, Drum Master Style