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61 Frames Per Second

Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!

Posted by John Constantine

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


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John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Hooksexup, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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