Rocksmith is an upcoming Ubisoft title that, unlike Guitar Hero or Rock Band, will progressively teach users how to play guitar. Rocksmith is unlike any music genre game before it as it’s the first and, so far, only game that will allow you to plug a real six string electric guitar into your PS3 or Xbox 360 console and learn to grind.

Part of the instruction is a feature known as “Dynamic Difficulty,” which adjusts to a player’s skill level during songs, so that anyone can learn to handle the axe, or improve finger-work. Check out the video above as it showcases Rocksmith Creative Director Paul Cross explaining  just how “Dynamic Difficulty” works.

I had some hands-on time with Rocksmith earlier this year and I can say that “Dynamic Difficulty” works extremely well. I have never played guitar before in my life and those who have used one know first hand that an electric guitar is pretty heavy to hold. However, I played to the best of my ability, and the game adjusted on the fly depending on how well I played. When I hit the correct notes, the game added more to match my skill, and when I missed them the game toned down the amount I had to play. I didn’t get a lot of time with the game, but the little I did  had made me very excited to play it the next chance I got.

Rocksmith is currently scheduled for an October release. The game and wire stand alone should run for around $60-$80 while the package with the game, wire and electric guitar will be about $199.

Game designer Eric Ruth is back again with another 8-bit adaptation of a present day title. His latest project, Pixel Force: DJ Hero, serves as the anticipated follow up to his top-down rendition of Left 4 Dead which was released in the beginning of this year. Yet again, Ruth scores in capturing the essence of a modern title while incorporating all the warm-fuzzy characteristics of a cartridge counterpart. The track listing, though obviously not as vast, includes a little bit for everyone. “Layla” and “Thriller” on the same bill? Say no more.

All the thought is there, and the game is put together nicely. However, I’m just not quite sure how well the 8-bit medium lends itself to the scrolling rhythm genre. Replacing classic lyrics and riffs with bleeps-and-bloops doesn’t translate well in this case. Though I suppose the chiptuned beats of modern auto-tuned tracks wouldn’t be too bad a fit as they already sound like they’re filtered through an ’80s era Casio.

Don’t let my words sway you from giving this video game a fair crack. If you’re a fan of the Guitar Hero or DJ Hero franchises, you may very well find this to be as much fun as die hard FPS-fans found Ruth’s Left 4 Dead. Me?  I’ve got some 8-bit zombies to kill.

[How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you put killer 8-bit tunes on your iPhone.]

‘Tis a grand time to be a retro video game geek. Between the awesome Scott Pilgrim vs. The World game and the growing popularity of chiptunes, all things old, cute, and catchy are hip. Now you can show your love with Cdubu‘s NES Ringtone Pack and NES Ringtone Pack: Part Deux.

Compatible with the iPhone and “other phones”, the NES Ringtone Packs contain some of the catchy tunes pulled form the soundtracks of classic 8-bit video games. NES Ringtone Pack contains 99 tunes pulled from Duck Hunt, Excitebike, The Legend of Zelda, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario Bros. 3. NES Ringtone Pack: Part Deux features 106 compositions culled from Castlevania, Contra, Double Dragon, Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Super Mario Bros. 2, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

1. Download the ZIP file.

2. Unzip the ZIP file. Inside you’ll find a folder containing the tunes.

3. Open iTunes and drag the music folder into the Ringtones section.

4. Attach you iPhone to your Mac or PC and sync the files.

5. Grab your iPhone. Tap Settings > Sounds > Ringtones to find the list of tracks synced to your handset.

6. Select a ringtone. Nerd up!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Eric Ruth, the creative force behind the 2D, 8-bit Left 4 Dead demake, has returned with his latest project: Pixel Force: DJ Hero. This retro spin on a contemporary rhythm game is still a work in progress, but Ruth recently released a a YouTube clip highlighting some of the two turntables and a microphone action as filtered through a NES controller.

Pixel Force: DJ Hero sports an original chiptunes soundtrack–the mashup of Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll” and Queens’ “We Will Rock You” is remarkably tight. For more information, bounce over to Pikimal who has a nice interview.

Ever wanted to paint the town red? Or blue? Or green? THQ’s Beat City will let you do just that.

A creative twist on traditional rhythm-based music games, Beat City encourages players to complete challenges to restore color to the world of the titular city. Dame Isolde Minor and her Cacophony Corporation have sucked the music out of Beat City, rendering its population gray and boring. Your job, as a happy headphone wearing alien and his speaker-headed friend, is to bring life– and color, and happiness – back by bringing the funk.

Beat City has an appropriately funky chiptunes soundtrack to score its quest. The graphics are flat and bold, embodying the spirit of graffiti without aping the style. It takes its coloring and environment seriously, as everything you do affects the world; the better you are at mimicking the rhythm, the more colorful the environment becomes. You add everything from smiling flowers to pink clouds to birthday hats and sailboats to any given challenge, rewarding your prowess by blinding you with happy color.

Beat City has an easy-to-learn interface, using taps, swipes and presses. There are 20 rhythm-based mini-games, all grouped around saving Beat City from Cacophony Corporation.  The controls are easy to learn and each mini-game is prefaced with a tutorial that won’t let you proceed until you learn the timing for each game. The games themselves are pretty creative; you get to tap out a heartbeat in the first minigame, rap to a giant conducting gorilla in the second, shoot ice cream out of an elephant’s nose in the third. It’s a really creative way to make gamers continuously tap a screen, and proves that a creative coating can save the music video game genre from blandness.

Since I’m not the most precise gamer, the timing issues for certain challenges made me a little crazy – tapping the kid who was going to explode if he didn’t pee, for instance, was maddening.  Pee-pee pants notwithstanding, I had fun grooving with the game. I just wish the level of the challenges weren’t so random: the challenge after that one was much easier and that made me feel like the developers were mucking with me. Better graduation of challenges next time, please.

It’s out for the DS. Check it – if you’ve got the music in you.

Contemporary music video games have failed us.

A genre with plenty of untapped potential has devolved from games with plots and quirky characters/graphical elements to a genre stripped down to colored symbols, and heavy reliance on turn-a-quick-buck DLC. And it’s infinitely frustrating.

I love Guitar Hero/Rock Band/ DJ Hero as much as the next guy who’s always held fantasies of wearing tight jeans, lace, and some form of animal print, but whenever I see a video game news site post  the weekly DLC releases, I can taste my own bile. The music video game genre isn’t just drowning in the RIAA’s profits–the lack of innovation is wrecking a potentially unique gaming segment.

That’s not to say that music games of yesteryear were radically different from today’s offering. Contrary, they all used timed button presses to help players keep the rhythm, but earlier music video games added slick coatings so that the content appeared far more robust, as well as features that have yet to make appearances in today’s music video games.

For example, Parappa the Rapper‘s timed button presses are similar to Guitar Hero/Rock Band/DJ Hero, but presented an awfully cute rapping narrative and Colorforms-like visuals that overflowed with high charm (the same formula that it’s sequel/spinoff UmJammer Lammy closely followed).

Space Channel 5 retained that core gameplay, but by removing the rhythm icons, utilizing a variety of camera angles, and focusing more on You Got Served-styled dance-offs, it feels fresher than any modern music video game even 10 years after its original release. Space Channel 5 added something new to the genre by introducing backup musicians that could join your outter space funk posse and remix the track when you did a good job of cutting the rug. Bust A Groove, which pre-dated Space Channel 5 took the dance off concept to the next level by adding fighting game elements to the mix in a way that hasn’t been done since.

What do we have now? Games with plastic guitars, turntables, drumsets, and mics that blur the line between video gaming and real musicianship. That’s not bad by any means, it’s catering to the masses’ inner rock star, but the big boys are stifling creativity by increasingly moving toward realism and away from inventiveness. This recycled gameplay may have been one of the contributing factors in DJ Hero and Beatles Rock Band‘s less-than-stellar sales.

Harmonix revitalized the aging formula with Dance Central, which is Dance Dance Revolution evolved. It ditched the need to purchase multiple accessories (you just need a single Kinect unit), but spawned several me-too clones. Our friends at Aggrogate have a gif of me (sadly) rockin’ Dance Central.

There is forward-looking hope. Children of Eden, the Kinect-powered rhythm action game from Tetsuya Mizuguchi (the creator of awesome music-shooter Rez) fuses music, shooting, and motion, to push the genre’s boundaries by creating tunes as you play. Ubisoft’s RockSmith is the anti-Guitar Hero in that it actually teaches you to play a real guitar with a real guitar.

The answer to the music game conundrum lies in the past. Companies need to look at at worked then, tweak it with contemporary sensibilities,utilize the latest technologies, and craft more than me-too versions of chart-topping games. Otherwise, the music video game genre will be as zombified as the industry that fuels it.

Space Channel 5 may very well be the greatest music game ever created.

I don’t care if Guitar Hero and Rock Band let you and several inebriated friends karaoke your way through real tunes on pseudo-realistic toy instruments; the decade-old Space Channel 5 serves all music game challengers by creating a game world filled with infinite amounts of charm, and funky danceable tunes that make it one of the most unique titles in its genre. And on the SEGA Dreamcast.

Developed by United Game Artists and published by SEGA, Space Channel 5 tells the story of Ulala, a reporter from the eponymous media outlet who combats the Morolians, the cutest alien menace to ever threaten a game world. The invaders’ sinister scheme? To force earthlings to badly dance. Ulala’s mission? To detail the happenings, rescue hostages, defeat enemies, and stave off rival reporters.

When you pop Space Channel 5 into the Dreamcast, you’ll arrive at a title screen that features a theme song (with a driving baseline and horns) that’s reminiscent of ’60s go-go dancing meets spy flick–a perfect fit for the game’s retro-futuristic sexiness.

And speaking of sexiness,  Ulala is one of the more striking character designs in videogamedom. Ulala’s sports bright reddish-pink hair, a mini-skirt, jetpack, ray gun, and platform go-go boots. But it isn’t her legginess that keeps your eye on the media darling, it’s her body movements. Ulala struts through stage and toward foes with an exaggerated stride that one part uber-confidence, one-part funky strut, and one-part bad ass.

Although the gameplay has all the makings of being repetitive, United Game Artists sprinkles the formula with enough deviation to keep things bouncing along nicely. Each level typically begins with Ulala walking through rooms/corridors with her aforementioned bop, where she quickly encounters an alien dance group. Besting unarmed aliens simply require you to match their moves to free hostages; armed aliens require you to match their moves -and- zap them with your ray beam. These require the same controls (D-pad for executing dance moves, A to shoot laser, B to shoot a secondary hostage-reeing ray), but the camera angles and presentation keeps it from being a constant loop of the same ol’ same ol’.

Correctly inputting the D-pad and button presses frees hostages which join Ulala in her bad ass power struts and battles within Space Channel 5′s world. They are, essentially, backup dancers, but don’t seem to have any obvious impact on the gameplay besides looking really, really cool. A handful of hostages are also musicians; freeing a guitar player, for example,  sees him joining your troop, and playing guitar as you march toward battle. How many music games offer skilled players on-the-fly track remixes? Not many, I’d reckon.

Botching dance moves causes Ulala to lose hearts. Should your heart meter reach zero, Ulala does a dance of defeat (yes, she even grooves when losing) and walks with hand held to head in a dramatic fashion. You will also need to focus on the View Rating listed in the lower-right corner of the screen. As Space Channel 5 is a TV station, its goal is ratings, so you need to get a minimum number of viewers to move onto the next stage. The first level, for example, requires you to have at least a 15% view rating, or you can forget about moving onward.

Space Channel 5 is short; very short. Once you get the gameplay mechanics down, you’ll be able to smoke the title by the time the day ends. That may have been an issue purchasing a new, full price Dreamcast game in 1999 or 2000, but considering that I payed $10 for the game, it’s no bad at all. There’s no two-player mode to open up the floor, but trophy-hunters will dig the collectible bios that you accumulate when freeing slaves to the rhythm. My last beef: there’s a hint of lag when you fire your “choo” weapon, but you’ll get used to it.

If you think music games begin and end with colored icons scrolling on a screen, you need to do yourself, and the genre, a favor by tracking down Space Channel 5. It may not be the deepest game, but it drips in SEGA’s old school arcade and innovation sensibilities that the company desperately needs to reclaim in order to move forward.

The Thriller lives on. In video game form.

Ubisoft announced a new video game featuring the late King of Pop at E3 2010. The game requires players to replicate Mike’s slick dance moves, and scores them on how well they’re able to emulate his steps.

Featuring some of his best-loved songs like “Beat It” and “Billie Jean”, the unnamed game demands players to sing along as well, giving them the full experience of being the King of Pop.

According to the E3 2010 presentation, the game will utilize Microsoft’s Kinect technology, a hands-free motion-capture interface that lets players control character movements with their bodies and, in some cases with facial features and the player’s voice. This is the first such game to utilize the technology, though more are slated to roll out later this year.

Given his appearance in Space Channel 5, the release of a dance-based game focusing on Michael’s body of work is not only a strong showcase for his talents; it’s long overdue.

The game’s launch will coincide with the release of an album of previously unreleased Michael Jackson tracks in November. To those of us who grew up honing our dance-fu with Moonwalker (Genesis and arcade versions only; the Master System version we’d like to forget), the announcement is welcome news – particularly since the one-year anniversary of his death is next Friday. We still miss you, Michael… but we’re excited to moonwalk beside you.

The game will be available for Xbox 360 (with Kinect), PS3 (with PlayStation Move), PSP, Wii and DS for holiday 2010.

I’m a 2D gamer because I have crummy depth perception.

When the N64 arrived on the scene, I found myself guiding Mario into walls instead of hopping and bopping through the Mushroom Kingdom. Even 2.5D games like Mystical Ninja tripped me up when the camera rotated; I consistently fell into the pits it tried to show me. Full-on 3D games tried to do me in by introducing even fancier visual tricks (which caused me to miss the era when developers tried to kill me by pushing my skills to the limit).

That’s why I love Gajin Games’  Bit.Trip Runner. It tries to kill me the old school way.

Bit.Trip Runner is fast. Casino Zone Sonic 3 fast. And it gets faster. There’s no real story to merit the speed: you’re just Commander Video, an old-school style Atari-like sprite who runs from left to right dodging obstacles, so that he can reach the goal and complete the stage. It’s basically Pitfall… if it took place on the Daft Punk planet. He also destroys bosses who would otherwise impede his running.

Bit.Trip Runner starts out easy, teaching you one skill at a time – jumping, sliding, kicking, springing – while gradually increasing the difficulty of the obstacles it throws at you. The background and foreground run distracting bits of animation;  everything from cranes lifting cargo to waving trees waving to sweeping clouds attempt to draw your eye away from getting to the goal. You don’t get better at playing this game; you get a little less worse at dying each time.

You do get rewards for your trouble, though. If you collect all the gold bricks in each level, you’re treated to a Pitfall-style bonus level for double the nostalgic fun. If you collect all the bandages in each level, you add a rainbow speed trail to Commander Video and – my personal favorite – a new element to the soundtrack. While the trail does nothing but make you look cooler, the soundtrack elements are amazing. You can add drum tracks, synth overlay, melody loops, almost anything you can think of. It felt more like composing a song instead of playing a game, and learning to play by rhythm was a heck of a lot easier than memorizing when the stairs would show up. It should be noted that Anamanaguchi,  a NYC-based chiptunes punk band, provides the kickin’ credits and menu music.

The entire game has a retro look and feel to it. The colors are bright, the sprite designs are blocky, and the level designs are basic platforms. The only difference between this and Pitfall—save for the fact that there’s clearly defined fore-, mid-, and backgrounds—is that it’s all rendered in Wii-quality graphics. Bit.Trip Runner also utilizes a simple control schemes of 2 buttons and the D-pad, so it’s easy to pick up and play.

For $8 on the Wii, you won’t have any reason not to pick up this latest installment in the Bit.Trip series.  The Aksys Games-published title gives you three detailed game worlds with tons of levels and bonus levels, concrete goals to strive for, and items to collect–all in one forgiving 2D game with a wicked learning curve and a sneaky sense of fun.

Good luck putting it down, though.

Outside of innovative titles such as Rez, few music games have attempted to be more than simple “press the button when the icon is in the right position” rhythm games. That formula was the basis of Parappa the Rapper, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band, and has proved highly successful with wannabe music mavens. Fortunately, developer Stegersaurus Games attempts to elevate the genre.

Battle Beat (available for 400 MSP) is a new game available in the Xbox 360 Indie Games channel that eschews pseudo rockstar status by placing gamers in the role of space commander that must save his home world from hostile alien forces. Using instrument or standard Xbox 360 controllers, players command a squad of troops to launch attacks in this music-meets-tower-defense title.

Really, it’s an intriguing use of the plastic axes that populate our homes, but all it really does is Beg for a kick ass Macross 7 game to be created. LISTEN TO MY SONG!