10. Rocksmith 2014

Knights of Cydonia - Rocksmith 2014 Gameplay

A personal favorite of mine, Rocksmith 2014 is the sequel to Rocksmith, both of which are powerful educational tools and virtual guitar effect rigs to help people learn how to play guitar and bass guitar. Players have to purchase a “Rocksmith Real Tone Cable” (separately or bundled with the game) in order to plug their electric guitar into their computer’s (or game console’s) USB port. Without it, players can use their computer microphones instead, which is a recently added feature.

There are several game modes, but the (arguably) main one is very similar to Guitar Hero and Rock Band series: a scrolling highway of notes tells the player how to play the song, including the denotation of many different guitar techniques. A “riff repeater” feature lets you slow down and repeat any part of the song for more focused practice.

There’s also a session mode that uses customized backing bands to help you jam with a variety of different scales, keys, tempos, and song structures. An arcade mode with many different games that focus on different guitar skills helps musicians improve in a fun way outside of playing songs.

And for absolute beginners, there are dozens of interactive video lessons to teach you everything in the first place. If that wasn’t enough, players get to use virtual guitar pedals, amps, cabinets and more to craft their own guitar tones. And that’s just the base game; hundreds of DLC songs (apparently selected by player requests) are constantly added to the game to build your library of moving guitar tablature (and song-specific guitar tones).  
9. Crypt of the NecroDancer

Crypt of the NecroDancer | No commentary

Rhythmic gameplay combined with a roguelike dungeon crawler? Crypt of the NecroDancer makes it work—well.

Move to the music to make your way through each dungeon and fight a variety of dark fantasy enemies. You can choose to play using the game’s highly acclaimed (by critic and gamer alike) soundtrack or use your own music. You can even choose between using a keyboard, controller, or dance pad to play.

The story has Cadence (a fitting name) searching for her dad, a disappeared treasure hunter. She comes to the eponymous crypt and has her heart stolen (right out of her) by the NecroDancer, which makes her have to move to the beat of the music to keep her heart beating as she makes her way through various dungeons and foes.

8. Audiosurf 2

Audiosurf 2 | PC Gameplay | 60 FPS | 1080P

Perhaps the most famous ship-piloting rhythm game that makes use of players’ own music, Audiosurf 2 improves upon the original’s gameplay and features. All the hallmarks of the first title are still present. Somehow, speeding down highways and collecting things (and dodging others) to the beat of awesome music can easily make someone feel like a total BAMF. And then there are the famous skins for the game, which just add to the cool factor.

Speaking of which, gamers can now modify and use their own skins more easily since the script source code and assets are readily available. Accordingly, the graphics and visuals have been updated as well. 

Game modes include Mono mode and Puzzle mode as in the previous game, and a new Ninja mode (including a Ninja turbo mode). There are also leaderboards and using online music to play.

7. Rock Band 4

Spiders - System of a Down Expert Rock Band 4 Playthrough

If you’re still fooling around with plastic music instrument game controllers like I am, Rock Band 4 is not a bad addition to the series it continues. Admittedly, the focus has shifted from hardcore gameplay to even more of a casual/party game, but it doesn’t break this installment since many of the more hardcore features can be restored.

The gameplay now lets guitar gamers play freestyle solos during songs if the option is selected (which apparently is surprisingly rewarding), and vocalists can even improvise a bit too in certain difficulty levels. On the other hand, drum fills have been replaced by randomly chosen prefigured fills.

Of the returning and updated features, three-part vocal harmonies are back and have even been added to songs that previously didn’t have them. Players can still customize their characters, and story mode is similar to the rest of the series. Although online play wasn’t available at first, the expansion Rock Band Rivals adds it to the game.

Rivals also lets players form “crews” to band together against others and prove their musical worth. A “Rockudrama” story mode is also added to the game to let gamers play through an entertaining rockumentary that tells the story of their band.

6. Symphony

Let's Play: Symphony - Dragonforce - Through the Fire and Flames

Part of Symphony may seem like a standard spaceship shoot ‘em up, but it’s the musical aspect—the game claims to “absorb and corrupt” the music in the game—that makes this game stand out. You get to blast your way through geometrically designed enemies and watch a music equalizer work with tons of lights to jazz up your experience. As with other rhythm games, you can play with the game’s soundtrack or provide your own; the levels and environments will change according to what you’re listening to.

The kicker is that each song (including anything you put into the game) has its own item to unlock that you can use to customize your ship. Leaderboards for each song and play style give replay value to those who like to see how they stack up against the community.

5. Beat Hazard

Beat Hazard Ultra: Gameplay

Being a spaceship shoot ‘em up, Beat Hazard may seem like Symphony on the surface, but the perspective is from the top down in this one. As usual, the game will create levels based on the music you import to it (or you can start with the game’s rock music soundtrack), and the explosions and light shows resulting from that are so spectacular that people with sensitive eyes may want to avoid this one.

Game modes include local two player versus and co-op, survival mode, and suicidal mode, and there are leaderboards as well. DLC includes 9 new ships, a small licensing fee to play non-DRM music files, and a bigger, better game mode, Beat Hazard Ultra, that has online co-op and versus play, not to mention more bosses, enemies, another soundtrack, a perks system, and increased visual settings.

4. Cytus
 

Cytus Gameplay - Violet(Hard) - 1000000

[Cytus] Holy Knight (Hard) -One Hand- Million Master

Cytus is an Android app game, but don’t let that trick you into thinking it doesn’t have its own depth. Featuring an anime aesthetic and cyberpunk story, the game has over 10 levels of difficulty, over 60 songs (and over 120 “variations” of them), and includes several genres of electronic music (e.g. trance, hardcore techno, drum ‘n’ bass, etc.) as well as pop and jazz. The gameplay looks a bit similar to Elite Beat Agents with fingers replacing the stylus.

The story (which is not yet fully released on the official site) shows the ExtenLife Corp. in a 2130 AD world making immortality possible by putting people’s memories in robots. The only problem is that a virus that’s as contagious as it is deadly is sweeping across the world, killing anyone who’s still human. Protagonist Vanessa must use Cytus—a data storage system that uses music to translate human emotions and let people re-experience their humanity—to explore the philosophy and ethics of the relationship between the last pieces of humanity and the technological fate of the species due to the viral catastrophe.

3. Super Hexagon
 

Super Hexagon Level 1 Complete - PC Gameplay (Steam) "Hexagon"

According to gamers and critics, this one’s as brilliant and addicting as it is simple and minimalistic. The object is to guide your cursor through an ever-changing hexagonal puzzle that morphs into all kinds of mazes and shapes. With only a few levels, Super Hexagon is much more about increasing the difficulty setting once you beat them. As always, the game’s soundtrack determines how the level plays out in gameplay and visuals.

2. One Finger Death Punch

One Finger Death Punch - PC Gameplay 1

Inspired by kung fu films, One Finger Death Punch is all about fighting. Hand to hand combat and weaponry take down legions of fighters as you press a mere two buttons to make your character attack. The game boasts over 250 stages, 13 modes, and 3 difficulty levels in addition to 21 different skills to be chained by players in creative ways.

While it might not be a proper rhythm game in the musical sense, it does feature constant visual and audio cues to guide the player in their fights. Using them will greatly reward the player—button mashing will get them killed.

1. Geometry Dash

Geometry Dash All Levels 1-18 [FULL VERSION]

Here’s a game with a soundtrack highly praised by gamers, but this one is a rage-inducing platformer that has players jumping, flipping, and flying through all kinds of obstacles. Many gamers note the difficulty of this one, so I guess there’s a reason why a practice mode was included.

Geometry Dash has a level editor so that players can create and share their own content. Characters can be customized too by unlocking rewards through gameplay.

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