musika

Overview

Musika is game specifically designed for use with the iPod. It is a music based game that takes advantage of the player's library of music. Aesthetically, it's similar to visualizers often found in media players that play digital music. Designed by Masaya Matsuura of PaRappa the Rapper and Vib-Ribbon, musika (properly branded with a lower case m) keeps in line with his music game efforts. It was originally titled Rhythmica, but the title was changed upon release. The game is designed to complement music rather than provide an in depth game experience, evidenced by the visualization feature, which provides the graphics from the game without gameplay.

It was released on August 7, 2007, and according to the Apple website, it is no longer available.

Gameplay

In comparison to other music games, the gameplay of musika is relatively simply. First, the player selects a song from his or her library. As they listen to the song, they must hit the "Select" button upon seeing a letter or number that is taken from the song's title. The character will begin obscured and a decision must be made before it is fully materializes. Characters that do not appear in the title caan be skipped by pressing "Forward" on the iPod. The faster these actions are taken, the higher the score, stringing together successful actions will result in bonuses and score multipliers. If the player fails to complete the proper action (by selecting an incorrect character or by passing on a correct letter), they will receive a block and score multipliers will reset.

Four bonuses exist in musica and can be achieved by stringing together successful character choices. These are:

• Almighty - protects against misses, incorrect passes, and blocks for the following three characters
• De-Block - removes all blocks
• Double Score - doubles score earned over next three characters
• Double Clear Points - gives two correct identifications each time you hit "Select" for the following three characters