Two family friendly games -- Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band -- are arriving in stores (and possibly your living room) in the upcoming week. Both of the popular music games let kids pretend to play along to rock 'n' roll songs using a variety of instrument-shaped game controllers.
That's all well and good, but for parents who want to stretch their kids' imaginations with a more authentic music-creation experience, Rockstar Games might have the solution, an 'E' for Everyone rated music game, Beaterator, for the Sony PSP.
See what kids had to say about Beaterator in the video below.
Unlike the other music games, Beaterator gives players a crash course in creating actual music using a series of sounds (aka loops and samples) and stringing them together to make a complete song. The game includes hundreds of sounds -- drum beats, guitar riffs, keyboards, vocals -- and they can be mixed and matched at will.
For beginners, the PSP game includes a simplified mode, called Live Play, where music newcomers can jump in and start combining samples on the fly, even adding their own vocals by singing into the PSP. Once players get the hang of using Live Play, they can move onto the the more in-depth Song Crafter mode, where they can create their own sounds, combine them, fine-tune loops and samples and then share their masterpiece with the world.
We recently took a look at the new Beaterator game (though it's more of a music-making application than a traditional 'game' with goals), and it's impressive how much Rockstar Games managed to stuff into this tiny package.
For beginners, there are a host of tutorials to get you started -- narrated by a cartoon version of hip-hop producer Timbaland, and the Live Play is really a simple pick-up-and-play experience.
The game's Song Crafter mode offers some more serious music-making options, which seems less appealing to kids or a casual audience. It's something more likely to hit a note with experienced musicians or serious hobbyists who hope to make it big in the music world someday.
Beaterator for PSP arrives in stores on September 29 and will cost US$30. A stripped-down version of the music game will also be released for iPhone and iPod Touch, price and date are currently TBD.
