Jared Rea

Everyone loves to hate lists and so when the GameTap elders asked me to put together one for the greatest rhythm games of all time, I decided to take it seriously. I joked that in my quest for the definitive list, I had assembled the “Council of Elrond” of rhythm gaming afficinados. Between the lot of us, we could boast nearly 60 years of play and knowledge of this single, young genre.

Shit got real and for the most part, people really appreciated it, though tons of people disagreed. Most of the outrage was over the lack of PaRappa the Rapper, which I can understand, but if you’re going for quality something like that really can’t make the cut regardless of how much I adore it myself. And for however controversial it was to hand the top honor to Rock Band only a month after its release, I stand by it, only I’d like to attach the number two.

For the record, I fought like hell to keep Bust a Move off the list, only because I think nostalgia is a bitch. Still, in the end, everyone agreed that it deserved a spot on the list, a low one at that.

I’m tossing this back online as my Pop’n Music relapse has reminded me of it and also because GameTap no longer exists, so neither does this article. The name “No Doubt, Get Loud!” is a reference to a Beatmania IIDX track, but really, it was just me giving the middle finger to Google for the sake of something catchy. Onwards!

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Like most people I know, I woke up on New Years day sore and suffering of a headache, except the pain was only coming from my knuckles. I forgot how much it hurt to play on an actual Pop’n Music arcade cabinet. It had been a year since I had last done so, easy.

In what can be considered foreshadowing for the rest of the year, a couple of my friends and I took a trip to our favorite arcade in Northern California, Sunnyvale Golfland. We came pre-loaded with Del Taco (oh god yes) and hit the place up nice and early. A lot has changed since I last stepped foot upon her slightly smelly property. Mainly a whole lot of games have gone missing, only to replaced by redemption games like the electronic jump rope and Deal or No Deal. You slip in your token and Howie Mandel comes out grinning. He wrings his hands a bit and lets you know how totally fucked you are.

And then you get tickets.

I don’t blame SVGL for trimming the fat though. Even though it’s one of the best arcades in the country for competitive play, they didn’t need two 3rd Strike machines and the like. It just made things twice as awesome. The dancin’ games are largely the same as when I left, but it was great to see that the Pop’n Music machine had been upgraded from the lowly 8 to the greatness of Fever. I feel guilty about it, but I played the Super Mario medley more times than I could remember.

I wish I could go more often, but it’s just too much of a hassle to do it these days on my formerly regular basis. Should things go according to plan, however, I’ll definitely be seeing it again soon.

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