Are Frequency and Amplitude any good?

O

Odnetnin

Banned
I've been contemplating picking these up, they review alright but I'll like to see if these games have any fans here. I remember someone saying that Harmonix can't make rhythm games to save their lives (I'm assuming they made these two titles).

And how much would you pay for a used copy?


and while I'm at this... Is chaos legion any good?
 
I haven't played Amplitude, but Frequency is one of my favourite games of all time. Nothing lets me get in the zone as much as that game.

Oh, and it helps that it's got Science Girl. I love that song.
 
I got Frequency for $10 used. Played quite a bit of Amplitude, too. I'd say they're each worth that price.

They don't do anything unique outside of the track switching, and they're pretty simplistic overall, but I enjoyed them for a bit.
 
They seem to have a hit-or-miss rep here at GAF, but I personally really dug both of them. They're nothing really super special, but they're solid rythm titles. They're my "go-to" games when I want a quick rythm fix.

Pretty hard to pass up at their current price, imo.
 
Odnetnin said:

and while I'm at this... Is chaos legion any good?
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No. No it isn't. I got it for $5 in the circuit city sale... and for that price I felt ok about it, but I would have been upset if I'd have paid anything more than that. Its incredibly boring, for an action title.
 
They are both great games, and the best rhythm/music games out there for my money.

Might want to just start with Frequency, since that one has the better music. No sense in buying them both right away (in case you don't like it), unless they are really cheap.
 
Might want to just start with Frequency, since that one has the better music.
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bowie.jpg


...

You might be right overall, though.
 
Owning both of them, I have to say that both are pretty good.. Amplitude plays a bit different though (due to the loss of the tunnel-system) and the visual appeal isn't as good as it's predecessor imo, but the music in both games is brought very well.. .Tracklists in both have their ups and downs (mostly ups), but are very fun to play with.

Oh and Tain.... 'Hi!' ;)
 
Shit yeah man, Frequency is better though (IMO, the music is better)...buy them both, you could probably find them on the cheap, and both are worth owning.
 
Any DDR or the more exotic Bemanis (Pop'n Music, Guitar Freaks, etc) are more fun than Amp/Freq, but they're okay I guess. No fan of the music.
 
I think they're both great games. The way you unlock new songs made me want to try over and over again, and even though the music is both up and down, there were only a few songs I couldn't stand.
Also, both Frequency and Amplitude go a bit further than the ordinary music&rhythm game, because they're not exclusively about pressing the right buttons and memorizing patterns. You actually have to think a bit before using the power-ups and selecting tracks, it makes for a more dynamic experience from a gameplay point of view.
 
SiegfriedFM said:
Any DDR or the more exotic Bemanis (Pop'n Music, Guitar Freaks, etc) are more fun than Amp/Freq, but they're okay I guess. No fan of the music.
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Don't let quotes like this fool you.
DDR/Bemains are fucking hard.
The short of the long is, I cannot play them, as I lack the whatever skill it is needed to play them. Spend a few days playing the game and obtain no skill progress really makes them worthless.
That said, if you get this feeling from those games, Amp/Freq don't do that to ya. (Or at least, me.)
 
They both suck compared to other, better, rhythm games, but they're still worth checking out.

Frequency's remix mode in particular grabbed me. I'd sit around with a friend co-op remixing songs all night long, totally transfixed and "in the zone." Of course, we were essentially making our own fun since the remix mode is totally free-form, and co-op modes are inherently fun in pretty much every game, so I can't really credit the fun we had to Frequency being a "good game." Playing through it the way it was intended is pretty awful, but if you just want to mess around with samples, it can be a blast. Even the horrible songs, namely every song in the game other than Science Genius Girl, become fun to play around with when you're able to come up with your own wacky arrangements for them.

Both games are surprisingly fun online as well, though you might have trouble finding anyone to play against.
 
Frequency and Amplitude are two of my favorite games on PlayStation 2.

Funny thing is, I generally didn't care for music games until I tried the Frequency demo on the Summer 2002 Jampack...and I was instantly hooked! Really, it was a good thing they had that demo on there, because otherwise I probably wouldn't have given this game even so much as a passing glance.

A few months later, the Network Adaptor was released, and there was an online-playable version of the Frequency demo on there (which also can be used in conjunction with the full game, so you can play all of the songs online). That cemented my decision to get the game, which I was able to snag at a bargain price.

Amplitude was scheduled to be released a few months after that. Since I now knew how enjoyable its predecessor was, I decided to preorder this game, so I would be able to buy it the day it came out (which I did).
 
Both rock.

DDR is *not* hard. In fact, it's pretty easy. Now Beatmania IIDX? Holy shit. Pop 'n Music? *Hot damn* Those are some piss hard games.
 
bobbyconover said:
They both suck compared to other, better, rhythm games, but they're still worth checking out.
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Yeah, that was pretty much exactly what I was gonna say. They're not any good, but they're worth checking out. I'm glad people like them, but they're still really fucking lousy music games.
 
I prefer Frequency (especially Science Genius Girl) over Amplitude, due to the latter's musical choices really not fitting with the game.
 
i tried out an amplitude demo once. it was sort of neat- for about five minutes. i thought it was just me. as far as "music games" go, i think i prefer to watch people play donkey conga at the store. they just look so cute trying to clap over the mic.
 
While on the whole, I think I like Frequency a little more, they're both probably my favorite games on the PS2, if not of this whole gen.

The only music games I've played have been Freq/Amp, Mad Maestro, and Donkey Konga, but there's one thing that the Harmonix titles have that every other rythm game I've seen doesn't, and that's variety. Every other music game seems to be just you playing the same notes every time, but I still come across phrases in Freq/Amp that I haven't played before, simply because I hadn't taken that particular path through a song. Once you've played a song once in any other music title, you'll never play a different part of the song.

If you're going to try them, I highly recommend playing Frequency first. While the production values aren't as high, it's a little more solid feeling. One thing that's always bugged me about Amplitude is that it's a little too forgiving about you missing a note. There have been times where I've been completely off the beat, but it's still counted the note as long as I play it. It almost feels too easy at times like that. Of course, the hardest songs in Amplitude are a little harder than the hardest ones in Frequency, so it somewhat balances out.

Another thing about Amplitude, a lot of the songs rely on pressing one of the shoulder buttons repeatedly, and quickly. This becomes a problem as the PS2's shoulder buttons are REALLY mushy feeling, so you end up missing those more than you should. The power-ups in Amplitude really inflate your score more than they should, too, making playing for a high score a matter of lucking out with the random powerups instead of just playing the song well.

They really are both worth playing, though.
 
I'm surprised that it seems a lot of people hate all the music in both Frequency and Amplitude - the tracklistings on both are much better than the pseudo-Eurotrash abortions that are most Bemani games (and I like Bemani games, but sorry, a lot of the original music is ass)...

Maybe not every track on the Harmonix games are to your liking, but they are actually a pretty diverse lineup of tracks...so I'd expect something to strike your fancy, if you like music...
 
I like them both, but most of the music doesn't really suit my tastes. It'd be nice if you could have a game like that where you can use your own music...
 
Vlad said:
If you're going to try them, I highly recommend playing Frequency first. While the production values aren't as high, it's a little more solid feeling. One thing that's always bugged me about Amplitude is that it's a little too forgiving about you missing a note. There have been times where I've been completely off the beat, but it's still counted the note as long as I play it. It almost feels too easy at times like that. Of course, the hardest songs in Amplitude are a little harder than the hardest ones in Frequency, so it somewhat balances out.

Another thing about Amplitude, a lot of the songs rely on pressing one of the shoulder buttons repeatedly, and quickly. This becomes a problem as the PS2's shoulder buttons are REALLY mushy feeling, so you end up missing those more than you should. The power-ups in Amplitude really inflate your score more than they should, too, making playing for a high score a matter of lucking out with the random powerups instead of just playing the song well.

They really are both worth playing, though.
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These sound like good reasons for playing Amplitude first, though.

I actually like Amplitude a lot more because the screen layout in Frequency hurts my head. I don't know why but that tunnel stuff confuses me. Probably because I'm old. The flat layout in Amplitude is just a lot easier to look at so I can plan ahead. Plus Amplitude is a lot brighter. Also I like 'Cool Baby' probably a lot more than I should.

Anyway, they both kick ass and are worth full price even now.
 
I really like music games...but I don't like either Frequency nor Amplitude. I just don't see where the fun is.

I'd even rank them lower than Pop n Music...even though the PnM controller for the DC sucks and I was really dissappointed in that game...I still would rank it better than Frequency or Amplitude.

As you can see some people LOVE it and some people HATE it. Try it out. I make music as a hobby, and I collect all types of music games and controllers...if you are the same, you probably won't like it.
 
Frequency was one of the few games that captured my attention and held it this gen. It's simple to learn, addictive, difficult to master as well as a blast in multiplayer.
 
Argyle said:
I'm surprised that it seems a lot of people hate all the music in both Frequency and Amplitude - the tracklistings on both are much better than the pseudo-Eurotrash abortions that are most Bemani games (and I like Bemani games, but sorry, a lot of the original music is ass)...

Maybe not every track on the Harmonix games are to your liking, but they are actually a pretty diverse lineup of tracks...so I'd expect something to strike your fancy, if you like music...
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On the contrary, I see the Freq/Amp music for the most part as collections of either shitty mainstream bands that were included for little more than their big names or of fairly typical all-sounds-the-same techno/trance/whatever, the only exceptions being the bands that their own staff members are in (Freezepop, etc). Amplitude is like the EA Trax of music games, with bands selected specifically to slap on the cover in an attempt to sell the game. Obviously it didn't work. Frequency's music is less mainstream but also even less diverse, with basically nothing but electronica and the occasional industrial metal or hip-hop track.

In fact, to drive the point home, here's an excerpt from an interview with Alex Rigopulos of Harmonix. I just remembered having read it a year or two ago - it pretty much confirms everything I suspected:

Amplitude featured more mainstream artists than Frequency did. Are you partnering more with the music industry rather than promoting underground artists?

Again, it was as much a marketing decision as anything else ... Several of those artists in Frequency—and to some degree, in Amplitude—are our own staff composers ... we were facing the simple reality that, if we were not able to make Amplitude successful, we weren't going to be able to make more games like it, and we want to continue making more games like it. So we were trying to do everything that we could to reach as wide an audience as possible. In Frequency the music was almost exclusively electronica, which is a niche market. The staff here loves electronica, so we were building for ourselves when we chose the artists in Frequency. But with Amplitude, Sony felt there was a real need to try to reach a more mainstream audience by including artists that were platinum-sellers. That's the reason for the change in Amplitude.
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As for the bit about Bemani games being nothing but "Eurotrash," that's a pretty ridiculous blanket statement to toss out there. You do realize that dozens of Bemani games don't have any music that could be classified that way, right? Namely Guitar Freaks and Drummania 1-12, Keyboardmania 1-3, Mambo a Go-Go, and Pop'n Music 1-12 (with a handful of exceptions per mix, but that's out of 100+ songs apiece). Even Beatmania, though obviously dominated by eurobeat, trance, drum & bass and the like these days, has worked in a ton of interesting genres like lounge pop, hip-hop, funk, punk, chip tunes, country, bossa nova, ska, and more over the years. Sure the most recent IIDX mixes are a bit samey, but even those are far more diverse than Frequency or Amplitude if you look at them as complete packages. Not to mention that the average Bemani game has around (or more than) 100 songs, compared to Amplitude's meager 25.
 
bobbyconover said:
As for the bit about Bemani games being nothing but "Eurotrash," that's a pretty ridiculous blanket statement to toss out there. You do realize that dozens of Bemani games don't have any music that could be classified that way, right? Namely Guitar Freaks and Drummania 1-12, Keyboardmania 1-3, Mambo a Go-Go, and Pop'n Music 1-12 (with a handful of exceptions per mix, but that's out of 100+ songs apiece). Even Beatmania, though obviously dominated by eurobeat, trance, drum & bass and the like these days, has worked in a ton of interesting genres like lounge pop, hip-hop, funk, punk, chip tunes, country, bossa nova, ska, and more over the years. Sure the most recent IIDX mixes are a bit samey, but even those are far more diverse than Frequency or Amplitude if you look at them as complete packages. Not to mention that the average Bemani game has around (or more than) 100 songs, compared to Amplitude's meager 25.
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AMPLITOWNED
 
john tv said:
I like them both, but most of the music doesn't really suit my tastes. It'd be nice if you could have a game like that where you can use your own music...
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that is the problem with any music game not made by mizuguchi.

matsuura's games have good music -- really good music -- but usually it's really just the kind of thing that's good in the game. or something.

anyway, any game that has like, licensed tracks / incredibly trashy techno is just painful most of the time.
 
If you're looking for a rhythm game you should really try to find Gitaroo Man. don't be put off by the wacky screenshots, it's FREAKING AWESOME. I just played it for the first time with some friends taking turns, and we couldn't stop laughing at some of the stages. awesome tunes too!
 
ferricide said:
matsuura's games have good music -- really good music -- but usually it's really just the kind of thing that's good in the game. or something.
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That's kinda funny to me, because Um Jammer Lammy's soundtrack (and the companion album "Make it Sweet") were two of my favorite albums -- video game related or not -- of 1999, and easily two of my favorite game soundtracks ever released. Rez's soundtrack, on the other hand, I would never think to listen to while, say, cruising down the freeway. If anything Matsuura's soundtracks feel less like game music and more like actual records to me, totally listenable (and awesome) outside of the games they were intended for.

Diff'rent strokes, I guess! I'd eagerly buy any Matsuura album, whether connected to a game or not.
 
bobbyconover said:
On the contrary, I see the Freq/Amp music for the most part as collections of either shitty mainstream bands that were included for little more than their big names or of fairly typical all-sounds-the-same techno/trance/whatever, the only exceptions being the bands that their own staff members are in (Freezepop, etc). Amplitude is like the EA Trax of music games, with bands selected specifically to slap on the cover in an attempt to sell the game. Obviously it didn't work. Frequency's music is less mainstream but also even less diverse, with basically nothing but electronica and the occasional industrial metal or hip-hop track.
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Sure, there's mainstream shit like Pink on there, but c'mon, are you dissing David Bowie, Run DMC, DJ Q-Bert, Roni Size, Meat Beat Manifesto or Herbie Hancock? (not Herbie Hammock or whatever soundalike band Konami called their in-house guy in Beatmania...and that US3 knock-off was actually one of the highlights back then...)

Maybe I'm just not into Eurobeat garbage, or random anime theme music, so I don't get a lot of the Beatmania music. The best stuff on there is when they emulate stuff like French pop, or just plain license music (the classic rock stuff in Guitar Freaks/Drummania, some of the licensed stuff from Monday Michiru, Pet Shop Boys, Mixmaster Mike, and Everything But The Girl in earlier Beatmania mixes)...

bobbyconover said:
As for the bit about Bemani games being nothing but "Eurotrash," that's a pretty ridiculous blanket statement to toss out there. You do realize that dozens of Bemani games don't have any music that could be classified that way, right? Namely Guitar Freaks and Drummania 1-12, Keyboardmania 1-3, Mambo a Go-Go, and Pop'n Music 1-12 (with a handful of exceptions per mix, but that's out of 100+ songs apiece). Even Beatmania, though obviously dominated by eurobeat, trance, drum & bass and the like these days, has worked in a ton of interesting genres like lounge pop, hip-hop, funk, punk, chip tunes, country, bossa nova, ska, and more over the years. Sure the most recent IIDX mixes are a bit samey, but even those are far more diverse than Frequency or Amplitude if you look at them as complete packages. Not to mention that the average Bemani game has around (or more than) 100 songs, compared to Amplitude's meager 25.
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Yeah, I'm mainly dissing on the DDR/Beatmania games. I don't mind the music in the others as much (I don't play Pop N Music tho, it seemed like a lot of licensed anime crap)...I just played IIDX 7th Mix for the first time about an hour ago, and yes, the music sucks ass in that game. I don't know if just having a hundred crap songs makes it better than Frequency or Amplitude on sheer numbers, but hey, whatever floats your boat. :)
 
Argyle said:
Sure, there's mainstream shit like Pink on there, but c'mon, are you dissing David Bowie, Run DMC, DJ Q-Bert, Roni Size, Meat Beat Manifesto or Herbie Hancock?
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I'm definitely not dissing any of those guys as musicians (I just went to a Q-bert show a couple of weeks ago, actually!), but I still didn't think their songs were especially fun to play, and I think better tracks could've been chosen for most of them. The biggest exception, of course, is Herbie. "Rock It" is timeless! :D

I actually did enjoy some of the other songs in a so-bad-they're-good way, like "What's Goin' On Mekon?," and like I was saying before I really enjoyed remixing most of the songs in both mixes.
 
I bought Frequency. It should be in the mail soon. Fingers crossed I will like it. I do like Rhythm and Music games. Owned a lot of the japanese ones for PSone but without the special controllers (Pop n Music for example). I don't mind mainstream music so I think I should enjoy it. Stay tuned.
 
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