The fact that the bassist from lightning bolt worked on this explains sooooooooooooooo much

@toddmichaeljohnson7139

8 ай бұрын

The man is a musical genius

Look at that beetle boi go

Good video Hamish. Keep this stuff up man.

I love this game, and I kinda hate how it goes under everyones radar.

Thumper is so primal and brutal its amazing. The fact that you can skip certain notes or play them differently (by jumping on or off them etc...) is really cool self expression that rhythm games usually don't allow for. The later levels are amazing too, they're so experimental in their rhythm it can be difficult to pick out the pulse to the song since the time signatures are so weird, but they're definitely still in time and all the more amazing for that

Could not agree more. I just wish this game would have gotten more recognition. The first rhythm based game where I find when I reached the end of the level, I was actually holding my breath.

Still one of my favorite rhythm games. It's utterly exhausting and I can usually only do a couple levels before I need to take a break... But that's its own kind of fun too, and one I almost never see in games. On top of that, completely agreed, it gets me into a flow state far more deeply than basically any other game. I was absolutely shocked at making it through the final turns on level 9 on my first encounter. I'm just not that skilled. But damn it felt good. And then the final boss kicked my ass for almost an hour before I gave up for the day because I just couldn't maintain it. 10/10 would suffer again.

While I personally believe that different rhythm games can still deliver well on certain aspects of performing music (Guitar Hero the joy of performance, Audiosurf the desire for perfection), you made a seriously strong point here about the visceral nature of music practice, and how Thumper's design ties into the overall experience as a musician. While no other games I know of truly match that, I recommend checking out Audiosurf, Riff Racer, and Crypt of the Necrodancer, which all play off certain aspects of music design.

the gameplay of 2:30 - 2:40 hurts me on a spiritual level

This game is even better in VR.

@randomguy6679

5 жыл бұрын

Colenolli my god, it totally is

Oh my god the thumb injuries playing this game. I thought I was just crazy or stupid for my thumb hurting so much playing this game. It's actually just that intense.

Bloody hell, you always end up doing some fantastic videos and the thing that I love the most about it is the language, you never go in some overcomplex and vague explanation employing a really stilted lingo but you keep it simple and straightforward without making it sound simplistic or dumb.

I also never got into the Rockband / Guitar Hero genres, I just never understood them. But when I first played Thumper, I was blown away of how much I actually enjoyed it. And while playing it, I got into this trance, especially in VR. At the moment I've only S Ranked the first 3 levels and haven't played since but I found level 3 extremely difficult and I heard it just get 10 times harder after that. So I need to find the time to get back into that trance.

Love the Eldritch horror of this game and music is sooooo good and unnerving

Shoutouts to my boy The Amorphous Pyramid That Can Slow Down Time At Will For A Final Boss Fight.

Does Doom (2016) count as a rhythm game?

@WritingOnGames

6 жыл бұрын

Perhaps more accurate to say that Thumper counts as a Doom (2016) Game™.

@bplusstudios9031

6 жыл бұрын

Writing on Games I'll definitely check it out then! Nothing beats bouncing around a room syncing your shots with the beats of Mastermind. Thanks for the reply! Love your content

@cahdoge

6 жыл бұрын

Love the idea of rythm levels in doom.

@notyetrain

6 жыл бұрын

Gavin Felan Isn't it that the song actually syncs to your actions in Doom? You know, the breaks when performing glory kills, slower parts when not in combat, and I think even bass boosting when shooting.

@dstarr3

6 жыл бұрын

The music is procedurally generated based on which phase of a battle you're in, each song has, y'know, a dozen or so different 4-bar phrases for each phase and it randomly stitches them together so that the music doesn't sound like a loop. And there are hits when you do glory kills. But just because the music is somewhat reactive to your inputs doesn't make it a rhythm game. If you're wanting a combat-oriented rhythm game, that's something like Crypt of the Necrodancer, where your inputs absolutely must be in time with the music. Whereas with Doom, like every game that isn't a rhythm game, there is no relation between the the music and when you must perform what actions.

I think it's about all perfection, or the completion, actually from level 4 it becomes much exciting playing thumper on and on. Completion of each blue, green part is astounding, especially breaking shield. I just love this game so much.

Thank you man i was looking for this game for a 2 months!!! Words cant express my happiness and how much i am greatful to you

Really good distinction on a music game and a music "simulation" like the Rock Band games. You're right--- I never really liked those either. Something like Thumper does get much more to the base of what the act of music and rhythm creation is. Ironically I could see someone getting into actual music creation in real life because of a game like this over something like Rock Band.

This was my first rhythm game, and I love it

Awesome video as ever Hamish! :) I continue to tremendously enjoy the way in which you go through and give a structured & well-balanced analysis/argument while also taking the time to further explain and justify your reasons for your opinions and conclusions. I've heard a lot of good things about Thumper I'll be adding it to my Steam wishlist after watching this keep up the stellar work mate!.

Good to see a video on Thumper, not many people know of it, it's pretty fun

Thanks. I’m checking out music games and didn’t know about this. 👏🏻

Probably one of the most stylish games I have ever seen. And the important step of making a music game with music made specifically for the game is one I hope more follow the example of too.

I like games that convey their desired emotions/feelings through gameplay, but I’ve never thought about what you said when it came to Thumper!

I'd love to see some opinions on Audiosurf a childhood favorite of mine which I feel like inspired Thumper in a lot of ways. It had a similar control scheme with level procedurally generated from whatever songs you threw at it. Another interesting one: Beathazard which was a top-down schmup that used a similar music-intensity level generation system.

The thing that I loved a lot about DJ Hero 2-- I loved both games, but specifically the second, was that certain sections allowed you to crossfade between both tracks in a mashup freely. Sure, there was only so much you could do with a crossfader and two pre-made music tracks, but it allowed you total freedom for a few moments in a game that based itself on Guitar Hero's rigid hit/miss notes, and provided the 'solo' aspect that you mentioned towards the beginning. Good stuff as always!

The time signature is the same as the level number

Platinumed this game on the PSvr, awesome experience

Good video. I personally absolutely love Thumper. I've always tried to get into rhythm games, but never really enjoyed any that I tried - but I very, VERY much enjoy Thumper. Its capability of getting you into a "flow" is impressive, and that flow feels fucking awesome.

Nice one, Hamish. Love you.

I absolutely would agree with that one. Thumper IS the best game music game ever made. Well one that doesn't require PSVR, the move controllers or the camera, like a certain other game does, which I love by the way too. I am of course referring to Beat Saber.

Keep up the good work!

Thank god I’ve been waiting for people to talk about how good this game is since it came out.

wish you uploaded more man love ya videos

Your explanation confuses me. You make no mention of many of the most well regarded music games: Beatmania, Stepmaina/DDR, Osu!, Taiko, etc. These games are designed as tests of skill, and provide the same feelings of accomplishment and "how the hell did I do that" you seem to imply thumper does exclusively. You are justified in saying thumper has a unique asthetic, but can you really justify naming it the best rythym game if you only reference Guitar hero in comparison?

@TheEliteJohan

6 жыл бұрын

I think he dinstinguishes between music games and rhythm games, which makes sense given that Thumper isn't much of a rhythm game IMO.

@ThatZanKid

6 жыл бұрын

It's not merely the difficulty or aesthetic that differentiates Thumper, though. IMO, it's the way it stresses the trade-off between self-expression and failure, and how the imperceptibility of what's around the corner heightens the risk/anxiety created by this trade-off. As a consequence, it's less about rote-learning patterns, and more about intuitively responding to an unpredictable obstacle course. That's why the use of 9/8, 7/8, 5/4 is interesting, since it further disorients the player and rewards those who 'just feel it'.* So it's not necessarily better than those games, It's just different. If you're after a strict test of mechanical skill, then I think Thumper pales compared to the likes of Beatmania. But if you want to recreate the sensation of playing an instrument, then yeah, Thumper is likely unmatched. * Also that isn't to say that DDR, Beatmania, etc. don't reward players who have a strong sense of rhythm. That's obviously not true. It's just that Thumper makes it utterly essential to even survive a level.

@kato093

5 жыл бұрын

car keys i like thumper but my favorite rythm game is dj hero and i orefer way much more amplitude

For me it’s (and I’m not joking) one of the scariest games I have ever played, it feels me with dread and terror every time I play it. I might have took the symbolic element too literally. I still love hate it.

Sounds like an amazing game.

So, this is basically made by the people who created Frequency and Amplitude on PS2? I already had it on my radar, now I'm going to buy it for sure on Switch. I've always loved rhythm games of all sort (from Guitar Freaks to Rock Band, from Theathrythm Final Fantasy to Elite Beat Agents, from DDR to Crypt of the Necrodancer): playing with music is one of the greatest possibilty we have with the medium and it always drives me nuts when I have a good game-music experience. You know, like Rez, in example...

Didn't you do a video on this before, picked up this game last week on what I thought was your recommendation. Haha, either way, I'm loving it. Wish it had an "easy" mode with no deaths though. I just want to make it through each level in one go so I can feel the smooth progression and build up of each track, then be able to go back later and perfect it.

I came here looking to remember the name of the game "Audio Surf", and 5 mins in you've convinced me to but this. Thanks.

One of the best games of all time.

I'm definitely all behind what's stated here, Thumper was something incredible and its core challenge mostly being overcome by a zen-like state of being one with finding and creating rhythms was definitely something key to it. I do have to say though, those later stages relied far too much on flight-turn combos that were always way too difficult to master for me.

I've always wanted to like Thumper, but maybe it's because I've played basic rhythm games too much but I didn't enjoy it because I couldn't play it by sound. Halfway through the game I struggled to play it, and to enjoy it, the game felt disconnected from the music too much and I gave it up. I keep trying to pick it up but I always stop halfway, I should get past that wall sometime.

@HACKERMANNN

6 жыл бұрын

That's exactly how I felt. It seemed more like a game based on reaction than rhythm. Similarly to e.g. guitar hero, the "notes" you are playing feel totally disconnected from the music that is playing in the background imo.

@dstarr3

6 жыл бұрын

I think it has to do with how the late game music is so... the time signatures are unusual, and you're working with such heavily syncopated rhythms that it sort of becomes abstracted from its musicality? Especially since there's no real melody to latch on to, and for the most part, the songs are generally pretty formless. There's no sense of "verse-chorus-verse" or "a-section b-section bridge a-section" or anything to latch on to. I mean, I've beaten the game, and at no point did I feel like the rhythms became desynchronized from my inputs or anything. It felt like I was genuinely playing the music. It's just that the music is basically just formless, abstract rhythm challenges. The music isn't structured like a song, it's structured like a technical exercise. And the music being so not-musical makes the game itself feel very not-musical, as well.

@GingerTheEpic

6 жыл бұрын

It is about the rhythm though. Every time I tried playing without sound my play was off. However, I think that the problem comes from the fact that you have to listen ahead. If you play the game with headphones all of the obstacles have sound cues that come right before you face them. I understand the difficulties one could have with the game but I personally think the music is essential.

lmao at 0:38, who comes to a concert with a giant hand painted "YOU SUCK" sign?

Reminiscent of Rez on the Dreamcast but instead of The Lawnmower man meets Fruity Loops, it's The 'Flight Of The Navigator meets Reason 9

I haven't seen a game move forward at such a fast speed since F-Zero GX. Godspeed, Nintendo, please fucking make a new F-Zero game. That game is so old it's a fond childhood memory at this point, and it's the newest in the series.

I was a bit interested in that game, but now I'm completely sure: I'm gonna buy it for Switch

Though the game is “violent” on rhythm terms it’s rather merciful the game might punish you but you as the player want to get to the end to hear the sound while playing it’s almost as the game is saying to you every time you die is “GET UP AND TRY AGAIN” while picking up your hand and putting u threw hell to keep pushing forward

Well, Audiosurf and Beat Hazard are still sweet in my heart.

Thumper is a rhythm game.

I hate the music in most rhythm games so much. I love Thumper. I sucked at it, but it hooked me in and I kept at it until I got the Platinum Trophy for S ranking all levels. It is such a good feeling game.

What do you think of the new Sectioned album, Hamish? Thumper rules hard. Video rules hard. Keep up the grind dude.

I play this game with a fight stick and it feels sooo right

These fools out here not knowing the difference between rhythm games and music games... Rhythm is more about memorizing patterns and relying on the music to intuit what's going to come next, as well as focusing on memorization. While memorization is pretty important in music games, there's often a call-and-response aspect (iirc you mentioned in your first thumper vid, or the article?) where the player is "playing" the music in the game, sort of creating it themselves, rather than "playing alongside it" in rhythm games. Great vid as always!

I know the rhythm/music games are pretty much dead in the western market, but I'm pretty sure IIDX Beatmania, SDVX, Taiko no Tatsujin, Chunithm, Project Diva, and Deemo are more than "not much else"

isn't this an old video? I rememeber you uploading this video a while ago

One of my favourite aspects of Thumper is that (outside of the online manual) there are no official names for any of the obstacles in the game. I call them things like notes, barriers and walls, but someone else might come up with their own way of refering to those things. I guess that's also part of the player expression aspect you mentioned, isn't it?

Thumper is on sale right now for like 6.50$

It makes me think of Barrier X

I got Thumper on Switch and it got soooo fuckin hard by level 5.

The game equivalent of trying to play Bleed by Meshuggah?

Love this game, why u don’t show the actual music of the game in the video?

@EZIOXXX777

6 жыл бұрын

walter avila, can you provide with one level of the game that has enjoyable music? Ive watched level 9 and the first two, and thats definitely not something my brain interprets as music.

@walteravila4072

6 жыл бұрын

Douglas Pupper I mean, why not put the OST of the game in the background instead of some random electronic music. If u don’t know it u may think that is the music of the game, and a big big part of his identity is the violence of his particular music. Is just crazy to me to see a video of a rhythm game without including any of his music.

@comdrive3865

2 жыл бұрын

@@walteravila4072 welcome to postmodernism. Common sense does not exist.

What's the music in the background here??

Yo Hamish, I'm really happy for you. Imma let you finish, but Gitaroo Man was one of the greatest music games of ALL TIME! Memes aside, this was a fantastic video about an incredible game. No music game I've ever played has captured the in-the-moment creative expression found in playing music. However no game I've played nails the feeling of locking into a groove (and the mad panic when things go wrong) quite like Thumper.

What are your thoughts on Osu though?

I need writing on Bit.Trip.Runner

So I saw the first 30 seconds of this video... And though "why the fuck don't I own this game?" so I bought it and skipped out on the rest of my homework for the night to play it.

Now listen to Lightning Bolt ⚡️

Beat Saber would like to have a word. It’s a rhythm game, BUT WITH LIGHTSABERS

@trent5807

5 жыл бұрын

Osu would like to have a word. It's a rhythm game... Wait, that's not right. It's the rhythm game.

@fiso64

3 жыл бұрын

2 years late but beatsaber is nowhere close to thumper in terms of quality

Thumper is an interesting name

l guess Thumper is the Dark Souls of music games, lol.

Would be good if you explained what the hell I'm looking at..no idea how this game works

3:14 I'll be watching you.

Not even a mention of djamax? That's widely considered the best series in the genre.

So Hamish, would you say that Thumper helped you internalize obscure time signatures?

I would pay serious money to anyone who could explain the appeal of this game to me.

@solar901

Жыл бұрын

You must play it yourself to understand. Also it's a bit similar to playing an instrument - you really enjoy it when you learn to play decently.

0:34 Is that Brutalmoose? lol

So... Dark Souls of Rhythm games?

@LoliconSamalik

6 жыл бұрын

you make me sick...

@cahdoge

6 жыл бұрын

Osu! is the Dark Souls of rythm gmes. ^^

@barditheweird6062

6 жыл бұрын

cahdoge osu is the touhou of rhythm games)

@Tenchigumi

6 жыл бұрын

At first, I scoffed at the notion. Then I played it and I was like "okay. I get it."

@W3Rn1ckz

5 жыл бұрын

Most probably. Also probably a favorite of ZT from Eversion.

I think i’ve played Frequency on PS2 more than any other game ever. Good Rhythm games can’t be beat

Nice writing, really, but in a video about the best MUSIC game, the music is never in focus during the video, I feel like some highlights would do good to make your point more clear and approachable. Anyway, thanks for the awesome pieces you do

If you gonna talk about the gameplay. I would like to see some unetid gameplay first.

You gotta try it in vr tho, it's wayyyy better

Should have edited the video so we could hear the game at points.

Check out sound voltex ;P

DJMAX Respect

Thumper reminds me of Bit.Trip Runner... I'd imagine it feels more "playable" (as in music) though, since in Runner you need to accommodate for jump arcs, so it doesn't really feel like you're playing along with the music. Also Runner just ends up being an exercise in memorization since you die in one hit, so it's more like some cruel rehearsal where the teacher makes you restart after every single fuck up. Also why people mention Rez here? It's not a rhythm game at all. Rez has great music and synced SFX, but you don't actually do anything in it that matches the beat. You just point and shoot. It may be called a "music game" in general since music is an important element of its presentation, like Brutal Legend.

Darshan

Anyone like Jubeat or MaiMai? (The arcade versions)

Call Cannibal Corpse

Great vid but can't believe i didnt get to listen to any cool tunes.

used to be thumper until Beats Saber comes out. lol

You're missing one important point: neither the visuals nor the soundscape undergo any major changes, and with the game's padded length it feels extremely samey all over, as if you were playing one and the same song on different difficulties over and over and over. Also it's kind of lazy to only compare it against guitar hero type games when much more technical rhythm games like beatmania, popnmusic, osu, and hardcore stuff like sound voltex exist.

I love it, but it’s way too hard for me. I couldn’t get past certain chapters so i stopped. It also completely tressed me out. No joy in playing. Maybe if there was an easy mode i’d play it again.

@joebailey8294

6 жыл бұрын

Collaborator I relish the stress

Audio Surf anyone?

Seriously missed opportunity in not featuring any audio from the game. Especially when you were talking about the different rhythms, an example would have helped.

Strongly agree, are you aware of any games that deeply explore pitch in a similar way?

Try Geometry Dash or Shapes and Beats. They are EXELLENT Rhythm Games. :3

Good video, but it is lame that you only compare Thumper to guitar hero and rock band

@randomguy6679

5 жыл бұрын

Juan Luis Vargas Pareja he also doesn't like rez very much

You just glossed over Necrodancer? ._.

@randomguy6679

5 жыл бұрын

Serathis probably hasn't played it