16Bit Rhythm Land (Unlicensed)

Google translation of the Japanese box blurb - "In this era, FM tone generator rhythm games have arrived. Press the button at the right time to match the rhythm of the FM sound source. Easy-to-use rhythm game! Can you master all 4 unique games?"

From Genki Games:-
"Famed for its Famicom revival, Columbus Circle turns its fair hand to the 16Bit circuit with impressive results. Based on a rhythm action premise, there are four games; Baseball relies on hitting in time to the beat, the Space Invaders style shooting is again in time to the rhythm, the platform action requires jumping hazards to the music and finally the space defence relies on using the shields at the right time and in the right place. Roll on more MD action."

This was originally a Japanese physical release which also coincided with a Famicom release known as 8Bit Rhythm Land. The songs have been composed by famed musicians Yuzo Koshiro and Manabu Namiki among others.

The longplay may be a little on the boring side due the requirement of completing every song perfectly for game to show that song as complete. I do show the some bad playing at the end of the video to show the effect of that although there is no fail trigger or energy bars to worry about in this game. The idea is to have fun scoring as high as possible in each song without worrying too much about note misses.

There are four variations to play through each with five songs. Three available at the start and the other two unlocked for finishing one of the tracks perfectly. While notes are displayed completely differently in each game, the idea is always the same. Hit what ever is coming at you at the right time. Before each stage the game tells you what the buttons do. Its mostly on rails with the only requirement to hit on of two buttons at the right moment.

The game starts with two difficulty modes. The main difference between easy and hard is the amount of notes thrown at you at once with just one note stream on easy mode in the dancing girl for instance. The genesis game features an extra Hell difficulty on a per song basis when completed perfectly on either easy or hard. Hell mode changes the colour palette a little and some gfx and is based on the hard mode without any visual assistance when the fast notes are thrown at you. Again the songs need to be completed perfectly for the gold star.

Overall, its a nice game but the unlock requirements are a bit steep as its all too easy to hit a note a few pixels off and ruin the run. Melodian Shield has a potentially game breaking bug that stops the game rewarding you with a completion point when completing three of the tracks on Hard mode with no misses. SFX could have been done much better to compliment the soundtrack so that it sounds like you are playing part of the music, a missed opportunity there although the sfx can be disabled at any time to just enjoy the music. There is also the Jukebox mode where you can listen to any of the songs without needing to unlock anything free of any distractions.

Hell difficulty caused me some problems at Melodian shield but I persisted after noticing what was going on. Even after getting all 'Cool' perfect hits, sometimes the reward was not given and it turns out it is due to not hitting the notes fast enough. The notes need to be destroyed on the very edge of the shield to destroy them in quick time while being 'cool' ensuring the next note is drawn. If there is a delay in destroying the note even if still 'cool' the next note wont be thrown. So you need to destroy quick to get as many notes as possible for the reward, very annoying. Suffice to say, there is no reward for the overall effort of getting all golds leaving it all a little under whelming and pointless in the end.


00:00:00 Title Music
----- Running Girl ----
00:01:40 fille des ruines (Hard)
00:03:40 sagashi ni ikou (Hard)
00:05:38 Candy Sprint (Hard)
00:07:30 Speed Girl (Hard)
00:09:30 In bocca al lupo (Hard)
----- Music Baseball ----
00:11:33 Rhythmic Baseball (Hard)
00:13:15 Full base (Hard)
00:15:35 Daimakyu Twister (Hard)
00:17:15 Setsuna Batting (Hard)
00:18:32 Swing Girl
---- Melodian Shield ----
00:20:25 Battle of glory (Hard)
00:22:15 Silver Lining (Easy)
00:23:30 Ryusei Kumikyoku (Easy)
00:25:10 Final Defence (Hard)
00:27:00 Technogizer (Easy
---- Earth Crysis ----
00:28:55 Stranger (Hard)
00:30:50 Thunder Vader (Hard)
00:33:00 Front Line (Hard)
00:34:50 Tension Attention (Hard)
00:36:40 Cosmic Rendezvous (Hard)
--------------------------------------------------
00:38:20 fille des ruines (Hell)
00:40:18 sagashi ni ikou (Hell)
00:42:17 Candy Sprint (Hell)
00:44:07 Speed Girl (Hell)
00:46:02 In bocca al lupo (Hell)
----- Music Baseball ----
00:48:06 Rhythmic Baseball (Hell)
00:49:50 Full base (Hell)
00:52:09 Daimakyu Twister (Hell)
00:53:50 Setsuna Batting (Hell)
00:55:08 Swing Girl (Hell)
---- Melodian Shield ----
00:57:00 Battle of glory (Hell)
00:58:43 Silver Lining (Hell)
---- Earth Crysis ----
01:01:00 Stranger (Hell)
01:02:54 Thunder Vader (Hell)
01:05:02 Front Line (Hell)
01:06:53 Tension Attention (Hell)
01:08:42 Cosmic Rendezvous (Hell)
----- Melodian Shield ----
02:10:22 Final Defence (Hell)
01:12:08 Technogizer (Hell)
01:13:56 Ryusei Kumikyoku (Hell)
------------------------------------------------
01:15:42 Credits
01:17:24 Quick play of all four games with plenty of errors.