8Bit Rhythm Land (Unlicensed)

From Genki Games:- "Famed for its Famicom revival, Columbus Circle goes for 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."

This was originally a Japanese physical release which also coincided with a Genesis release known as 16Bit Rhythm Land.

The longplay may be a little on the boring side as I aim for hitting all notes, but there is no requirement of completing every song perfectly as there is no reward tracking. I think even the extra songs unlock without needing a perfect song finish. I do show the some bad playing at the end of the video to show the effect of that although there is no fail condition 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 songs 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 sfx can seem a bit obnoxious in many of the songs and I didnt notice a way to disable them in this game. However the game does include a jukebox where you can play all the music without distractions or need to unlock. I think they missed a trick by not tying the sfx into the song so that it sounds like you are playing part of it.

Overall not a bad game to pass the time but there is nothing really to work towards to as there is no rewards to show or anything to unlock after the the extra songs.

00:00:00 Title
---- Running Girl ----
00:00:50 Something Freaks - hally
00:03:35 Daydream Runner - Junko Ozawa
00:05:10 Hurry Up! - Kazuhiko Sugiyama
00:06:35 Side Step - Tsukasa Masuko
00:08:00 Running High - Hironori Shoji
---- Music Baseball ----
00:09:55 Baseball Kid - Nobuyuki Shioda
00:11:40 Tornade - Nobuyuki Shioda
00:13:15 Hit-end Run - Kazuhiko Sugiyama
00:14:40 Take Me Out to the Ball Game - Albert V. Tilzer
00:16:05 Alte Kameraden - Carl A.H. Teike
---- Hades Rhythm ----
00:17:45 Samidare - Tsukasa Masuko
00:19:15 Heiankyo - Hironori Shoji
00:20:45 Konoyo no kokoro - Kazuhiko Sugiyama
00:22:10 Funauta - Norio Nakagata
00:24:05 Idaten - Norio Nakagata
----- Cosmolien ----
00:26:15 Drunk Aliens - hally
00:28:10 Alien King - Nobuyuki Shioda
00:30:00 Defender - Kazuhiko Sugiyama
00:31:30 Uma - Hironori Shoji
00:33:00 Denshi shinbo - Norio Nakagata
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00:34:50 Credits
00:36:30 Playing badly in the four games