Rhythm Thief producer speaks on title’s origins and the future of music games

We’re quite fond of Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treaure here at Vooks (our own James Mitchell gave it a shining review) – and rightfully so. It’s a Nintendo 3DS title that is clearly a labour of love, from producer Shun Nakamura. Around ten years ago he worked on the critically acclaimed Samba De Amigo music game for the SEGA Dreamcast, and in a recent interview with 1up.com, he spoke regarding his motivations to return to the genre.

Nakamura focused on the idea of  the ‘…blending of rhythm and narrative’. In his view most rhythm games don’t have much depth to their structure and rely on ‘core fun factors’, such as simply enjoying the music. Taking this a step further, he likened matching music to a scene in a movie. In a game you can do something similar to engage the player, and in this light ‘…expand[ing] on a usual rhythm game by offering specific gameplay with specialised music for each scene’.

Another point Nakamura stressed was that he wished to ‘…break away from standard rhythm games’. He explained that most rhythm games have one main mechanic and simply run through many different songs. In Rhythm Thief the player is presented with many varying mechanics and controls, that are designed to match relevant scenes of the narrative. Nakamura says the intention here was to ‘…create a wide variety in the game which would excite players.”

Breaking and entering... in style!

The interview then turned towards the future, particularly Nakamura’s thoughts on the genre in years to come. He believes that the “Bemani style [i.e. Dance Dance Revolution etc.] has reached its limit and users feel that way too.” He further elaborates that after creating Samba De Amigo he felt that the design of music games stagnated, and as a consequence become largely irrelevant to gamers.  Nakamura concluded this part of the discussion by talking about his answer to this stagnation, which he believes relies in the plot.

If you’re looking for a great rhythm-based game for your 3DS, consider Rhythm Thief and the Emperor’s Treasure. We gave it a 4/5 here at Vooks, and right now it’s selling for less than $30 at selected retailers. There’s never been a better time to get your groove on!

Magical two step feeds the piper...