MTV Music Generator 3: This is the Remix

Music Generator finally hits the Xbox, exciting music-loving gamers everywhere.

Tags: Categories: Reviews, Xbox Reviews

Posted by David Hinkle on Aug 10th, 2004

Title Players
MTV Music Generator 3: This is the Remix (title page) 1
Developer Publisher Genre Online
Action No

In the third installment of MTV’s only worthwhile video game franchise, players are no longer held back by the limits of how much empty space is on your memory card. One of the biggest qualms with the previous PS2 installments, the player is able to create not only longer songs, but also save many more to the Xbox’s adequate hard drive. Will you want to spend that much time with this title? Music lovers will – the casual gamer most likely won’t.



That’s fine though, because odds are most gamers have heard of the previous installments in this franchise and have either been apathetic or turned into die-hard fans. Essentially taking small clips of different music that could range from 1 beat to 4, and range from styles like house, techno, and even rap, inserting them block by block into 1 of 4 categories(Drums, Bass, Riffs, and Vocals)composing your masterpiece is what this is all about. This basic premise that makes the goal of the game hasn’t changed, yet in the latest installment a lot of the key features that help you achieve this goal have been altered.



Some of the things eliminated in this installment are the ability to create music videos or have DJ music battles. Every cosmetic feature has been cut in favor of as much song manipulation as possible. Also not available in this iteration that was in the previous is the ability to put your voice into the game. In MTV Music Generator 2 for the PS2, with the USB headset players were able to loop their own voice over there own tracks. These are overshadowed by the insane amount of positive additions thankfully.



The most notable addition in this recent installment is the ability to rip songs from your Xbox’s hard drive and incorporate them into your remix. With all the features and different effects you can apply to the sounds, you can easily make those ripped sounds almost unidentifiable from their original track. The only flaw with this is you can only rip 8 seconds from the selected track(damn copyright laws), and aren’t given the ability to totally remix any song on your hard drive. You are limited to remixing one of the 12 included songs(which range in musical styles from rapper Snoop Dogg to reggae from Sean Paul). This isn’t too bad though since you can basically erase every sound in the song and start from scratch, yet this doesn’t allow you to screw with the BPM(beats per minute), otherwise known as tempo. It would’ve been nice to be able to customize this, but there is a way around it by picking a different root song to remix.



You can excersize a little musical creativity, however, by creating your own drumbeats and melodies. Not only are you able to create them, but can also save them and incorporate them into your remixes. Sadly this installment does not offer the ability to incorporate your own voice into the game like in the previous PS2 title. This seems like it would of been a no-brainer to implement, what with headsets readily available and countless people having Xbox LIVE. Why they decided not to include this, I do not know. Just about all of this is going to be used in the Studio area of the game. Here you can create up to 24 different layers(or tracks) and customize up to 512 things in each song. These range from the actual sounds you use to make the song to the effect(s) you put on each of those sounds.



Other than Studio mode, there is the Remixer mode. In Remixer mode, you are basically given all the options in Studio mode, just at a capacity more in tuned with the track you are remixing. Here you won’t have free, creative reign over the track, but are given sounds more along the lines of the track’s style. Want to turn Snoop Dogg’s ‘From the Chuuuch to Da Palace’ from a rap hit to a club dance mix? This is easily done at the push of a button.



This is all managed through an excellent control scheme. Improving over the clunky and sometimes confusing interface of the previous titles, you’ll find yourself putting in high hat rolls like a champ in no time. Even if you manage to have trouble, or are completely new to the game, you’ll find an excellent hands-on tutorial waiting to walk you through it. Through toggle switches, blocks, and drop down menus you’ll easily be able to implement pauses, effects(such as reverb, flange, and fuzz), and even volume for certain tracks of your song. Say you have a heavy-drummed, trance song and you want to loop a piano riff at low volume in the background, now you can do it by a couple presses of the A button and navigation by the D-pad.



Very much a niche title that will appeal to a select few, this is a drastic improvement over the previous entry. Continuing this trend, I see this game incorporating new and exciting features. One thing I’m sad about is the lack of Xbox LIVE support. A title like this could really benefit from an online community where users can trade songs with one another, or even have rooms where they can exhibition their songs and maybe even sing along to them. A sort of online concert, these are the types of abstract avenues of thought that could really bring about some intuitive changes and add even more diversity to an already solid formula. Oh well, hopefully next time.

What Works Score
Interface
Ripping tracks
Almost total musical freedom 		8.0
What Doesn't
Lack of vocal support
No multiplayer
Only 8 seconds on ripped tracks
Under the Shrink-wrap
With over 4,000 stock sounds and the ability to rip sections of songs from your hard drive, the possibilities are almost endless when it comes to creating tracks with MTV Music Generator 3: This is the Remix. Improving over the flaws of the previous installments in the franchise and creating a fun experience for all ages, this is a title no music lover should overlook. For the price, you can't go wrong.
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