Frequency

Frequency, from Harmonix — the studio that a few years later created the phenomenon of Guitar Hero and Rock Band — introduced a completely original rhythm game concept in which the player doesn't play a single track linearly but literally composes and remixes music by alternately activating individual sound tracks, such as drums, bass, synth, or vocals, arranged in separate lanes around a central cylinder. Successfully holding the rhythm on one track locked it in permanently, and the player could then jump to another, gradually building the complete song out of individual layers, creating the feeling that the player was simultaneously a musician and a DJ composing their own version of the song.

The controls used three shoulder buttons for three note lanes, plus a separate switch for changing tracks, so the player had to constantly decide which layer of the song to keep playing and which to let fall silent for a while. A mistake didn't just cost points — it left an audible hole in the music, a brilliantly direct way of giving feedback without a single number on screen. The soundtrack combined electronic music, hip hop, and rock from both independent and better-known artists, allowing the game to appeal to an audience seeking an alternative to mainstream musical offerings.

The visual style, with its futuristic neon design of the tunnel and cylinder, perfectly complemented the electronic aesthetic of the music selection and created a hypnotic audiovisual experience that, during longer sessions, could induce an almost trance-like state. Frequency did not achieve major commercial success, partly due to its demanding controls requiring rapid switching between tracks, but it was received extremely warmly by critics as an innovative work that anticipated the future direction the music game genre would later actually take. Harmonix indeed later admitted that the experience of developing Frequency directly shaped the design of their later, globally successful Guitar Hero and Rock Band series.