Being the cheap gamer I am, I set off on a mission to EB Games to find a game under $12.00 for my Playstation 2. What I found was a game called Technic Beat, with the price of $9.99, brand new. I'm usually not a rhythm game fan. In fact, the only rhythm game I can stand to play is DDR, thanks to the dance pad. Most rhythm games need expensive peripherals to go with the game, such as a dance pad, or a guitar, but Technic Beat needs none of these. All you need is your Playstation 2 controller. While glancing at the back cover of Technic Beat, I spotted something that really caught my eye. 'Over 30 Namco Licensed Songs!' I am a huge fan of gaming music, and I loved Namco's Arcade themes, so I decided to pick this game up.

This psychedelic rhythm game gives you well over 50 songs to choose to play with, and six characters to play as. Each character has its own abilities. Bot (a robot, for those who can't tell), for example, can activate markers with his lasers. There is also Knitty, who can carry markers around. The songs included in this game are all original scores and techno arcade remixes of classic Namco songs. Namco songs include: Dig Dug, Pacmania, Galaxian 3, and New Rally X. The soundtrack for Technic Beat is an extremely well done soundtrack. The soundtrack has surpassed many rhythm games I've played in the past.

Beating a level can be pretty simple... depending on the difficulty of a song. Game play is fast, hard, and bizarre. Depending on the song, the speeds of the markers that pop up vary. Pacmania, for example, is a truly troublesome level to play because of how fast the markers pop up and how many markers are on the screen at once. You really need to practice this song in Free Play mode to understand when the markers appear on the screen.

When you activate a marker, it adds a part to a song. Depending on how you play, the song changes both its speed and sound. Activating a marker too soon can cause the song to miss a beat or add an off pitch tone. Activating a marker perfectly can make the song sound amazing.

You will definitely need to practice and stay sharp while playing this game. There will be rings inside of the marker, moving outward. You will need to move to the inside of the marker. The object of the game is to match up the inside ring with the marker on the outside and tap Square, when they match up evenly. If that doesn't sound difficult enough, Markers will pop up at different speeds and in different numbers. If there are two markers that come up at the same time, you have to act fast and set both of them off at the same time.