乐动时代note is a Chinese Rhythm Game for iOS by RedAtoms, Inc. It's actually very approachable by non-Chinese speakers (although you may find it hard to find the music in the game elsewhere). It's actually the third in a series, but this article will concentrate on the most recent version.
In terms of gameplay, it has four target zones, to which gems will fall and you have to hit as accurately as possible. The average accuracy of the hits is displayed at the end as a percentage and, of course, graded.
Songs range in difficulty from 1 to 10 or higher. Unlike most Rhythm Games, there is only one difficulty level per song. However, some songs do have separate "EZ"note , "NM"note and "HD"note versions.
Being a mobile-device game, it has social media implements and downloadable extras.
You can reach the iTunes download page here
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Tropes in the games include:
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: The only reward for spending real money.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Those who don't pay attention to the difficulty level 10 will get this from "Honey". What is basically Chinese bubblegum pop turns out to be ludicrously difficult.
- Crossover: RedAtoms also produce DJ Max Ray in China, so naturally, some of the songs from DJMax make an appearance in the game. Most of them are
That One Boss territory. - Earn Your Fun: Most Level 2 songs are unlocked by becoming level 2 yourself, likewise the level 3 songs and so on up to eleven (or, more accurately, 10+)
- Gameplay Grading: From F (less than 50% accuracy, which is probably impossible to do even deliberately) to S (over 99% accuracy).
- Harder Than Hard: On a scale of 1-10, some songs have the difficulty level 10+
- Made of Explodium: All of the gems make a column of pyro matching their colour.
- Microtransactions: Averted in the case of songs, almost uniquely among Rhythm Games (none of the songs have to be paid for) but also played straight (clothes can be bought with diamonds, which cost real money).
- Nintendo Hard: The level 10 and 10+ songs.
- Rank Inflation: The S rank makes an appearance.
- Recurring Element: "Ievan Polkka" and "Beethoven Virus" appeared in some form in both of the game's predecessors.
- Sequential Boss: Quest mode's end-of-world battles force you to play two songs in a row against the AI. These songs range from levels 8 to 10+, meaning you are going to face a real challenge.
