Rhythm games are challenging, especially for gamers who aren’t musically inclined. Most rhythm games have different levels and stages that can accommodate newbies, but these games are hard regardless of their difficulty setting. Even if this isn’t your first rhythm game, these games will make you feel like a beginner.
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The games here have unique mechanics that require more than just tapping your screen. If not for their gameplay, the speed of the songs and the confusing beat map of these games will throw you off. Evenyears of rhythm gamingwon’t get you a full clear from these games.
10Project Sekai
You’ve grown up with Vocaloid music, and that’s why you thought about playing Project Sekai. Years into playing this game, The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku and its beat map still haunts your eyes and fingers.
The bridge of the song is notorious for spewing out multiple beats that look impossible to tap, but some people have transcended humanity and have perfected at least that one part of the song. This game’s beat map is simpler compared to the other games featured here, but the speed of the beats requires god-level endurance and a pair of unblinking eyes.
9Muse Dash
Muse Dash feels like a side-scrolling game mixed in with accurate button-mashing madness, but unlike Geometry Dash, this game is indisputably a rhythm game. It almost looks like a good introduction to rhythm games with its unique mechanics, but it’s undeniably chaotic and will keep both your wrists planted and your fingers tapping away.
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Its unconventional format can throw off rhythm game veterans, and its colorful bursts make it easy for your eyes to miss incoming beats. It has easier levels for you to try out, but the game quickly becomes a challenge that will leave your fingers numb for days.
8Cytus
If you started out as a mobile gamer, Cytus might’ve been your first introduction to rhythm games. You thought it would be beginner-friendly, but then you saw shapes and lines pop up from all over the place that you’ll have to press and drag in order. For a game that’s been released in 2012, the game has only gotten more difficult.
It’s important to note that the game has a lot of flashing lights, so it might not be for you if you’re photosensitive. But the buzzing lights, the appearance of the beats, and the way you’ll have to press them depending on their type are what make this game difficult to follow.
7Dynamix
Be prepared to click on lines from all directions with this game. Dynamix won’t confuse you with the way shapes pop out of random locations like Cytus would, but many rhythm gamers often find Dynamix harder than Cytus in terms of difficulty scaling.
There will be times that the rhythm would feel unnatural to tap generated beats, and the accuracy required for this game is inhuman.
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Dynamix will make your hands work in sync as you tap lines coming from all directions. Even if you had all your fingers intact, some players would complain about how you’ll need to use seven fingers all at once and contort your hands unnaturally for you to just clear songs—that’s not easy to do on a mobile device with limited screen space.
6Arcaea
Playing Arcaea will make you feel like your eyes can’t be trusted. Some beats float on top of the map, they swerve, and they often come fast and mercilessly onto you.
Endurance and speed are crucial in this game, but most importantly—you’ll need an unbelievable amount of luck to clear the hardest stages of this game.
The first few games will feel like a good old game of Piano Tiles, but stick around long enough, and you’ll see the tiles lift and swerve in 3D as if you’rewearing a VR headset. By then, you’ll be playing something that resembles Twister but for fingers.
5Osu!
Osu! is a hard rhythm game for everybody. The beat map gets extremely convoluted, and its player base often memes the maps as well as the songs for their complexity.
Memes are a good coping mechanism when the map’s beats appear like colors on a kaleidoscope. They’re everywhere, and you have to tap them all, but they’ll disappear in a split second if you don’t get to tap them.
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Centipede’s map is still physically impossible to come out of with a full clear because all of its beats appear and disappear too soon en masse. Osu! was released in 2007, but is still one of the hardest rhythm games up to date.
4Beatmania IIDX
Beatmania IIDX is a classic rhythm game, and many tout it as the OG of rhythm games. Many rhythm games have come and gone, but Beatmania IIDX persisted.
It’sstepped away from its arcade originsand found its way into different consoles, including your IOS and Android phones.
Hand-eye coordination is a must for this game, and you might be well-acquainted with your good old controller, and you’re already well-versed with tapping your fingers away to demanding beats. But Beatmania IIDX’s arcade version which thrives up to this day will have your hands quickly flying from button to button.
3Taiko no Tatsujin
If you’ve never touched drums in your whole life, Taiko no Tatsujin will be a nightmare. There’s a learning curve for you to conquer with where to hit the beats since you’re hitting an actual taiko drum that registers beats on screen.
Think of it as learning a new instrument packaged as a rhythm game.
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Once you’ve learned where to hit, you can now bop your head to the onslaught of beats you’re supposed to keep up with—and then get yourself absolutely crushed by kids younger than you in the arcade. But that’s not a bad tradeoff if it means you’re able to drum to the beats of various notable artists and even some tracks from theYakuza games.
2Guitar Hero
F-bar chords are hard, but playingGuitar Herowithout learning how to play the actual instrument is harder. Maybe it’s your gateway to learning actual guitar, or you’ve found your way to this game because you’re a guitarist who wanted to test your skills.
Either way, your hand’s dexterity will be challenged like never before. A lot of guitarists scoff at the game because of how simplified chords and strumming patterns are with the game’s controller, but unless you’ve played a string instrument a day in your life, you’ll find Guitar Hero a pleasant challenge.
1Dance Dance Revolution
Dance Dance Revolution is rhythm gaming for dancers, if you don’t consider it as leg day for gamers. Forget hand-eye coordination, your feet better be stepping on the right tiles with onlookers watching in pure excitement (or horror) as you conquer Beethoven Virus.
Even if you don’t have access to your nearest arcade, you can get a dance pad and emulate Dance Dance Revolution with your PC in the comfort of your own home. Other than your own confused pets,there won’t be onlookers to gawk at youas you awkwardly learn how to move your feet.
