rezhd Last Wednesday Microsoft finally saw fit to give us access to Rez HD through Xbox Live Arcade.  Rez is an older game, first released for the ill-fated Sega Dreamcast and then later for the Playstation 2.  It never really received the attention it deserved because the game is pretty off-beat, and was one of the first (and it is still considered among the best) of the music-oriented games that we enjoy today like Rock Band.  That's not to say you play Rez with the guitar, but the notable thing is that much like Rock Band and Guitar Hero (along with countless other music-oriented games from the past couple years) the gameplay revovles around music.

To the untrained eye Rez looks just like a standard on-rails shooter, but the important thing is that it is set to an awesome trance soundtrack that is added to by your actions in the game.  This goes along perfectly with the vector-esque graphics that are still pretty beautiful to this day.  Like I said above, Rez didn't get much attention when it was first released for the PS2 because it came out right around the time when huge hits like a follow-up to the Metal Gear franchise was garnering a lot of acclaim.  Basically, it got lost in the flow of other quality titles at the time.  Not only that but at $50 Rez's 4 levels was a bit of a value question for most gamers at the time.

That's not the case anymore.  You can get a revamped version of Rez that has been completely re-optimized for high definition audio and video aptly named Rez HD for only $10.  What can I say?  The game's a blast.  It's based off of the principle of being able to visualize sound or music, and it really capitalized on that.  The levels are beautiful, fun, and energetic.  Plus there's a cool "trance vibration" feature that allows you to use separate controllers as basically sub-woofers for the game.  I'll expand more on that in a moment.  Oh, did I mention that this platinum title can be yours for only $10??  At the risk of sounding too much like a commercial, let me just say if you're an Xbox 360 owner and you haven't purchased Rez yet stop reading and go do so.

So this new Trance Vibration feature like I said, allows you to assign your extra controllers almost like subwoofers, thumping out the beat as you play.  How does this work?  Well all of the Xbox 360's controllers have a nice little rumble pack in them, so Rez just times the controller to rumble along with the beat.  It sounds gimmicky but it literally lets you feel the music as you play which is important in a game as music-centric as Rez.  What I did was set up a second controller as the trance receiver (only one, but you can have multiple controllers do this) and I placed it behind me just below my neck.  Then, whenever the level got hectic I'd feel the beat of the song, or in actuality the game, thumping through my back.  It's pretty awesome, you just have to try it.

lumines So that's it.  Rez didn't get enough attention the first time around but that's not the case this time - go get the game!  Show support for such a special title so we can see more of these unique games down the road.  I'm just hoping that this extra bout of attention might inspire Rez's developer (also makers of Lumines for PSP and XBLA) to bring us a sequel.

Now Playing:
Poets of the Fall - Late Goodbye
World of Warcraft, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Rez HD