Interview:J-Pop Producer Tsunku Perfects Music Games With Rhythm Heaven: Difference between revisions

!style="width:85%" align="left" valign="top"|''Rhythm Heaven'', one of Japan's hottest videogames, came from an unlikely collaboration between Nintendo and a high-profile Japanese music producer who set out on a quest to create a truly musical game.<br><br>Mitsuo Terada, a 40-year-old J-pop producer who goes by the Prince-like moniker "Tsunku♂," is involved in most every aspect of the Japanese pop music scene. As a producer, he created the immensely popular girl group Morning Musume. As a songwriter and vocalist, he has released several albums, including a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZITHV3dEvU CD of Beatles covers].<br><br>Recently, he worked with Nintendo to create ''Rhythm Heaven'', the Nintendo DS game released this month in the United States after selling more than 1.5 million copies in Japan.<br><br>The music game is a perfect blend of [https://www.wired.com/2009/04/review-rhythm-h/ addictive gameplay and catchy music] that breaks the mold set by the incredibly popular ''Guitar Hero''. Ditching realism for wackiness, ''Rhythm Heaven'''s songs are set to a series of 50 cartoon mini-games that can be devilishly difficult.<br><br>Wired.com had the opportunity to e-mail a few questions to Tsunku♂, who talks about videogame music hitting the charts, Japanese-American cultural crossovers and the challenge of creating a musically fulfilling game.