Giancarlo Varanini Associate Editor	Currently Playing: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker , Panzer Dragoon Orta , Street Fighter Alpha 3 Upper

Incoherent Rambling Ahoy

I wouldn't exactly consider myself a musically inclined person, especially since the only song I can play on my guitar at this point is something that vaguely resembles the scratching of nails on a chalkboard, only much worse. But thankfully, the video game universe provides an outlet for musician wannabes such as myself with a wide array of games that are entertaining only on a purely musical level, but also games that exemplify the core essence of what makes video games so enjoyable. In fact, rhythm games like Gitaroo Man, Guitar Freaks, and Amplitude are indicative of what video games have become to so many people and why the industry has grown so rapidly over the past several years. As cheesy as it may sound, video games truly represent a means of escape, providing an avenue for people to break away from their normal everyday lives so that they can play a rocking Japanese cover of "Bad Medicine," play game seven in the World Series, throw a winning touchdown pass to a receiver, foil an evil terrorist plot involving monkeys that have escaped from a research facility, or whatever.

Can't wait for the new Gradius.

This brings me to an amalgamation of movies and video games otherwise known as Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. I don't think there's any doubt that when Hideo Kojima set out to create Metal Gear Solid 2, or perhaps even the Metal Gear Solid series in general, he was aiming to create a movielike experience, complete with dramatic cutscenes and characters that would slowly expose layers of depth as the game progressed. But with Metal Gear Solid 2, some people thought that Kojima took the whole idea too far by cutting back on gameplay, essentially taking the active nature of video games out of the player's hands and into the game. I'll freely admit that some of the cutscenes in Metal Gear Solid 2 can be pretty ridiculous, especially since one time I left my apartment during one of the final scenes with Solidus and came back 15 minutes later to find that the same cutscene was basically still going. But at the same time, I felt it was a necessary step for games to take because up until the last few years, video game characters, and video games in general, have largely been unable to draw the emotion out of people like a movie can.

Bobby Brown likes Gradius.

So this was going to be a GameSpotting about rhythm games, but it's the day after St. Patrick's Day, so you know how it goes.