This article focus on some of the best free rhythm games for PC. Few things in life are better than music. Therefore it stands to reason that music and rhythm games are even better.
Music elicits the most emotional responses of any medium, and it does so in just a few minutes. Music is frequently far more instantaneous than games to make us experience things over time.
Furthermore, building video games around music requires a few crucial aspects. Of course, the gameplay is paramount, but you wouldn’t play a rhythm game if the soundtrack weren’t up to par.
Imagine if we replaced Guitar Hero’s legendary song repertoire with music you’d never heard of before; it might not be worth playing.
Being a PC gamer is a blessing and a curse, just like being a fan of practically any other genre. On the one hand, you have access to an almost infinite number of titles in your chosen genre.
On the other hand, an abundance of games isn’t worth your time. And might divert your attention away from the truly exceptional ones.
Nobody wants a horrible song stuck in their brain. But a lousy rhythm game is worse than bad music and a bad game.
These best free rhythm games for PC have excellent tunes, exciting gameplay, and enjoyable experiences for all of your senses.
We’ve compiled a list of the best free rhythm games for PC available in that spirit.
1. Beat Saber
Beat Saber is simple enough that anyone, regardless of gaming experience, can pick it up in no time. At the same time, as a rhythm game, you have complete control over the difficulty.
You can begin with slow-paced, easy tracks and work your way up to songs with blocks flying at you so quickly and regularly that you’ll feel like you’re doing an intricate dance.
The game comes with a nice collection of music. But what makes Beat Saber so great on PC is that you can import and play any song you want. Only your endurance can keep you from playing indefinitely.
2. Thumper
Have you ever considered a rhythm game as a horror title? If not, Thumper is worth a shot. Sure, it won’t terrify you as much as Amnesia or Resident Evil, but there’s no denying that Thumper has a disturbing vibe at the very least. This is another game that works better in VR but can also be played on a regular computer.
Although there are no motion controls to tire you out, the sensation of being immersed in gloomy, industrial, yet strangely organic tracks is tiresome. Also, It’s also one of the few rhythm games with boss fights.
Furthermore, you control a small metallic beetle hurtling through massive worlds on a single track. As you might guess, there are only about three or four items you need to pay attention to and react to on the beat.
Therefore the challenge increases in how rapidly you must respond to them. The soundtrack is heavy, almost industrial, and skirts the line of being unsettling at times but never crosses it.
Although there are only nine stages in total, mastering them and achieving the highest rating might keep you interested for much longer. This is one of the best free rhythm games for PC.
3. Crypt Of The Necrodancer
Another genre mix that sounds impossible on paper, yet one daring team chose to try combining the popular rogue-like genre with rhythm game principles.
The outcome was the smash hit Crypt of the Necrodancer and Cadence of Hyrule, a spin-off leveraging the Zelda license.
As you might expect from a rogue-like, the original game casts you in the role of one of many unlockable characters who must explore procedurally generated dungeons.
The rhythm aspect comes into play when each move or attack you make must be timed to the level’s beat and the enemy’s.
Also, you always have an opportunity to react if you’re quick enough because you know when they can move and attack.
In that sense, Crypt of the Necrodancer is more of a freeform rhythm game. You’re not hitting precise notes in time; instead, you’re timing moves to the rhythm.
As you progress through the stages, your BPM increases, and your timing, and thus your reaction times, must also increase.
The cadence of Hyrule is a spin-off that takes the same premise and puts it through the nostalgic lens of a classic Zelda game.
Of course, it includes that legendary soundtrack to hop around to while taking out old familiar adversaries. Still, this Nintendo-published game will almost certainly never be released outside of their devices.
Still, Crypt of the Necrodancer is a significant attraction, with nearly infinite replayability comparable to the best rouge-likes. This is one of the best free rhythm games for PC.
4. BPM: Bullets Per Minutes
The FPS rhythm game BPM: Bullets Per Minute is the next experimental game that we loved every minute. This goes against the trend of just asking you to recognize a pattern and press a sequence of buttons in the correct order.
Not that we don’t enjoy the formula; we’ll have plenty of classic rhythm games on our list, but we simply had to mention these games that try to push the envelope a little, and BPM: Bullets Per Minute is one that both FPS and rhythm game enthusiasts should check out.
Also, this game contains many similarities with the last title on our list, such as being rogue-like, but it has its distinct vibe.
Furthermore, to win, you must defeat all seven bosses in one clean run as one of ten playable characters traversing through generated realms.
As you fire your way through the various monsters, you will be accompanied by loud metal music reminiscent of the two most recent Doom games.
Your score and damage multiplier will improve if you move, shoot, and reload promptly. Also, your pistol will misfire if you try to shoot off the beat, leaving you defenseless.
You’ll pick up a lot of fun weapons, new skills, and consumables along the way, but none of them will make up for bad timing. After you’ve mastered the primary game, the challenge modes will push you to the limit of human response time.
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of The Rock
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, released in 2007, is still remembered for its meticulously picked soundtrack.
Including hits from Rage Against The Machine and Slipknot to Kiss and ZZ Top. Every song in the game may be played jointly, with different tracks having rhythm guitar and bass.
While the general complexity of the settings peaked with this game, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock still caters to a wide variety of players.
Including more accessible difficulty settings and slower songs for newbies to learn before moving on to solo-heavy anthems.
Also, this series has a flourishing Twitch following almost a decade after its release speaks something about its enduring appeal.
Unless you’re in a rock band, there’s no better way to jam out with a group of friends if you’re ready to put up with the clutter of many plastic instruments in your home.
6. Lumines: Remastered
Lumines, Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s was initially a PSP game that was remastered and released on PC in 2018.
Players must align shapes of varied colored blocks that, when clustered together, will be eliminated when a “Time Line” passes over them – with this line set to the musical soundtrack – in a game that plays nearly like a musical Tetris. Clearing rows adds new layers to the game’s beautiful soundtrack, which is a prize in and of itself.
Lumines: Remastered is that uncommon puzzle game that’s surprisingly peaceful, hectic, and euphoric simultaneously – especially as the blocks pile up and you’re struggling to keep up.
7. Friday Night Funkin
Anyone around during the heyday of Flash, notably the Newgrounds style, will be hit in the face with nostalgia in a good way after one look at this rhythm game.
Since former Newgrounds users made Friday Night Funkin‘ as part of a game jam in 2020, the look is by no means a coincidence or a simple ploy to feed on your memories.
After discovering its potential, Friday Night Funkin’ was developed into an open-source donationware game. A complete release, dubbed Friday Night Funkin’: The Full Ass Game, has already been backed on Kickstarter for a 2022 release.
Furthermore, Friday Night Funkin’ is a rhythm game that is highly similar to the most well-known and long-running rhythm games, such as Dance Dance Revolution.
Moreover, each level is divided into weeks with three songs and pits them against a new opponent. You’ll hit your arrow keys in sync with them as they scroll across the screen, just like DDR.
You can switch between easy, standard, and hard difficulty levels week to week. The plot is simple, but it serves the objective of generating a motive for diverse characters to combat.
Also, you take on the role of Boyfriend, who must defeat different employers to keep dating his crush Girlfriend. This is one of the best free rhythm games for PC.
8. Sayonara Wild Heart
The worst thing about rhythm games is that they frequently have incredible things in the background. The player, are oblivious since you’re focused on hitting the next note on the track.
Almost every game in the genre fights with the want to have these detailed. And well-produced music videos playing in the background and not wanting to distract you from performing well in the song.
Also, a game hasn’t found a way to blend these two elements perfectly until Sayonara Wild Hearts. And that’s truly the game’s saving grace because it looks so unique that you won’t want to miss anything that happens on screen.
Furthermore, Sayonara Wild Hearts is divided into 23 levels that all flow together to form a single album. You play as a woman trying to collect hearts and press the proper keys to the music while going down a track in various ways, from riding a motorcycle to straight-up flying. There’s more to it, and different levels add unique mechanisms, but that’s a general notion.
9. AudioSurf 2
Have you ever been playing a rhythm game and thought to yourself? “Wow, this would be so much better if I knew some of these songs?” If you answered yes, Audiosurf 2 might be the perfect fit for you.
Whatever the background music, you’ll be shot down a track at breakneck speed. And given the task of collecting as many pickups as possible without hitting any of the obstacles in your way.
Also, Audiosurf 2 allows you to load your songs and turn them into a futuristic motorway of notes, which isn’t exactly a new notion. Just keep in mind that there are still some barriers to avoid.
10. Rocksmith 2014 Remastered
You can play every song on the hardest difficulty in any Guitar Hero or Rockband game. But that won’t help you perform any of those songs on a real instrument.
Furthermore, the goal of Rocksmith 2014 Remastered was to turn the addictive features, into simple mechanics. And the fun of playing a rhythm game into a learning tool that might genuinely help you learn to play guitar or bass.
The game replaces the cumbersome and awkward plastic guitars that You could only use for those games with a USB converter that allows you to learn to play on a real electric guitar or bass. Also, this is probably the best example of gamifying learning that the industry has yet to develop.
11. Rez Infinite
The revised Rez Infinite is nearly more of an experience than a rhythm game. This is maybe the most surprising game to have gained a resurgence given how niche it was when it first came out.
Also, flying through these wire frame-like zones that warp, and shimmer. And alter in strange ways as the music plays is so bizarre that it almost feels like a dream, especially when played in the VR version that comes with this release.
In Rez Infinite, you never know what will happen next, but it’s all perfectly readable and soothing. Even though it is not a “typical” rhythm game, you will quickly go into a hypnotic state while playing.
In terms of gameplay, Rez Infinite is similar to an on-rails shooter. As you progress through the stages, opponents will appear that you must target and lock on to, up to eight at a time. Before unleashing tracking bullets that destroy or damage whatever you target.
Like Star Fox’s lock-on missile, you can paint numerous targets before releasing multiple missiles. This is one of the best free rhythm games for PC.
12. Fuser
Fuser is the studio’s most recent effort, and it’s another experiment in redefining what a genre may be. This game is unlike any other on this list and, in many respects, is more akin to a music tool with gameplay features than a “game” in the traditional sense.
It’s not a teaching tool like Rocksmith but rather a blank canvas on which you can experiment and create your new musical compositions utilizing the game’s existing parts.
In Fuser, you play as a DJ who must combine samples from various songs to create a brand new rhythm. You can also play in a competitive mix battle or co-op to cooperate on a mashup.
Mixing components from songs as disparate as Party Rock Anthem, Rock the Casbah, Don’t Fear The Reaper, and Old Town Road always works, but it’s up to you to make them sound fantastic. And there’s virtually always a method, no matter how Harmonix manages to alter tempo and balance.
13. Rhythm Game
Rhythm Doctor is easily the most esoteric of all the rhythm games on this list, with players doling out medication to patients by er, repeatedly pressing the spacebar on the seventh beat of every bar, despite a barrage of graphical distractions.
Furthermore, Rhythm Doctor, which bills itself as “the hardest one-button rhythm game you’ll ever play,” plays with your expectations in various ways, pushing you to push everything else out of your mind to focus on the rhythm.
Furthermore, your screen may glitch, or there may be some lag to adjust as you heal people. Even better, your screen can go blank, forcing you to count the beats mentally. For this one, you might want to invest in a metronome. This is one of the best rhythm games for PC.
14. Pistol Whip
Pistol Whip combines first-person shooters with high-octane music to transport you into the role of an action movie hero. Each song has its customized level, complete with gun-wielding adversaries.
Throughout a song, the stage constantly changes, allowing you to concentrate solely on shooting foes. Furthermore, Affiliate commissions are earned by Network N on qualified sales.
Mastering a song necessitates avoiding incoming gunfire and eliminating every enemy on the stage. Once you’ve figured out the pattern, your shots will act like a drum beat, accentuating essential notes. Also, pistol Whip offers a unique yet familiar experience that will appeal to any rhythm game lover.
