Some say the rhythm-action genre is in trouble, and for good reason: Between Guitar Hero and Rockband and their respective spin-offs, the market is becoming pretty oversaturated. Personally, I think things started to get silly when they released entire games based around one band, and really silly when they expected you to buy new peripherals with each game, but that's just me.

Whatever the truth of the matter, it's widely known that Guitar Hero 5 at least didn't sell that well, perhaps forcing Activision to explore other franchises. Whilst Harmonix's own Rockband has been a bit more sparse with its releases, one still has to wonder how long it can keep things up. But despite all that, if it wasn't in trouble before, it's definitely in trouble now. InstantJam is a browser based rhythm-action game with all of the features and qualities of a AAA production title, all in a simple package. If marketed and handled right, this could very well take the genre by storm.


Ok, that was a bit of hype, but we went into the InstantAction/GarageGames booth not knowing what we were there to see (because we weren't told), and suffice to say we were surprised. It's not every day that you get to meet Louis Castle either, and it's definitely not every day you see a Facebook game that's actually, well, good. It seems to combine the addictiveness and simplicity of the browser-based genre, and the fun of a rhythm action game, with the production values of a AAA title.

You're probably wondering how a browser game could possibly have the same quality as retail titles? Well it's pretty simple, the game isn't actually based 'on' the browser, it just plays 'through' the browser, and eventually through anything else you embed the game too, even your own personal website. What the InstantAction technology behind it actually does is install a temp file on your computer, and then uses your machine's resources to run the game, instead of relying on Flash or anything like that. Tech enthusiast may find some cause for concern here, but we're assured nothing dodgy happens here.


The key appeal of InstantJam at the moment is that it appears to more accessible and posses more tracks at its disposal than any other game we've seen so far. It will have over 2000+ plus songs at launch, which is probably more than the entire Guitar Hero franchise had a launch been put together. It can use almost any peripheral, and if they find any that don't work they make it work, so long as they're legally allowed to do so. The game uses your own music library and cross-references with its list of supported songs, so it really does mean you can play along to all your favourite music. Me and Mr. Castle were testing out the game using Uprising, by Muse, which is a song I can't even get on Guitar Hero 5. I tried my hardest not to sing aloud.

Being essentially a free to play browser game, it has been designed with the underlying principles in mind. There's an in-game store where you can spend fan points or real money to buy aesthetic items, you can go to Amazon or iTunes to pick up a song you want to play but don't have. You also appear to limited in the amount of 'plays' you can do in a day, so you can use the store to buy more. All necessary evils of the business model, but the one area where the Rockband's and Guitar Heroes have the advantage. If there's anything a gamer hates, it's limitations.


And Castle isn't going to stop here either. At the moment, InstantJam is relatively simple in terms of the features it provides, and as mentioned earlier this means that Rockband, Guitar Hero etc... still retain the competitive edge. But Castle does want InstantJam to grow. He wants simultaneous multiplayer, he wants multiple instruments, avatars... anything they can do, he wants to do too, but better and cheaper.

Strategy Informer doesn't normally cover browser games, simply because they're too numerous and the quality isn't always that great. We are of course however willing to make exceptions, and for Mr. Castle's InstantJam, we're more than happy to oblige. If they market this right and they move quickly to provide the other features that the current franchise leaders have, then we could see a complete shift away from Activision's and Harmonix's behemoth, in a way that's cheaper and arguably better too. We never thought we'd say this about a browser game, but keep an eye on this one!

Most Anticipated Feature: Seeing their final supported tracks list. I have many a song I wish I could play on a rhythm action game.