Kombo’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game’s About
Beaterator isn’t really a game but a music tool that allows you to create music with your PSP. There are a few modes to interact with music that will get you creating beats with a few taps of your fingers. With the help of the mega producer Timbaland providing his name and collection of sample loops, you can be the next big hit maker, all on the PSP. There are a few main modes of play including Live Play, Studio Session and Song Crafter. Each mode allows you to listen to and interact with music in different ways. This PSP version is an offshoot of the flash application that Rockstar fans have been enjoying on the internet already, albeit without the depth like the PSP version features.
What’s Hot
There really hasn’t be a comprehensive music creation program on the PSP. The DS has the Korg program but that is far from what you might call user friendly. Beaterator remedies this by offering a simple to use interface with plenty of tutorial videos you can watch as many times as you want. You incrementally get introduced to the game and all its functions as you find your own style and the beats that match. Eventually, you work your way up to sharing your crazy good mixes with the Rockstar Social Club.
Creating a song is more fun than it should be. With the metric ton of sound samples from Rockstar and Timbaland, you can throw together a song in a matter of minutes. Once you get comfortable with the different modes and stringing together a song, you can start to create beats from scratch using your own musical talent and the existing sound samples. That is one of the best parts of Beaterator, deeply exploring the power of the music tools that are given to you. When you think you have mastered all the modes, there is something else you will discover something that will produce new and better sounds. The icing on the cake is that when you have put down a nice beat track you can record your own voice to add to the mix.
What’s Not
Beaterator is intimidating to mess around with, at first. You can watch the tutorial videos time and time again as your try and absorb all the information coming at you at once. Beaterator spoon feeds you the information but it still feels like a lot. Once you get around the learning curve, things become easier but the initial shock of having the ability to create music with loop samples is daunting. The user interface isn’t that entirely user friendly. The tutorial videos also combat this matter as well but not as adeptly as overcoming how to use the modes.
Final Word
Beaterator, as a tool, is really cool. The flexibility of the program and the functionality to share your creations with others makes this more than any average beat maker. There are lots of layers involved with Beaterator and peeling those layers back and discovering a new sound or enjoying others’ creations is what makes this a success at the end of the day.
