Music Generator is equipped with a vast library of pre-recorded samples, riffs, beats, and other sounds, and also allows you to sample your own brief clips from CD (something which prevents this program from ever seeing the light of day on any cartridge-based systems). You can then cut and paste these elements into something resembling a coherent song. (Jester Interactive, 1999)

Okay...first off, this is really stretching the definition of a classic game, or even a Retro Revival. And normally I wouldn't presume to be such an authority as to declare anything an instant classic. But the new MTV Music Generator for the Playstation is really cool.

Now, this comes with a major caveat - bearing in mind that the title of this software is prefaced by the letters M, T and V, do expect the range of styles to be limited. Country, jazz, and other pre-rock elements are almost criminally omitted - but then again, when was the last time we saw any of those schools of music represented on MTV?

Given the target demographic's musical leanings, there are a lot of tools for creating electronic rock, thumpin' techno/house, or even hip hop music. In other words, it's great for creating music which is almost, but not entirely, exactly like most of the techno tracks featured in The Matrix.

However, despite my misgivings about Music Generator's apparent narrowcasting, it's a fascinating program, reminiscent of Electronic Arts' Music Construction Kit for the Apple II and Commodore 64 circa 1984. But where Music Generator may limit its potential audience stylistically, it will appeal to a huge number of people since musical training is not required to use it. For those who are musically inclined, there are features that allow you to fine-tune your musical Frankenstein monster to suit your tastes.

I have experimented with Music Generator in fully-involved moods as well as just flat lazy, let's-see-how-many-conflicting-samples-we-can-smash- together moods. It's hard to come out with something that sounds completely bad.

There are also utilities that allow you to create a rather abstract, computer-generated "video" for your finished product, but the results of the video utilities aren't even remotely as interesting as the audio tools. I spent the better part of a week not even touching the video tools (whose timeline-based editing tool resembles a kind of bargain-basement Avid Media Composer). And once I did experiment a little with the video side of the equation, I quickly shrugged my shoulders and went back to work on the music instead.

Then again, I was around before MTV.

A very cool program, and something which has the potential to have the kids rattling the windows with their own creations. I can't recommend this highly enough - which would you rather a child spent his time with, another endless quest/fighting game, or something which is actually a legitimate, if simple, creative outlet?

Rating:  One dollar - trade it in for more quarters, you'll want to play this game several times.

Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com editor/webmaster