What is Rhythm Drum?
Rhythm Drum is a rhythm game where round notes scroll from right to left and you hit the drum exactly when each note overlaps the judgment circle. Red notes are a DON on the center of the drum, blue notes are a KA on its rim, and the closer you are to the beat the more points and combo you build.
A big drum painted with a three color swirl sits at the bottom of the screen. It shakes and glows where you strike it. The stage is a festival square at sunset, with silk lanterns and five color flags swaying to the beat, and once your combo passes 10 the combo badge catches fire. Every song, sound effect and picture in the game is generated by code.
What kinds of notes are there?
There are four note types: DON, KA, drumroll and big notes. The color alone tells you what to hit.
| Note | Looks like | How to hit it |
|---|---|---|
| DON | Red circle | F or J, or tap the drum skin (center) |
| KA | Blue circle | D or K, or tap the drum rim (edge) |
| Drumroll | Yellow bar | Hit any key as fast as you can while the bar passes the circle. 100 points per hit |
| Big note | Large red or blue | One hit already scores double, and hitting with both hands (F and J, or D and K) at almost the same time adds half again |
Hitting the wrong color does nothing to the note, and a note that slides past untouched counts as a miss.
How accurate do I need to be?
On Normal, within 0.042 seconds of the note's center is PERFECT, within 0.09 seconds is GOOD and within 0.13 seconds is BAD; anything later is a MISS. Easy is a little more forgiving and Hard a little stricter.
| Judgment | Points | Combo and gauge |
|---|---|---|
| PERFECT | 300 (big note 600) | Combo continues, gauge rises the most |
| GOOD | 150 (big note 300) | Combo continues, gauge rises about half as much |
| BAD | 0 | Combo breaks, gauge drops a little |
| MISS | 0 | Combo breaks, gauge drops more |
A growing combo adds a bonus to every hit, up to ×1.4 from 100 combo on. With sound on, the judgment clock follows the same audio clock that plays the music, so what you hear and where the notes are never drift apart.
Which songs can I play?
There are five songs with very different moods, all composed in code for this game. The melody, bass and drum patterns are played live by the browser's sound synthesis (WebAudio).
| Song | Mood | Length · tempo |
|---|---|---|
| Harvest Beat | Lively Korean folk style with a pipe melody, hourglass drum, small gong and big gong | 1:12 · 120 BPM |
| Drum Parade | Brass melody over a snare drum march | 1:14 · 116 BPM |
| Carousel Waltz | A music box waltz in three | 1:09 · 168 BPM |
| Neon Pulse | Four on the floor kick and synthesizers | 1:19 · 128 BPM |
| Sunset Stroll | A gentle tune with soft electric piano and warm pads | 1:16 · 88 BPM |
The note charts come straight from the songs. Kick drum beats become DON, snare and clap beats become KA, and the melody turns into KA when it climbs and DON when it falls, so you feel like you are drumming along with the tune. Drum fills at the end of a phrase become yellow drumrolls.
How do the difficulties differ?
There are three levels, Easy, Normal and Hard, which change how dense the notes are and how fast they scroll. On the same song, Easy has at most one note per beat, Normal goes down to half beats and Hard to quarter beats.
- Easy: roughly 90 to 140 notes per song, clear line at 60% of the gauge, the widest timing windows.
- Normal: roughly 120 to 210 notes, clear line at 70%. This is where following the melody really comes alive.
- Hard: roughly 190 to 310 notes, clear line at 75%, the fastest scroll and streams of sixteenth notes.
How are clear and grade decided?
If the gauge is above the clear line when the song ends, you cleared it. Your grade comes from accuracy, counting each PERFECT as 1 and each GOOD as 0.5, divided by the number of notes. The result card gets stamped with your grade.
| Grade | Accuracy |
|---|---|
| S+ | 97% or more and a full combo with no BAD or MISS |
| S | 92% or more |
| A | 82% or more |
| B | 70% or more |
| C | 55% or more |
| D | below 55% |
Your best score and grade for every song and level are saved in this browser and shown on the song cards.
Tips for a higher score
- Watch the circle, not the notes. Following notes with your eyes makes you late. Keep your eyes on the circle and just read the incoming colors.
- Listen for the beat. Notes come from the song's drums and melody, so playing to the music naturally improves your timing.
- Alternate hands. For runs of DON, alternate F and J and fast passages stop being a problem.
- Finish every drumroll. Each hit while the yellow bar passes adds 100 points and a little gauge.
- Use both hands on big notes for half again the points.
Controls
- Keyboard: F and J are DON, D and K are KA, and the key caps at the bottom light up as you press them. Esc or P pauses. On the title screen ← → choose a song, ↑ ↓ choose a level, and Space or Enter starts.
- Phone and tablet: tap the drum skin for DON and the rim for KA. Off the drum, the middle half of the screen is DON and the sides are KA. Tap with two fingers together for the big note bonus.
- Mouse: click the drum skin or rim, or right click anywhere for KA.
The music is the timing reference, so playing with sound on is recommended. Bluetooth earbuds can add delay, so wired headphones or the device speaker are more accurate. Switching tabs pauses the song automatically, and Resume picks it up again.