Best games
Best Music games of 2012
The 8 best Music games released in 2012, ranked from 610 critic and player ratings.
The best Music game of 2012 is Sound Shapes, with a critic score of 87/100 — updated September 2026.
How this ranking is built
- Games are ranked on the aggregated critic score out of 100 imported from IGDB and Metacritic, never on Tier's own grades.
- A game only enters the ranking with at least 30 external ratings, so a single enthusiastic review never outranks a proven classic.
- Each game is ranked in one genre only, the one that defines it best, so the same title never tops two different genre charts.
- Community grades from F to S are shown next to every game, and only stated as a fact above 5 Tier ratings.
- Release window covered: 2012.
- 8 games are listed on this page, carrying 610 ratings between them.
- Rankings are recomputed hourly; this one was last rebuilt on 28 September 2026.
Top 8
01
Sound Shapes
Play, Compose and Share in a unique take on the classic side-scrolling platformer where your actions make the music. Equal parts instrument and game, Sound Shapes gives everyone the ability to make music. Play through a unique campaign that fuses music and artwork into a classic 2D platformer, featuring artwork by Pixeljam, Capy, Superbrothers and more, with music by I Am Robot and Proud, Jim Guthrie and Deadmau5. Create your own unique musical levels with all of the campaign content and share with the world. Sound Shapes creates an ever-changing musical community for everyone to enjoy at home or on the go.
87
/100
02
Lumines Electronic Symphony
Lumines Electronic Symphony uses the new features of the PlayStation Vita such as the touch pad on the back, while keeping classic controls already known in the first Lumines on the front. Lumines Electronic Symphony now uses animated 3D blocks instead of 2D sprites. The game will use the front touch screen controls to move and rotate blocks but will also support analog and D-pad controls. In previous Lumines titles, a player unlocked skins based on their ability to successfully reach that skin. However, in Lumines Electronic Symphony, an experience point system has been integrated. Now all the points that a player receives in a session are converted into XP, so as the player levels up, additional skins and avatars will be unlocked. Each avatar has a single player and multiplayer ability mapped to them. Players unlock more avatars and find the abilities that best suit their style of play. Q Entertainment enlisted the design firm, BUILD (which was founded by former Designers Republic and Psygnosis members), to create much of the game's marketing materials, such as the new logo, in-game font, and graphic elements for the package design.
87
/100
03
Super Hexagon
Super Hexagon is a minimal action game by Terry Cavanagh, with music by Chipzel.
83
/100
Sound Shapes
Play, Compose and Share in a unique take on the classic side-scrolling platformer where your actions make the music. Equal parts instrument and game, Sound Shapes gives everyone the ability to make music. Play through a unique campaign that fuses music and artwork into a classic 2D platformer, featuring artwork by Pixeljam, Capy, Superbrothers and more, with music by I Am Robot and Proud, Jim Guthrie and Deadmau5. Create your own unique musical levels with all of the campaign content and share with the world. Sound Shapes creates an ever-changing musical community for everyone to enjoy at home or on the go.
87
/100
02
Lumines Electronic Symphony
Lumines Electronic Symphony uses the new features of the PlayStation Vita such as the touch pad on the back, while keeping classic controls already known in the first Lumines on the front. Lumines Electronic Symphony now uses animated 3D blocks instead of 2D sprites. The game will use the front touch screen controls to move and rotate blocks but will also support analog and D-pad controls. In previous Lumines titles, a player unlocked skins based on their ability to successfully reach that skin. However, in Lumines Electronic Symphony, an experience point system has been integrated. Now all the points that a player receives in a session are converted into XP, so as the player levels up, additional skins and avatars will be unlocked. Each avatar has a single player and multiplayer ability mapped to them. Players unlock more avatars and find the abilities that best suit their style of play. Q Entertainment enlisted the design firm, BUILD (which was founded by former Designers Republic and Psygnosis members), to create much of the game's marketing materials, such as the new logo, in-game font, and graphic elements for the package design.
87
/100
03
Super Hexagon
Super Hexagon is a minimal action game by Terry Cavanagh, with music by Chipzel.
83
/100
04
Retro/Grade
Play a classic Shoot 'Em Up... in reverse! Navigate deadly enemy waves and un-fire attacks in Retro/Grade, a mind-bending rhythm game by 24 Caret Games. Pick up a gamepad or a guitar controller and help Rick Rocket restore the continuity of space-time, before a temporal anomaly rips the universe a new time-hole.
79
/100
05
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA f
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F is a rhythm game and the fifth entry in the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series, built around songs performed by Vocaloid singing synthesizer software, most notably the virtual singer Hatsune Miku. Players press timed button prompts in sync with the music, with this entry adding a new Star symbol performed by rubbing the touch screen or flicking the analog stick. It was developed at the same time for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 and includes customization features such as an edit mode and a room for interacting with the characters. It holds particular significance as the first game in the Project DIVA series to be released in the West.
78
/100
06
Symphony
Your music is under attack… You must liberate it! In Symphony, you fight through levels uniquely generated by your own song collection, discover items and vanquish bosses to defeat the evil within! With Symphony, we wanted to push the limits of user-music-based gameplay and focused on two concepts: Your music creates the game Every song has a unique emotion, sound and rhythm, and we wanted the gameplay to capture that as fully as possible. When your music gets intense or calmer, so does the gameplay. Enemies appear and shoot on the beat of the music. Some weapons are music-driven. Each song has its personality and it directly translates into gameplay. Replayability In Symphony, each song in your collection not only becomes a unique level, but also provides you with an item you can equip and challenges you with score targets to reach. As you progress through the game, you unlock new difficulty levels, new items and abilities! This means you have many reasons to play your favorite song over and over.
75
/100
07
Just Dance 4
Just Dance 4 features more than 40 new tracks, ranging from chart-topping Billboard hits to classic dance party tracks. Whether it's pop, Hip-Hop, rock, R&B, country or funk, there is something for everyone to dance to.
72
/100
08
Frederic: Resurrection of Music
Frederic Chopin – a long time deceased classical compositor – returns back from beyond the grave to fight intense musical duels. In his way stand some of the worlds greatest pop stars charmed with enormous profits that wild commercialization provides
60
/100
Retro/Grade
Play a classic Shoot 'Em Up... in reverse! Navigate deadly enemy waves and un-fire attacks in Retro/Grade, a mind-bending rhythm game by 24 Caret Games. Pick up a gamepad or a guitar controller and help Rick Rocket restore the continuity of space-time, before a temporal anomaly rips the universe a new time-hole.
79
/100
05
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA f
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F is a rhythm game and the fifth entry in the Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA series, built around songs performed by Vocaloid singing synthesizer software, most notably the virtual singer Hatsune Miku. Players press timed button prompts in sync with the music, with this entry adding a new Star symbol performed by rubbing the touch screen or flicking the analog stick. It was developed at the same time for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 and includes customization features such as an edit mode and a room for interacting with the characters. It holds particular significance as the first game in the Project DIVA series to be released in the West.
78
/100
06
Symphony
Your music is under attack… You must liberate it! In Symphony, you fight through levels uniquely generated by your own song collection, discover items and vanquish bosses to defeat the evil within! With Symphony, we wanted to push the limits of user-music-based gameplay and focused on two concepts: Your music creates the game Every song has a unique emotion, sound and rhythm, and we wanted the gameplay to capture that as fully as possible. When your music gets intense or calmer, so does the gameplay. Enemies appear and shoot on the beat of the music. Some weapons are music-driven. Each song has its personality and it directly translates into gameplay. Replayability In Symphony, each song in your collection not only becomes a unique level, but also provides you with an item you can equip and challenges you with score targets to reach. As you progress through the game, you unlock new difficulty levels, new items and abilities! This means you have many reasons to play your favorite song over and over.
75
/100
07
Just Dance 4
Just Dance 4 features more than 40 new tracks, ranging from chart-topping Billboard hits to classic dance party tracks. Whether it's pop, Hip-Hop, rock, R&B, country or funk, there is something for everyone to dance to.
72
/100
08
Frederic: Resurrection of Music
Frederic Chopin – a long time deceased classical compositor – returns back from beyond the grave to fight intense musical duels. In his way stand some of the worlds greatest pop stars charmed with enormous profits that wild commercialization provides
60
/100
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Music game of 2012?
Sound Shapes currently tops the ranking with a score of 87/100 across 179 ratings. Ranking updated September 2026.
How is this ranking built?
Games are ranked on their aggregated critic score out of 100, with a minimum vote threshold so a single glowing review never outranks a proven classic; the Tier community's own F-to-S grades are shown alongside each game.