Chunithm: It Actually Happened

I guess the piano equivalent of Mario Kart controller twisting would be wiggling vibrato on the keys or conducting the strings while your hands are in the air. Chunithm lets you do that.

Chunithm began as Harmonix’s planned megabudget sequel to Guitar Hero: Theramin Hero. A skunkwerx crew got a groovy alpha going outside the clock, then took it to management. Thumbs up. Beta was about to go public for load testing the massively multiplayer elements when top brass canned it from nowhere. “Uncertainty of fit with brand image in a slowing market.”

Those devs bailed and started a little shop in Japan called Sega. Theramin Hero became Chunithm (Chune + Rhithm) and bigbucks left Harmonix eggfaced.

One of those fascinating nuggets from the history of gaming.