All right, all right. There is also the teeny, tiny matter of rhythm - or a lack thereof. Sometimes . . . sometimes, I trip up. I have been known to drift in and out of the beat, moving masterfully one second and falling miserably the next. (When I say I trip across the dance floor, I ain't kidding.) Add a high-pressure factor like an audience, and you have one instant wallflower.

Similarly, I am usually down on music-based games. I understand the appeal of Dance Dance Revolution, but I'd rather put my quarters in the old Mappy machine in the corner. Exceptions exist, though, and both PaRappa the Rapper and Samba de Amigo have hooked me (no pun intended) in the past. Some titles are so magical and enjoyable that I enjoy polishing off my slightly askew sense of rhythm and patiently repeating the same song until I master it.

Add Frequency to that short list.

You're the DJ!

Like any effective music title, Frequency boasts gameplay that is simple and instantly gratifying. At first glance, it looks a lot like a psychedelic take on the Atari classic Tempest. The action takes place as the player travels down the inside of a twisting polygonal cylinder. Each wall of the interior corresponds to a different component of the music. As you make your way forward, you can jump from wall to wall in order to set off different musical and vocal effects.

Each tunnel is divided into several sections. Successfully playing two consecutive bars of any one musical element will put that element on autopilot for the remainder of the section. So, for example, you can lay down the drumbeat first by playing a set number of notes without error, then jump to the guitar track and get that going before you pour the vocals on top. At the end of each section, the song elements all cut out, leaving you to put everything back together again.

The notes are represented as jewels that sit in the tunnel walls. As the player progresses, the jewels scroll off the bottom of the screen in any one of three positions; namely, on the left, middle, and right parts of each wall. A note is activated by pressing the corresponding button as the jewel travels through a cursor situated just above the bottom edge of the picture. Press the note too early or too late, and you lose the progress you've made with that musical element.

The directional pad moves the cursor from track to track. Since the cursor floats to the bottom of the screen, this has the effect of rotating the tunnel and background to bring the desired wall under the cursor. The left, center, and right notes can be played with the Square, Triangle, and Circle buttons or the L1, R1, and R2 triggers respectively. Pressing X activates one of the various power-ups you can use to help yourself or hurt your opponent.

A typical single-player game runs like this: As the song begins, the tunnel comes into view and approaches the screen. The cursor reaches the beginning of the drum track and notes stream toward the front, spaced according to the song's tempo. Catching all the notes for two consecutive bars clears the track, allowing the player to move on to another sound, such as vocals, FX, or bass. Some tracks are more hectic than others, but they can be tackled in any order, and any track can be ignored.

Once all the walls in a section are cleared, either the Scratch track or the Axe track or both are opened up, depending on the song. Now the three capture buttons are used in conjunction with the left analog stick to produce turntable scratches or synthesizer sounds. The Axe effects are especially fluid and you might find yourself grinning like an idiot at all the cool music you can make.

Frequently, all the notes in a bar will be replaced by power-up symbols. The Autocatcher, shaped like a pyramid, automatically clears a track all the way up to the end of a section. The star-shaped Multiplier increases the value of captured notes for the next eight bars. In two-player games, additional power-ups enable all sorts of musical mischief to be visited on a hapless opponent, from undoing his work to shoving back his cursor.

Freestyle Freq-ing

The music in Frequency is a mix of styles ranging from techno to electronic rock to hip-hop to industrial. Even if you don't particularly care for any of the songs (perhaps a Brahms and Wagner version will come out one day), you will happily learn them backwards and forwards, part by part to better improve your game. Artists as diverse as No Doubt, DJ QBert, Powerman 5000, and Freezepop are on the roster, so you are bound to find a favorite selection or two, but all the songs work well.

The Dual Shock controller is put to arguably its best use yet as it grooves and rumbles in time to the beat, but after a while you will be moving and tapping so much you won't even notice. Some of the songs are incredibly infectious, and as you tap out the more complicated patterns, you will almost feel like your fingers are dancing across the fretboard of an electric guitar or bass. That feeling alone is worth the price of admission.

For the more ambitious, the game includes a Remix mode, wherein existing songs can be re-arranged to the player's content. DJ wannabes can decide how a song builds and where FX are best used. Custom remixes can be saved and selected for use in the main game.

Though not as addictive as some puzzle games and not as exciting as some shooters, Frequency fills its niche quite well. The graphics are colorful, the sound is invigorating, and the gameplay pulls you in then jacks up the difficulty until you beg for more punishment. What else could you possibly want from a game?

· · · Nick