Frequency

In the game, a player portrays a virtual avatar called a "FreQ", and travels down an octagonal tunnel, with each wall containing a musical track. These tracks contain sequences of notes. As the player hits buttons corresponding to the note placement on the track, the "sonic energy" from within is released and the music plays. If the player plays two measures of the track without any errors, the track is "captured" and the music plays automatically until the next pre-determined section of the song. All songs featured in the game are edited for ease of play.

Some tracks are bonus tracks and only open up when all notes are played, allowing the user to pick up "freestyle" points. Powerups are available which allow the immediate capturing of the track or the doubling of points. If a player continually misses notes, their energy meter reduces until the game is over.

Harmonix had originally pitched the concept of Frequency to Microsoft but were told by now-former vice-president of game publishing Ed Fries that no music-rhythm game would succeed without a custom hardware controller. This advice indirectly led Harmonix to become involved with Guitar Hero with a custom guitar-shaped controller, and leading to a multi-billion dollar franchise.

Peter Suclu reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "America's first homegrown rhythm action game is a lot of fun".

The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Despite the positive reception, Ryan Lesser, an art director at Harmonix, said that Frequency "didn't sell very well". Frequency won GameSpot's annual "Best Music/Rhythm Game" award among console games, and was a runner-up for the publication's "Best Music" and "Most Innovative" prizes.