Google first brought us Blob Opera, a machine learning experiment, back in late 2020. The fun tool allows you to easily create your own ML-assisted melodies, and we saw it return in 2021 with a slight visual overhaul and holiday-themed garb. The Blobs are back again this year, albeit in a slightly new form, with the arrival of the musical arcade game Blob Beats, featuring music from composers like Beethoven and Mozart.
Google Arts & Culture has set up the Blobs with a retro-style arcade game in the vein of Guitar Hero. You start off selecting a composition like Beethoven’s Für Elise, Mozart’s Turkish March, or Vivaldi’s Spring. Then, time your taps just right to catch the musical notes with the pixelated Blobs as they fall, in order to play the Blob Beat right. You can set high scores, beat them, and even share the game with your friends and family for some healthy holiday season rivalry.
If you’re familiar with the Japanese rhythm game Beatmania, you should feel right at home with the new Blob Beats game. Google’s creation has four levels of difficulty and five songs to choose from. You can also rationalize your time spent playing it as marginally educational, as Google has also thrown in interesting facts and art about Beethoven in the game — also accessible on the Beethoven Everywhere theme page.
If you’re not a fan of arcade games, and are more drawn to trivia, the search giant joined forces with Deutsche Grammophon to create an ML-powered tool called Beethoven Beats. All you have to do is tap out a rhythm of your own, and Google will fish out a Beethoven piano sonata that’s closest to matching your rhythm. You can even cut to the chase and find all the legendary composer’s sonatas in one YouTube Music playlist recreated by veteran pianist Daniel Barenboim.
Hopefully, these interesting activities on the Google Arts & Culture app and website get you through the holiday season this year. We'll be keeping our eye out for any additional Blob content, and will update you if Google revamps Blob Beats for the new year — hopefully adding a few more holiday-centric tunes to the list.