The notion of "playing" Beaterator is a bit misguided, since there is little to do outside of making music. We don't consider that a game, but to Sony's credit, there are now plenty of things to do with one's PSP that fall outside the realm of pure gaming. Because making music with Beaterator depends on very subtle changes in pitch and rhythm, the game requires a set of headphones. Trying to get by with the built-in speakers just doesn't convey the powerful bass of samples contained in the game, and won't give you the ability to make precision cuts during your editing. There's no doubt that this is the best looking game of its kind to land on a portable console, with loads of customization possible using prebuilt palletes for your sound studio. The interface itself is slick, but becomes weighed down with a heavy dependence on menu navigation. Loading isn't the problem, it's scrolling through what appears to be miles and miles of samples. A committed player will gladly suffer the often dizzying complexity of Beaterator, but less devoted music-game fans will quickly thrown in the towel.

Timbaland is the face of this game, and appears in avatar form frequently to help acquaint you with a new feature or introduce you to the basic functions of Beaterator. The intro video to this game is probably the best idea we've ever seen in an opening movie, entertaining you with cool images and slick beats while educating you on the game's basic modes. Similar videos pop up when you use certain tools for the first time during the game. To say a little about the beats and content delivered in Beaterator, we have only to point to Timbaland's record for producing amazing soundscapes for the likes of Madonna, Missy Elliott, L'il Kim, Justin Timberlake, and others. His earliest work with Aaliyah in the mid '90s introduced a progressive sound that balanced the crisp samples and powerful beats of earlier hip hop with more throwback elements of raw beatboxing. A strong R&B flavor suffused Timbaland's production, making him a sweetheart producer for upstarts like Tweet, as well as powerhouse pop acts that used his sound to flavor their tracks. All the great sounds that defineTimbaland are contained in Beaterator, making it a great homage to the last decade of brilliant work Mr. Mosley stands behind.

Visionary author Clay Shirky recently called new media a "triathalon," going on to say that people now expect to create and share content, in addition to simply fulfilling their roles as consumers. Beaterator is the PSP "app for that," allowing users to go beyond just listening or tapping rhythms and become actively involved in creating huge beats and share them with the world. Uploading content to the Rockstar Social Club site begins when you create an account online and sync that account to your PSP. You can then push completed songs to the site for listening, rating, and downloading by other users, if you allow it. Given the ability to create highly customized tracks using Beaterator, downloading shared tunes is a great way to extend the shelf-life of the game. The tools for creating tracks stack up with the best sequencing and mixing software out there, albeit with some fairly awkward controls. The beautiful thing about Beaterator is its incredible depth. You can pull up premixed tracks and edit them in Studio Session, or start from scratch with a blank slate. As you pull in loops, you have a rich palette to draw from, but you can also drill into loops and edit them for length. Digging still further, you can subject any loop to a wide range of editing tools that clip, modulate, phase, and distort the sound as you desire. Basic editing tools at a track level, such as panning or controlling volume, are also available. The only downside to the in-depth tool set is that it applies across an entire track, making it difficult to lay down two or three variations on one loop without placing them on individual tracks.

The paths of least resistance in Beaterator are divided between Live Play and Studio Session modes. Here you load beats, assign them to keys on your PSP, and go to town with a live performance. The difference between the two is that Studio Session offers deeper control and options for customization, including the ability to edit loops. Speaking of control and customization, you can skip Live Play and Studio Session completely in favor of Song Crafter, a mode that provides as close to the real studio experience as you're likely to find in this setting. Fans of software like Apple's Garage Band will feel right at home with SongCrafter, as this mode provides all the tools required for a ground-up music composition, recording, editing, and publishing experience. Only hardware limitations prevent Beaterator from turning the PSP into a full-blooded music studio; even with these shortcomings, fans are publishing some incredible tracks to Rockstar's Beaterator Social Club minisite.

The learning curve for Beaterator is steep, steep, steep. The game provides you with lots of support, both active and passive. Something like a tool-tip in Windows exists as you move from one highlighted button to the next, and there is an entire section of the game devoted to tutorials and explanations of technical waveform terms or concepts like attack and decay. Last but not least are the "videos" that feature a Timbaland avatar walking you musically through demos of the functional pieces of Beaterator. All this support isn't there just because the game's creators have big hearts; Beaterator isn't for weaklings. You buy this and keep it because you love making music, and want to get your hands on a library of ready-made beats and editing tools. Unlike the PC-based editing tools, Beaterator left us wanting more control on the editing side, but the plus side is when you have the chance to jam out using the face buttons of the PSP, far more productively than a QWERTY keyboard. The concept we'd imagine they were going for is to have something like Akai's MPC series, and they largely accomplished their goal. The missing piece is more on the side of the Song Crafter interface, where it becomes apparent that drag-and-drop simplicity just isn't to be had. Approximations of that are here, but you'll miss the mouse quickly, if you're used to doing this work on a PC. Sliders and knobs will never really be replaced, and what's lost in the translation is that wonderful ability studio artists have to bypass the hardware and just make music. Beaterator will reward dedicated loop-makers and mixers, but the hill you'll climb to get there is often too steep for our liking.

From the standpoint of a control scheme, Beaterator risks being a monumental failure because it can't decide which scheme it prefers. Each mode uses the same buttons for different functions, a killer in terms of intuitive gameplay. The directional buttons are about the only things you can count on to move you around the screen, advance tracks, or move waveform, as you navigate between each of the modes. Other buttons are assigned special functions in each mode, so you'll need to take stock of where you are in the game each time you think about pressing a button. The long-term reality is that you'll stop thinking and memorize each of the button sequences for each mode, but this requires time and commitment not everyone will make. There are handy shortcuts like a copy/paste feature that saves time, and you can load a series of loops into the editor for retrieval later in the song. Having to load loops is a pain, but you'll just have to build your palette first and then figure out where everything goes. Thinking about that MPC analogy, the ability to assign loops to specific keys and trigger them in a live play or recorded mode prevents Beaterator from feeling completely technical. Analog knobs are reached by jogging the analog stick, a cute connection to make. Once you're controlling the knobs, you'll either make incremental edits using the directional buttons or large change on the analog stick. It all makes sense after the third or fourth hour, but you find yourself slogging through Hour Two, when you've watched all the tutorials and still find yourself keying the wrong button at the wrong time.

Beaterator isn't a mass market game by any means, but it fills a niche that is quite unique for this platform. Gone are the days when a portable game console only meant you were stacking blocks or crawling dungeons... now we hold the power of master producer Timbaland in our hands, ready to push our masterpiece to Rockstar's Social Club and become a darling of the masses. Whether the masses will pick up on this game is an open question, but we're guessing it remains a niche, well-respected title without a major following. The depth of the game is so much more than most civilians are willing to explore, even with highly accessible modes like Live Play and Studio Session. Patient and skilled loopologists have already put some great time into Beaterator and done amazing work, so we'll leave the jury out and just say that if you wanted a portable studio for learning to play around with waveform and craft sick beats, Timbaland has a deal you can't refuse.