You wait
for one rhythm action game to come along and then a whole load arrive at once.
We hadn’t really been following SUPERBEAT particularly closely but we really
should have. While Persona 4: Dancing All Night was great fun and offered
plenty of fan service this is one of the best rhythm action games we’ve ever
played.
There’s
no plot here just buckets of rhythm action goodness with presentation of the highest
quality. As soon as you start the game up the screen pulses and fizzes with
music and excitement that lets you know this is something good. There’s a sharp and edgy design to it which is not unlike
the Wipeout games and it fits perfectly.
The game
itself has notes flying out at you from the middle of the screen. You need to
hit the corresponding top, middle or bottom button on the left or right of the screen or you
can also use the touch controls. There are notes that need to be held
and the L and R buttons come into play as well. You even have to use the
analogue sticks for certain notes that snake up and down (again, you can use
touch controls if you prefer). It’s full on and certainly keeps you on your
toes.
There are
4 trax and 6 trax variations which let you use different amounts of notes in
each song (with the 4 trax variant only putting notes at the top and bottom of
the play area for instance). Here you have to complete three songs in a row to try and achieve the best score. As you level up by completing songs you unlock
more difficulties which adds more note variants and also opens up missions in the world
tour mode.
The World
Tour mode has you travel around famous clubs taking on specific song based missions.
Normally these consist of not missing at certain number of notes or keeping
your combo at a certain number. They also ramp up the intensity even more by
doing things like moving you much closer into the play area so you need almost instant
reactions to hit the notes. World tour is not for the casual player and even
the second set of club missions had us beaten for longer than we feel
comfortable admitting.
As you level up from completing songs and missions you will unlock a host of
new sounds, tracks and icons. The sounds can be set as the noise
which comes in when you hit a note while the DJ icons add special powers like
extra health or experience. The only criticism we have comes from the striking
notes sound. Some of the songs really don’t sound right when you’ve got the
sound set on things like a snare drum. It’s a rare miss step and we found setting
the sound to hand claps pretty much worked with everything. You can also turn
the sounds off completely.
The
musical selection on offer is also excellent. There aren’t any hits as such but
just about every genre of music is represented and we can’t think of another
game where Hardcore sits next to Latin Samba. Most of the songs are very good
as well and there’s a host of music from games like Guilty Gear and BlazBlue thrown
in for good measure.
Overall, SUPERBEAT:XONiC
is a stunning rhythm action game. It’s tough, but for fans of the genre this is
up there with the best of them. It’s perfect for the Vita as well and you just
keep unlocking new things every time you play and tt left us with an excited grin
on our face every time. It’s a breath of fresh air and an amazing
injection of adrenaline for Vita owners that in our mind is an essential
purchase.
Overall
9/10
Colour Blind issues No
Review Code - Yes
Colour Blind issues No
Review Code - Yes
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