In 2023 Hi-Fi Rush,a colorful action rhythm game, made its quiet debut onto the world’s gaming stage. The studio that made it is quite famous for horror games… Hi-Fi Rush is quite the opposite of that genre, did the developers nail the expansion into another genre or should things have stayed spooky instead?
Rhythm games are usually the same old deal…
…press the button the game tells you to press when it’s indicated:
There’s Rhythm Heaven, where you just kind of press the same button to the beat when the visual or auditive cues tell you to.
Then there’s GuitarHero (and/or RockBand) where the publisher would like you to buy a plastic guitar so that they make more money, but still, you end up pushing the buttons when the game tells you to. There’s more but those are the ones you’re the most likely to have heard of before.
Luckily there are indie developers. They made games like Crypt of the Necro Dancer. The main difference between this game and more “classic” rhythm games is that instead of a set movie/sequence being shown you actually control a character in a dungeon and fight monsters and there just happens to be music playing. There’s no pre-set button order that you need to time perfectly. Instead each button has an action (which if you’ve never played an action game might be news to you) and you just do whatever you think is best. Time an input well and hey, you get a bonus (or buff as some would call it). Mistime an input and well, good luck beating the game that way. I’d argue that this game did something great for rhythm games. It started the evolution. But still something was missing. The game only lets you move on a grid and the action ain’t all spectacular (visually)..
Enter: Hi-Fi Rush
This is where Hi-Fi Rush comes in. It has the same underlying concept, but what makes it different? Well, you know those trailers (movie or game, doesn’t matter) where everything is in sync with the beat? This game is like that when you play it and you don’t even have to try. Everything and I really do mean EVERYTHING in this game is in perfect sync with the beat of the music.
This may also be the case with Crypt of the Necro Dancer but in that game the animations are basic 2d sprite-movements (up, down, left, right). In Hi-Fi Rush the characters, environments, enemies are 3d, and all have their respective animations. It’s not just that character performs action xyz on beat and then snaps back to a boring idle animation, no, they all have motions to the music: snapping fingers, tapping feat, rhythmic movements back and forth (just short of dancing). That, paired with a colourful comic-book art style, an exceptional rock soundtrack and all of the degrees of freedom you’re used to from other games, makes the game’s world come alive (literally, the environments move to the beat as well).
Ok enough about that… What is the game about?
You play as Chai, a twenty-something loveable goof who gets a brand-new robot arm prosthetic (This wouldn’t be a terribly interesting premise if there wasn’t a twist, now would it?). For entirely hilarious reasons his MP3-player is now integrated in his chest and connected to his arm, giving him “musical robot arm powers” causing him to move with the beat of the music and enabling him to summon an electric guitar made of scrap metal which he then uses to bash the living circuits out of robots. Trust me, it makes sense in the game but I can’t say any more without risking spoilers.
What’s the gameplay like?
I kind of already touched upon that, didn’t I, but here we go again: You hit stuff with a guitar to the beat of the music. Yup, that’s about it.
Simple but it has more depth than you think: You don’t just mash the same button until all enemies are gone (unless of course, you want to) but you have one heavy and one light attack. Mix them in certain combinations and you get special combos which are unique and animated in a really fun and satisfying way. Then there’s special moves which work like special moves in other games (fill up meter → press button → enemies gone). But once again, they feel more creative than in other games and are, again, expertly animated. Oh god the animation, it’s soooooo good. In fact, it gets its own subsection but not right now.
This game isn’t just a brawler, it’s more of an action platformer. Yes, there’s jumping and running in this game. Similar to Mega Man games you have a stage with a boss at the end but unlike Mega Man these stages are big and filled to the brim with fun little easter eggs, characters to talk to and details and collectibles.
Honestly the world building in this game is better than what you would expect and it’s all just so full with charming lore and secrets for you to find and enjoy. In my humble opinion this game is a master class in level design.
The bosses are also great. They are all unique, have a lot of character and flare and are among the most memorable boss characters I’ve ever encountered.
I finally get to tell you about the animation!
This game is fully 3d but it’s animated as though it were 2d. Now I may be very biased because I love this animation style but even if I didn’t, I’d tell you that the animation is really exceptionally good. Everything is timed perfectly to beat and dialogue and you can see that…
- a) …the animators had fun with this…
and…
- b) …the animators really know what they’re doing, like, this game has maybe the best cutscenes in gaming. Usually when people say that they mean something is realistic and motion captured and bla, bla, bla… this isn’t the case here… in fact that’s what makes it so good! Amera, pacing, timing… *chef’s kiss*
There is a clear difference between the cutscene animation style and the gameplay animation style which makes sense because it’s different teams working on those respective areas. Most of my praise is directed towards the cutscene animations but the gameplay animation keeps the energetic nature of the cutscenes and gets way more creative when it comes to special moves etc. Additionally, this game more or less always has seamless transitions from cutscene to gameplay which I love, especially in the boss fights. All of the animation conveys the characters’, well, character and there’s plenty of that to go around.
The cast, voice, acting and writing
The cast of this game is what I can only describe as talented (and you may recognise some voices from notorious games such as Persona 5: Chai = Akechi, Peppermint = Futaba). Delivery of every line is on point and the comedy in this game is on another level. During my first playthrough there was not a single joke that didn’t stick the landing. This continues to be the case no matter how often I play this game. There is so much unexpected comedy happening around (literally) every corner. I honestly doubt it’s possible to be in a bad mood after or during a playthrough.
A soundtrack to jam to
A game built on music needs great songs. Hi-Fi Rush delivers. Be it the original soundtrack or the licensed music (including but not limited to Nine Inch Nails and The Black Keys). It. Is. On. Point. Chefs kiss. Nothing more I can add, except maybe that I especially like the way the drums and base parts are more jazzy than you’d expect from a rock soundtrack. It really gives the music its own unique vibe. The songs are in my playlist on Spotify where they will continue to stay until the end of the world or Spotify, whichever happens first.
“Why haven’t I heard about this game?”
Honestly, good question. How the hell did I even hear of the game? I didn’t. The story of how I found this game is as follows: I saw an ad for Game Pass and in that ad was a brief clip of one of the cutscenes and I just thought to myself: “Huh, this looks just like something that I would enjoy playing.”. I then subscribed to Game Pass for a month or so seeing as that was my only lead for finding this game, because for whatever reason the ad didn’t include the titles of the games it showed. I eventually found it and played it and then I liked it so much that I bought the game and the deluxe upgrade and wrote this review.
By the way, the devs aren’t an indie studio, quite the opposite actually. They are Tango Game Works, known for the Evil Within 1 & 2 and Tokyo: Ghostwire, owned (at the time) by Bethesda, which is owned by XBox which is owned by Microsoft which has money so you’d think that the devs would get a solid marketing budget. You’d also think that by making a good game the studio would be rewarded in some way, but no. Even though the game remains a critical success to this day, XBox, in an entirely logical move, rewarded the studio by shutting it down. As of writing this article Krafton (publisher of Subnautica and PUBG) is the new proud owner of Tango Game Works and they will still be making games (thank god because I really, really want a Hi-Fi Rush 2).
TL;DR, XBox being XBox is the reason you didn’t hear about this game. But hey, you’ve heard about it now. So maybe give it a try?
In conclusion
Hi-Fi Rush is an 808/10 game. This is a professional journalistic review statement (not even kidding).
Thank you for reading this article, and now off you go, play the greatest game you’ve never heard of but have now read of, you can thank me later.
Autor: Max Keim
