A rhythm game for fans who lay on the altar of pop

Looking like the dark rhythm game Thumper doused in a pop music-flavored sheep dip, Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is launching on PC on July 14. As a fan of both rhythm games and top-shelf pop music, this is very good news.

Working with Warner Music Group to offer hits from Charlie Puth, PinkPantheress, Charli XCX, and more, Invector: Rhythm Galaxy tours celestial space and sci-fi cities to the beat.

Honestly, given the rise of dystopian fiction, it’s possible that living in these neon-soaked scenes is awful. But, the lights on the skyscrapers shimmer every time the tiny space shuttle strikes the right note, so it’s difficult to say whether it’s good or bad.

If you’re unfamiliar with Invector, the series has roots that go back to 2013, when Hello There Games released Gravity to coincide with Swedish DJ AVICII’s album True. The game hit the top of the App Store charts across 60 countries and spawned a series of sequels. The most recent, AVICII Invector released in 2019 following the musician’s death. The game went on to win the NYX Game Awards for Best Experience and Best Rhythm/Music Game on PC.

The big new feature in Invector: Rhythm Galaxy is local multiplayer modes. You can play in four-player split screen and compete to score the most points in the same song. At last, an at-home scientific test you can take to determine who among your friends has a musical bone in their body.

Two of the three-lane types of the previous AVICII Invector title return too, with a flat road which is the easiest to follow, and a triangular prism that rolls onto another side for the next sequence of notes. And there are four difficulty levels for those ready to push their skills to the limit across these eight soundscapes.

Invector: Rhythm Galaxy releases for PC on July 14. We’d expect there will be DLCs in the works, too, with Warner Music Group’s enormous roster of record labels to rifle through.