For a brief period in the early 2000s, RedOctane was a big deal. It peaked in 2005 as the publisher of Guitar Hero, leading Activision to acquire it the following year, but just a few years after that the ride was over: Amidst massive market oversaturation and flagging interest among players, Activision shuttered the whole thing in 2010.

That was the end of the tale until 2025, when Embracer brought RedOctane back, with the slightly modified handle RedOctane Games, to deliver "the next evolution in rhythm gaming." Which as it turns out is not Guitar Hero but, man, it sure looks like Guitar Hero.

Okay, it's definitely more Rock Band than Guitar Hero, but RedOctane had nothing to do with Rock Band, which was developed by Harmonix after it parted ways with RedOctane following the Activision buyout. Harmonix also developed the first couple iterations of Guitar Hero, while RedOctane served as publisher and also manufactured the little guitar-shaped controllers used to play the game.

Rock Band was also very much like Guitar Hero except it had drums, so your unreliable, less-talented friends could play too. (Yes, that's a drummer joke.) The point is that as "next evolutions" go, we don't appear to be moving ahead in leaps and bounds here.

Here's Rock Band—forgive the video quality, it was 18 years ago. (God, I feel old.)

"Stage Tour is a rhythm-action game designed to blend familiar and accessible note-highway gameplay with new and exciting modern twists," the Stage Tour Steam page says, without delving into what those new and exciting modern twists might be.

"Stage Tour is poised to rekindle the flame of plastic-instrument rhythm gaming with numerous new features and gamemodes, dozens of bandmates and instruments to fit your unique style, a deep competitive spine, and an extensive roadmap of seasonal content and live events."

There's more to be gleaned from a blog post on the Stage Tour website, which confirms that Stage Tour is a "band game" (although it will be playable solo as well), says signups for a closed alpha test are on the way, and points to a release for the holiday season. Perhaps cognizant of how the rhythm game genre was wrung out like a wet rag the first time around, RedOctane has also already committed to not making Stage Tour 2, saying the game "is not about a sequel treadmill. It is about building something for the long haul."

The very big and obvious question is whether there's enough of an appetite for a new Rock Band-like to sustain RedOctane's ambitions for "regular special events" and other live service features—the whole "long haul" thing the studio is building toward. My thoughts flash immediately to Harmonix's 2016 crowdfunding campaign for a PC version of Rock Band 4, which barely made it halfway to its goal by the time it was over.

But Rock Band 4 was already available on consoles at that point (the series ultimately never made it to PC), and rhythm game exhaustion was still firmly set in back then. 10 years down the road, there's clearly some level of enthusiasm for a new(ish) Rock Band game, but it's impossible to gauge what it will add up to on release date, especially since there's been nothing announced about pricing or song availability.

For now, if you've been hankering for a return of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you'll probably want to pay attention, and if you're just idly curious you can add it to your wishlist on Steam and see what happens.

Since British developer Lowiro launched Arcaea back in 2017, it's had a real knack for feeling like a full-fledged arcade rhythm experience without ever having actually ventured beyond mobile. It makes sense, considering the game was heavily influenced by mainstays like Sound Voltex and other Japanese arcade rhythm games.

That's a tough feeling to capture. Other app store rhythm games like Project Sekai are fun to play, but feel distinctly mobile. PC rhythmers like DJMax are in my regular rotation, but I could never imagine seeing the game encased in a plastic cabinet in my local arcade—despite the fact that there was a DJMax arcade game many moons ago.

It's a testament to Lowiro, then, that the developer manages to bottle up exactly what gives Japanese arcade rhythm games that juice. Top-notch visuals, crazy charting, and classic composers that you'll see across every rhythm cab in an arcade. All of which are loud and present in the demo for its upcoming game, In Falsus. And hey, this one's on PC! Hell yeah.

There are criminally few songs to rinse in the In Falsus demo—okay, there are five, which is actually a healthy number by rhythm game demo standards—but that tiny setlist has been all the convincing I've needed to know that this is going to be the rhythm game I'm pouring hours into when I can't get to the arcade.

It certainly helps that some of my personal rhythm game GOATs are included in this demo. Japanese composer Camellia has contributed all sorts of songs to the scene—Project Diva, Beatmania, Sound Voltex—as well as remixing Undertale songs and finding some popularity among the Osu! scene. His original In Falsus song, Cryogenic, is easily my favourite of the bunch. A poppy electronic track with soft and dreamy vocals from vtuber Petra Gurin.

Both Aran—who I love for songs like Chobit Flavour—and long-time Arcaea composer ak+q have also contributed originals with à la mode and Hyaloüyne. The former is a quirky electronic tune splicing vocals together to form the beat, while the latter is a bouncy artcore vibe with bassy beats that lead into more melodic (though still distinctly electronic) segments. They're both fantastic tracks, though I'd be lying if I didn't say that ak+q's track has formed most of my playtime in my six hours with the demo so far.

There are two non-original contributions here, too. Feryquitous—who's composed some of my fave tracks for gacha game Nikke and a host of rhythm games—with Ordirehv, a song that carries a lot more emotional weight behind its melody than the rest of the demo tracks. It's another artcore piece as piano punctuates an electronic backing track while a computerised voice delicately lays down some vocals.

Then there's the collaboration between Beatmania mainstay Qlarabelle and Japanese DJ crayvxn with Ghost Ray. It leans more into hard dance than any other song here, which makes sense considering both composers' penchant for the genre. It also has the benefit of coming with my favourite chart In Falsus has to offer so far, which has put it in close contention with Hyaloüyne for my most-played.

Enlisting so many popular, well-established composers in the rhythm game scene to contribute to In Falsus really does help cement it as a serious, fleshed-out game. So many non-arcade rhythm games are prone to falling into the trap of feeling a little underbaked, but that couldn't be further from the truth with the In Falsus tracklist.

With the gameplay trailer revealing some other composers on-board—like BlackY, Blacklolita, and kanone—In Falsus might actually end up being one of the most accessible arcade-feeling rhythm experiences we've ever gotten. I, for one, am absolutely buzzing with excitement for its full release.

Rhythm Doctor is the master of the single input. A game that only needed my space bar to utterly challenge my musical timing and tug on my heartstring through six acts replete with stunning visual presentation and interwoven stories that see even the most minor characters have their moment in the spotlight.

You would think that a rhythm game relying on just one button would saddle developer 7th Beat Games with a painfully limited scope. I'd argue that's a little true in the earlier levels of Rhythm Doctor—where the game is doing its best to help you get to grips with different beats and timing. But even in the moments where the game is still busy establishing its foundational gameplay, it's done with such pizzazz and care for every character and setting involved.

Medical beatment

Middlesea Hospital has found itself with a pretty significant staff shortage, but also a brand-new experimental treatment courtesy of Ian, one of the institution's few remaining doctors putting in an insane amount of overtime.

Part of this Rhythm Doctor treatment (hey, that's the name of the game) involves me, a mute intern with the ability to administer care remotely with the help of a comically long noodle arm and a pointer finger undoubtedly suffering from a severe case of RSI by the time I rolled credits. By listening to and synchronising with a patient's heartbeat—through tapping the spacebar to the rhythm—it can help to fix up any irregularities and start the steps towards curing their ailments.

It's a rather out-there premise, sure, but it's one grounded in relatable, down-to-earth characters and their stories. Overworked doctors, burned-out creatives, newly loved-up teenagers, and an injured baseball star terrified to lose his identity are just some of the patients who find themselves at Middlesea Hospital.

Many of their stories begin separately, but Rhythm Doctor somehow manages to find ways to have all of these different individuals cross paths. Some of them feel a bit silly—like a miner who uses his bungee cord to assist baseball star Lucky Jonronero through physical therapy, the latter of whom then goes on to teach a samurai patient how to bat—but 7th Beat Games' determination to ensure nobody sits on the sidelines makes this ensemble cast incredibly endearing.

That even extends as far as the game's multitude of tutorials. Almost every single one features the same demo patient—an adorable farmer called Hugh who I felt genuinely bad for when he was promptly shooed off by a mouthy, impatient politician in one tutorial. Even the voice who counts in a number of Rhythm Doctor's mechanics is given a bit of lore: a Chinese nurse who goes on to learn English and also turns out to be a dab hand at piano.

It sounds like utter nonsense, but it adds so much colour to the tutorials, a thing I notoriously hate in videogames.

Note-worthy

The sheer number of them is a necessary evil in Rhythm Doctor though, as the game finds just about every single way to contort different rhythms and beats into different mechanics. Standard seventh beats, swing rhythms, freeze notes that require me to delay inputs, and multi-hit notes that I need to listen for the nurse's shotcall to figure out how many I have to hit.

They trickle in slowly at first, but Rhythm Doctor begins to layer them by giving me multiple patients to look after at once, or switching up the timing at a moment's notice. Everything is audially telegraphed in a way that never feels like it's interfering with the music, but is plenty clear enough to clue me in to how I need to respond to the incoming beat.

And what a joy the music is—from chill lo-fi beats, to drum and bass, to love songs, to rip-roaring guitar tracks—Rhythm Doctor knows how to put on a hell of a show and tell a story through its song choices. There's a little something for everybody here with both vocal and pure instrumental tracks to comb through, and I've spent the last several hours humming the hospital lobby's theme song as I've gone about my day. They are absolute earworms.

But for me, Rhythm Doctor well and truly shines in its stellar visual presentation. This is a game that oozes playfulness, experimentation, and the strikingly obvious fact that 7th Beat Games had an absolute blast designing every nook and cranny of this thing, and nowhere is that clearer than just looking at how the game uses the whole damn buffalo when it comes to its art style and visuals.

I seriously don't want to spoil too much here because it's genuinely fantastic to see all of the different ways 7th Beat Games manages to stop Rhythm Doctor from being nothing more than a pulsing EKG line in the middle of my screen. It implements a ton of visual gimmicks—screen glitches, contorting and zipping a small window of the game around my monitors, even going so far as to trick me by making me think my goddamn game had frozen.

I am a huge sicko for these kinds of visual gimmicks—I play Pump it Up, a dance game that has a whole identity revolving around the things in its higher-level charts so of course I love it—and Rhythm Doctor absolutely freakin' nails them. They never overstay their welcome or lose their novelty, either. They're peppered in just enough to make them a helluva load of fun to experience but surround them with plenty of more 'ordinary' levels that are still able to shine thanks to Rhythm Doctor's gorgeous pixel art.

I'm particularly a fan of one of the earlier levels that sees barista Nicole seemingly serve an entire city's worth of coffee drinkers inside one tiny hospital, and a later level where I get to watch my home runs tick up as Lucky swings away at a baseball. Tiny little details like this that have my eyes glued to my monitor every single time, even when it comes at the expense of desperately counting "1-2-3-4-5-6-SEVEN HIT THE SPACEBAR" to myself.

That's the thing that ultimately makes Rhythm Doctor so compelling: details. Nothing feels like fluff, a thing tacked on to pad the game out or fill the lulls between big story moments. Everything has a purpose, a reason for being there. Even if it doesn't seem that way at first, Rhythm Doctor will find a way to justify its existence.

Every single second is trying to do something: make me laugh, cry, lose my mind, or simply hit the spacebar. Every single second is worth paying attention to. Because if you don't, you'll lose even a tiny part of just how special this game is.

D-Cell Games—the developer behind the genuinely fantastic rhythm game Unbeatable—has put out a mighty strong statement as it rallies against big studio figureheads becoming increasingly blunt about integrating generative AI into game development: from Krafton's declaration that it was pivoting to become an "AI-first" company, to Tim Sweeney clowning on Steam's AI disclosure requirements, to Nexon's CEO casually claiming that everyone was using it now.

That last one in particular is what got D-Cell Games riled up, responding to the original news in a Bluesky post with the statement: "Absolutely everything in Unbeatable was created by human beings without any generative assistance. Every frame drawn, every word written, every model sculpted, every line of code typed, every song sung with a real voice, every guitar played with a real hand, every moment flawed and messy because we are, also."

maybe we could use another splash screen.

— @dcellgames.com (@dcellgames.com.bsky.social) 2025-11-27T15:21:42.123Z

In a further conversation with The Verge, D-Cell Games studio producer Jeffrey Chiao said: "Ignoring all of the ethical, moral, and legal concerns of using generative AI, it's a huge waste of effort. We can produce results that meet our quality standards without its assistance."

Generative AI is becoming harder to ignore, and it continues to divide both the industry and those who consume the things it produces. Despite a good chunk of our team having a great time with Arc Raiders, its incessant use of generative AI voicework is peeving. Morgan couldn't help but feel deflated when a little browser game he'd enjoyed turned out to be created by AI.

It's almost exasperating that this kind of thing has to be said now, but indies like D-Cell games taking a stand also feels mighty important at the moment. Especially when bigwigs are touting what is, to me, a bastardisation of creativity and art that has made this industry what it is today. Even if its benefits are understandably enticing to those who are trying to slim production budgets and timelines.

D-Cell Games hasn't been the only indie to rally against these comments. Demonschool developer Necrosoft said it "would rather cut off our own arms" than use generative AI. And as Polygon Treehouse co-founder Alex Kanaris-Sotiriou told The Verge: "The foundations that it's built upon, the idea of using other people's work without permission to generate artwork … are unfair."

As someone who plays a lot of arcade rhythm games, Yuynyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis is a who's-who of big hardcore composers in the space: REDALiCE, t+pazolite, Laur, P*Light… basically anyone currently under the HARDCORE TANO*C label. Which might mean a big load of bunk to you, but to me? It means I can confidently say this game is gonna be a good'un, especially after an hour with its demo.

That's if you can deal with the denpa-ness of it all, which thankfully I am fully equipped to handle. Some might even go so far as to say I enjoy it. Yunyun Syndrome is bizarre and creepy, dressed up in wailing anime girls and pinky-purple hues that almost offset how unsettling the entire experience is, both in its visuals and denpa-heavy song list.

Qtie is a hikkikomori—a shut-in, someone who has essentially withdrawn from life beyond the comfort of their room—regularly seeking solace in the arms of anonymous internet shitposting and worshipping her favourite fictional character Yunyun while teetering on the edge of insanity.

That insanity only ramps up when Yunyun—again, literally a fictional 2D anime girl—starts talking to Qtie through her computer, encouraging her to go ham with Yunyunposting and entrance even more people into the Yunyun lifestyle.

Yunyun Syndrome takes place exclusively through Qtie's PC: the game looks like a little desktop with different icons and folders to click on. Some of them help you dive further into what life is like for Qtie—I text her "mommy" asking her to come home. She responds with a bunch of emojis that were the graphic design equivalent of "fuck you". I can get a better shot of her bedroom, too—a space strewn with trash, Yunyun merchandise poking out between the plastic waste bags.

And all of this is even before I get into the main meat of Yunyun Syndrome, its rhythm game portion. The tracklist is, unsurprisingly, a veritable hub of strange, intentionally off-key tunes. J-Pop artist Kotoko dominates most of the demo list here with some classic tracks like sakuranbokissu and Raspberry. But there's also some neat extra additions, like the theme song from fellow denpa-themed videogame Needy Streamer Overload, and Touhou arrangement Marisa Stole the Precious Thing.

Songs are divided into three difficulties across nine levels, and I did find the jump between Level 6 and Level 7 tracks a little too wide—with the former being incredibly easy for me while the latter quickly flung me into finger-breaking territory. Charts only require four buttons, and hitting notes sees Qtie type her obsessive words of praise along the bottom of the screen. The better you do, the more Yunyun propaganda Qtie is able to spread, with the ultimate goal seeming to be causing the entire world to devolve into the same brainrotted otaku degeneracy.

All the while, Yunyun hovers along the screen lavishing Qtie with praise. I will admit the dialogue leans a little too heavily into gen alpha internet brainrot slang for my liking—I visibly recoiled upon reading the phrase "Time to skibidi denpa all up in this bihhh!" and there's also a rizz percentage that I wasn't quite able to figure out in the demo—but considering it was turning me insane as I played, maybe that was the whole point.

I wasn't sure what I'd make of Yunyun Syndrome when I first downloaded it—high-quality rhythm games (that aren't mechanically bolted onto metroidvanias, platformers, and rail shooters as a side-piece) can feel few and far between. But between its disconcerting music, cute-crazy animations and excellent voice acting, I can already tell this game is going to have me spreading the Yunyun agenda before long.

Unfortunately there's no firm release date right now—the game was recently delayed into a vague window of "this winter," but you can still check out the demo and wishlist the game on Steam right now.

You're running out of time. You'll certainly have less of it by the time you're done reading this review, and less still if you decide to pick up Hyperbeat: a rhythm game that roped me in with its oddball UI, low-poly dreamscapes, and atmospheric central hub full of NPCs eager to introspect with you. It is a small, severe world that quickly charmed me.

While all rhythm games are about timing, time writ large, which you have a little less of by now, is Hyperbeat's foremost obsession. One hub NPC is a musician who longs for their bygone depression, if only because it was a source of inspiration in the days before their "flop era." Another is a churlish artist whose precious moments are wasted fretting over the feedback of an audience (or talking to you, for that matter).

Every step you take in the hub world—a liminal space-and-bar called the Wellspring—is punctuated by the sound of seconds ticking by, and each level is completed by crashing into a clock and shattering it. You start conversations with other characters by taking a beat, metaphorical and literal, long enough to fill up a quarter rest symbol in sheet music notation. I've only spent a few hours with Hyperbeat, but it made sure I appreciated each passing measure.

Time flies

I was impressed, then, when its levels had me losing track of time after all that hullabaloo about clocks and such. Each stage has you, a faceless knight, soar through an abstract tunnel trying to intercept button prompts as they whizz past, colliding with them or swinging your weapon at them in time to a song. Think an on-rails shooter like Star Fox 64, but your objective is to fly into targets rather than shoot down enemies.

The UI and control setup are unlike any rhythm game I've played, so much so that I was constantly switching back and forth between gamepad and mouse as I puzzled my way through which was more comfortable.

In that way, Hyperbeat's novelty is sort of a double-edged sword. These flights move quickly, even erratically on higher difficulties, and the various UI elements scream at you from so many angles that it's easy to get cross-eyed, dizzy, or even nauseous. I got used to it after a while, but your mileage may vary if you're prone to motion sickness or stylization-induced headaches.

That said, once it clicks, it all feels exceptional. Scrambling to fly through targets is exhilarating, and it scratches a hard-to-reach part of my brain to slide and slice through each note in pursuit of perfectly timed "Pure" hits. The charts reward exact precision; if I ever got an "Okay" rating or missed a note, I was always certain of my own mistiming.

It's especially approachable for a rhythm game, too, despite the visual chaos. Every song comes in three difficulties, and on the lower end of the spectrum, most targets don't require you to hit a button as notes pass by—only to fly through them or follow their trail through a winding tube. It's a good way to get your bearings and to learn the songs, which I found crucial before trying the higher difficulties.

There's no fail state on any difficulty that I could identify, but the hardest charts are so frenetic and packed with targets that the thought of grinding out the hours to get a perfect score on them makes me shudder.

I might just give it a try, though, if only to spend more time with the game's songs. A few of its best earworms are still stuck in my head as I write this, though Hyperbeat can't quite match the variety of other rhythm games' smorgasbords of licensed music.

It's all pleasant shades of original electronica, ranging from the glitchy and mid-tempo to the lo-fi, warm, and relaxing. It's occasionally a tonal mismatch for the hectic action on-screen, but I appreciated how the charts didn't always just line up with the most prominent melody or lock in with the drums—occasionally providing their own supplemental percussion using the sound of your play.

At its best, the game had me melting into a flow state where the barriers between me and its hypnotic musical races felt delightfully thin. It's all the tricky dexterity and score-chasing of a Guitar Hero, but with the unique added pleasure of flying in 3D space.

Downtempo

That brings me to my gripes with Hyperbeat: for one, it's just too short. It's an indie rhythm game with about 90 minutes of music to its name, so I'm not spitting mad that it takes only an hour or two longer than that to finish it, but I wished the game had pushed me to master it a bit more. Hyperbeat's biggest thrills are packed into those harder variants of each song, but you can clear the game without trying them; it would have been nice to chase high scores with more concrete incentives than collectible hunting, or whatever goals I'd set myself.

And its narrative, which follows a few of the hub NPCs I mentioned earlier, feels occasionally like it's rushing to enlighten you before the credits roll. It poses interesting questions: is pushing yourself to the limit at a miserable day job worth the theoretical long-run payoff? When does planning for the future demand so much that it kills your relish for the moment? Is all that time you spend grinding in rhythm games a waste? You're running out, after all.

It tends to pose those questions a tad clumsily; side characters in the hub like to pontificate about their anxieties to you and then, before you have a chance to try and relate to them, give you their exact advice on how to cope. Even the flavor text when you repeat a stage but don't improve your score remarks, "no time spent in passion can ever be considered wasted." It never comes off insincere, but once you're past the mysterious exterior, the rest is padded out with platitudes where it doesn't need to be.

That might sound like I didn't care for the dialog, but it's great at times. Cheeky jokes are peppered throughout, plenty of which induced a smirk, and there were moments talking my fellow knights through their unresolved malaise about artmaking, failure, and loneliness that put a lump in my throat.

It was hard not to feel the tangle of their melancholy reach out and ensnare me in my own anxieties, my own lost time, trying to make a living as a career writer. It's because I was so taken with those moments that I wish the rest of Hyperbeat wasn't eager to serve up banalities like "be kind to yourself" and "growing is never comfortable." The story's most touching moments were in the placid quiet of the Wellspring, dwelling on unanswered questions.

That said, I'd still recommend Hyperbeat to anyone with a passing interest for its singular and special take on the genre. Its levels were so arresting I was dying to play more of them; and while there's not much of a modding scene to speak of yet, the game does have Steam Workshop support for custom charts (we'll see how long it takes to get Through the Fire and the Flames in there). In the end, it's only $14.99 and completable in an afternoon. Time well spent.

I was having a scroll through my Steam library this week, hunting out games I hadn’t played in a hot sec to fill my night. I’m glad I did, because otherwise I would have missed a very exciting piece of news: one of the coolest, most innovative rhythm games on PC is finally coming out of early access.

Rhythm Doctor is unlike any rhythm game I’ve played before—while I’m used to four, five, or even eight-button spreads, Rhythm Doctor only requires one finger and the humble spacebar. Notes skirt along an EKG to different rhythms, sometimes throwing multiple notes for me to keep track of each beat.

The real joy of Rhythm Doctor, though, comes from its visuals. Each level has some wonderfully unique storytelling through its art and the things that are happening between (and often during) my button presses. From levels that play out like those dodgy mobile ads that flood the screen with notifications and glitches, to one level that’s so special I don’t want to spoil it here. Seriously, it’s one you have to play for yourself.

Well, after six years on Steam and even more than that, knocking around as a demo on itch.io, Rhythm Doctor is finally entering 1.0 on December 6.

"From a small Flash game, to prototypes via mailing list, to Steam Early Access, and all the updates we’ve published since… we’re excited to finally bring the story of Rhythm Doctor to a close," a news post on Steam read.

"We couldn’t have done it without all your support and passion for this game about slamming your space bar."

The full launch of Rhythm Doctor is set to add the game’s final story chapter, further accessibility with screen reading on the game’s night shift levels, and "small improvements and bug fixes."

The news post ends by pointing players to another rhythm game, developed with some of the Rhythm Doctor team, and one I’ve already loved and written about—Beatblock.

I am already totally sold on In Falsus, the rhythm game from the same developer behind mobile music game Arcaea. After a very brief reveal trailer four months ago, we've now got a second trailer from the Tokyo Game Show with a little bit of gameplay and insight into a new card-based system.

It's got all the same moody anime girl energy of Arcaea but with a fully fleshed out visual novel portion and some wicked-looking song charts to go alongside it. Gameplay looks like it'll be taking an Osu approach with a dual keyboard-and-mouse input system—four central lanes and two side lanes along with flick-style aerial notes that float above the main field. It looks a little similar to Lowiro's mobile gameplay, with a little bit of the arcadeyness from Sound Voltex and Ongeki in there to boot.

For the visual novel portion, In Falsus will follow five different high school girls as their stories intertwine: Nia Cana, Mei Alder, Ayame Takatsuki, Iris Leal, and Story Étienne. Lowiro promises "full Japanese voice acting," with the narrative playing an integral part in the overall storytelling "with music gameplay, sound design, and themes reflecting and directly linked to the events of the game."

I have to admit I'm never huge on visual novel portions in rhythm games—it was my least favourite part of Persona 4: Dancing all Night, especially when I'm more interested in the rhythm mechanics than any narrative—but I'm definitely willing to give it a shot here with In Falsus with how hard Lowiro seems to be going on its importance.

The final part to the trailer, and perhaps the most interesting, is the card integration. The In Falsus Steam page says there'll be material collecting and card crafting for different stat boosts and bonuses which'll likely boost scores and provide a little cushioning on the life bar to get through some tougher charts.

It also notes a feature called Blueprints, with the store page describing them as "grids with a wide variety of choices in stat boosts and bonuses." It seems like where you slot different cards in matters, and "how you choose to arrange materials within Blueprints shapes unique possibilities in solutions and effects."

It didn't take long for Arcaea fans to worry that the card system was a way to gacha In Falsus out the wazoo, but director Guy seems to have quickly put out that fire via a Discord message on the Arcaea server: "Hello, There's no gacha."

Despite being a total gacha sicko, I am pleased to know that a system which will most definitely be very important isn't being totally thrown to the monetised RNG wolves. It's still probably going to be a massive pain to craft stuff, but at least I won't have to roll the dice with gems each time.

There's still no release date unfortunately, just the vague window of 2026. If you're lucky enough to be at Tokyo Game Show right now, though, you can give In Falsus a go with five songs to choose from. Just know I am very, very jealous.

Beatblock is a brutal rhythmic wolf in sheep's clothing. Idling through its tutorial, I honestly wasn't expecting much. Where I'm used to tapping away at keys or gliding along a dance pad with my feet, all I needed for this game was my humble mouse. I slowly guide a paddle around a circular smiley in the centre of my screen, gobbling up tap notes and gently nudging along the path of hold notes while the occasional circle closes in around me, requiring a click to the beat.

I can't help but feel like developer BubbleTabby was intentionally luring me into a false sense of security with its drip-feeding. "Not bad, but let's face it—that was easy," the tutorial's text taunted. "Time to put it all together."

With half a dozen different note types to keep track of, Beatblock was suddenly a devilishly complex rhythm game wrapped up in simple Flash-era graphics. Keeping track of which notes required a mouse click and which ones didn't, while making sure my paddle wasn't veering too far off-course suddenly became a far more difficult task, without which I might have never ventured beyond this game's tutorial level.

The game only continues to build from there, too. I go through the demo's track list top-to-bottom, beginning with a song that introduces mines I have to avoid, while other songs have notes I have to whack with the side of my paddle as I swing around to hit the rest of the pattern, or negative notes that I have to turn around and grab with the back of my paddle instead. It's a great variety, with each song mixing it up so as not to totally overwhelm their charts while still providing a heap of challenge.

Something else the tutorial didn't let on is just how heavily integrated the visuals are into each song, which I'm an absolute sucker for. This first song is an all-out duel between myself and a western cowboy. I dance around mines while a crosshair skirts around my blobby smiley paddle-wielding lad.

The visual gimmicks do make songs harder to parse, but as someone who loves these things in other rhythm games like Pump it Up, it's getting no complaints from me. If anything, it's the whole point. Other songs see the notes pulsing or warping into different colours, each effect tying every song together into these individual experiences.

The songs bang too, far more than I expected. My personal favourite is CV35W's Público Cautivo, the song that introduces me to the slide notes. Not only do I get a handy little tutorial at the start, but the lyrics revolve around what I'm supposed to do and what happens if I don't hit them—spoiler alert, I drop the combo. It's the kind of weirdness I love in videogame music—this song in particular reminds me a lot of 2 Mello's excellent Twist Sound in Spin Rhythm XD.

I loved every single one of the five non-tutorial tracks on offer, and particularly had a fantastic time with ILOVEYOU.vbs as an entire audio-visual experience, flipping the background animation upside down and creating all sorts of chaos while I did my best to keep my combo going. I even got a little treat at the end in the form of a fishing minigame. And we all know your videogame isn't real if it doesn't include fishing.

Beatblock also has a level editor, and while I didn't do any tinkering around with it I'll be very excited to get stuck into maps that people far more talented than me have managed to concoct.

You can try out a demo for Beatblock now, with the full game launch thankfully not that far away. It'll be heading into early access on September 26, with BubbleTabby saying it intends to stay there for around a year before reaching its intended scope towards the end of 2026 with 40+ songs to choose from.

Released last year for VR platforms, rhythm game Thrasher will soon be playable on non-VR setups in a version that'll release on Steam later this year. It's by duo studio Puddle, half of which is Brian Gibson—the composer and artist on 2016 game Thumper, which PC Gamer called "one of the best rhythm games ever made."

Thus, you might understand why we're very interested in Thrasher and its just-released demo.

It's a demo that delivers. Thrasher is a kinetic, engaging little rhythm game that boasts some excellent audio and visual design. It's a pretty classic score-chasing, time attack game where you're always trying to make more and more skillful moves with your "magnificent space eel" in order to hit circling motions and rack up a higher combo.

The visuals are excellent in that nearly-off-putting, psychedelic way I want from this kind of game. There's a glowing space eel that evolves to get ever-larger as it flies across bizarre and sometimes mesmerizing landscapes. There's a huge baby with glowing eyes, which is a bit upsetting, but hey, look at that glowing eel.

The music is, of course, great at inducing that flow state you want from a good rhythm game.

You can find Thrasher and its demo on Steam.

Videogames are great but don't you wish they had more bopping? And not just more bopping, but also more twisting and pulling, perhaps of… I don't know, some sort of nebulous… it? And most importantly, a loud voice telling you exactly when you should bop it, twist it, and/or pull it?

Your oddly specific prayers have finally been answered, because nearly 30 years after the discovery of the cursed Pandora's Box-like artifact known as Bop It!—which demanded its user perform ritualistic bopping, twisting, and pulling of its button, knob, and handle in the precise pattern needed to finally release the prophesied Loud One, known as Bophomet, upon the world to reign for all time—is now a videogame.

It's called Bop It! The Video Game and it's on Steam. Check out the trailer below, which goes a little something like this:

"Bop it! Twist it! Pull it! Twist it! Bop it! Pull it! Twist it! Pull it! Bop it! Twist it! Pull it! Twist it! Bop it! Twist it! Pull it! Twist it! Bop it! Pull it!"

The Steam page promises (or threatens) "Hot Bop It! Action!" for one or two players (in local co-op), plus a global leaderboard to see how you stack up against other hot boppers. And there's not just classic mode but an "EXTREME" mode (caps theirs) where you can also be yelled at to "Spin it!" and "Flick it!" on an evolved version of the Bop It! that has grown two appendages. Chilling.

I unfortunately have never had the pleasure of playing or even seeing an actual Bop It!, which crossed over into our dimension back in 1996. Yet I somehow know all about it, as if it revealed itself to me in a dream or some troubling vision. This is my chance, I suppose, to finally bop, twist, and pull the Bop It! for myself, if only virtually.

Wish me luck. According to the Steam page, "the best part of Bop It! The Video Game is that the levels never end: as long as you can stay in, the game will keep going." If you never hear from me again, it may be because I now bop eternal.

What do you get if you smash together the adorable cartoon art of Puyo Puyo Tetris with the musical gameplay of Rhythm Heaven and Melatonin? Apparently you get Pastel Parade, and I've already sunk entirely too much time into its demo.

There are currently five stages to try—four story-related ones, and a bonus stage for completing the demo—each one offering something a little different. The first stage has you pressing arrow keys to shake a water bottle in a certain direction, while the others take a super simple approach of only needing to hit one key to the rhythm.

One stage has me spiking a volleyball to the beat, while another has me hopping along rainy pavement while trying to catch me out with some surprisingly quick timing. The final stage of the demo is by far my favourite though, making me switch between a very simple rhythm and a more complex one, each time bridging the two melodies with rapid strums of my guitar.

As is to be expected, each level comes with a short tutorial first to help me feel out the rhythm of each stage and when I should be hitting each note. That came particularly handy for the final stage which is the least intuitive of the bunch, but a few attempts at each rhythm had me grasping it far better and meant I wasn't diving head-first into the level without a clue what I was doing.

I found some of the judgement timing to be surprisingly tricky, too. I was able to fully perfect the volleyball stage with no effort, but I found myself having to repeatedly retry both the water bottle shaking and the final big band moment.

I'm always a fan of rhythm games that offer a simple premise while letting absolute music game demons like myself up the challenge by perfecting my note timing, which makes me extra pleased that Pastel Parade even tells me how late or early I am on each note hit. It's something surprisingly lacking in some other rhythm games, and is always a setting I'm hunting for otherwise.

There's even a story, though the demo is very light on the details. I'm sure it's going to be about friendship, and music, and all that cutesy stuff that these games are typically hammering home. I'm not usually super keen on a narrative-heavy rhythm game, but each cutscene in the demo was short and sweet enough that I didn't feel like I was waiting too long to get back into the action.

Pastel Parade promises 30 original songs when the full game releases on August 27. Each stage only clocks in at about a minute or so long, so there's not exactly infinite replayability here. But for a short and sweet experience filled with poppy tunes and adorable chibi characters, Pastel Parade already feels worth picking up based on its five demo stages alone.

Classical music has formed the bedrock of videogame soundtracks since developers could shove something vaguely Chopinesque onto a three-channel sound chip.

Philippe Vachey worked in compositions of Johann Strauss and Saint Saens among his terrifying plucked string soundtrack. Catherine had half-naked sheep men pulling blocks and climbing to the tune of Chopin's Revolutionary Etude. Hell, Grand Theft Auto 3 let you run over pedestrians while blasting a whole radio station full of classics.

Where I've been exposed to the most classical music, however, is in rhythm games. The genre loves a good Beethoven track, I'll tell you that. From dance pads at the arcade to dexterously tapping away at my keyboard, I can almost guarantee that whatever rhythm game I'm playing has at least one orchestral piece in its back pocket.

It's been on my mind recently, more so since my favourite arcade dance game Pump it Up got its first official PC adaptation on Steam in July: Pump it Up Rise. I haven't had the chance to pick it up yet, but I've been watching a whole lotta other people play it, and to nobody's surprise it's chock full of classical remixes that have served as the series backbone since it first dared to challenge Dance Dance Revolution in 1999.

While Konami's four-panel rhythm game sported a ton of eurobeat and electronic music, Pump it Up took a slightly different route with a five-panel dance mat and a mixture of South Korean-influenced hip hop and, well, classical music remixes. They were arranged by a group of rhythm game composers collectively operating under the artist name BanYa, who utilised a mixture of hip hop, hardcore, and rock to jazz things up a bit.

Sick Beets

Take The Devil, which uses electric guitar to remix Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King while still folding in classical string instruments. There's also Turkey March which has a similar approach to Mozart's Rondo alla Turca, and Dr. M doing the same to his Symphony No. 40. BanYa even pulls from some more modern hits, like the surftastic Mr. Larpus being heavily based on The Surfaris' Wipe Out.

My personal favourites, however, come from tracks where BanYa lets strings shine. Winter takes the Vivaldi piece of the same name (also known as The Four Seasons Op. 8 No. 4), slaps a heavy beat to back up the strings and then, of course, takes a pause from classical instruments to chuck a whole guitar solo in there.

Then there's Beethoven Virus, which is easily the most famous classical remix to come out of Pump it Up. It takes the deaf composer's Pathetique 3rd Movement and spits out an all-out epic rendition where the strings still shine but, of course, there's always room for some shredding.

The ways BanYa managed to contort classical pieces into these new, fresh-sounding tracks that people are happy to stomp their feet to—and now tap their keyboard—was pretty impressive, and still is, almost two decades after many of these songs were conceived.

Pump it Up is my favourite example, but it's not the only one when it comes to rhythm games: The long-dead Audition Online and Super Dancer Online stuffed all sorts of orchestral pieces among its wealth of pop tracks, while Trombone Champ popped off back in 2022 when we all butchered various renditions with our brass instruments.

Drumming game Taiko no Tatsujin has an entire Classics folder to peruse through, while last year's Maestro put you in the conductor's seat itself as you took charge of an orchestra in VR. The piano game Deemo doesn't focus too much on classical tracks—though it does have an Etude collection with a sprinkling of historical pieces—its library primarily focuses on delicate, contemporary classical styles.

It makes sense that rhythm games (and videogames in general) lean so heavily into these songs. Their familiarity can be handy for nailing certain emotions or evoking a more nostalgic vibe—think Booker DeWitt exploring the Hall of Heroes in BioShock Infinite or Fallout 4 sporting the Classical Radio station. But outside of this, one of the simplest answers is: Copyright. Or rather, a lack thereof.

After all, Beethoven and Mozart weren't copyright striking YouTube videos back in the 1700s or sending cease and desists to TikTok stars. I'm not even sure they'd have the capacity to grasp the terrifying black hole that is the internet. Most of this stuff is in the public domain at this point, and when it comes to rhythm games, it makes for a pretty easy way to plump up the songlist without having to work too hard composing a bunch of original stuff.

Honestly? I kinda dig it. Humans love comfort and familiarity, and I always enjoy diving into a new rhythm game and being able to learn the ropes with a handful of classical tracks I've heard elsewhere. But nobody does it quite like Pump it Up if you ask me, and I can't wait to try out some of these songs with Rise's new adjusted stepcharts for keyboards and Steam Deck. You'll just have to pull me away from spinning around the pad in the arcade version of Beethoven Virus, first.

Ratatan, the spiritual successor to the wonderful PSP rhythm game Patapon, turned up at the PC Gaming Show earlier this year to reveal a new trailer, as well as a demo on Steam and an early access release date of July 25.

But with that date now just a few weeks away, developer TVT Co. has decided to push it back, and for that you can blame—or thank, as the case may be—the demo.

The Ratatan demo was downloaded more than 200,000 times, the team said in a Steam update, resulting in more than 1,200 Steam user reviews and 2,000 comments sent directly to the developer. "The sheer volume of responses has exceeded the team’s expectations!" the studio wrote.

Unfortunately, that feedback was not entirely positive. There are five "main points" that players weren't happy with:

• The tutorial and UI being difficult to understand
• The roguelike structure and reward pacing feeling unsatisfying
• Frustration over some Ratatans being unable to use skills
• Lack of impact in visuals and presentation
• Requests for improvements to content structure, pacing, and mid-term gameplay flow

And, simply put, there's not enough time between now and July 25 to address the complaints—thus the delay. A new release date hasn't been finalized yet but will be announced as soon as possible; TVT Co. warned that even with the delay, "it may not be possible to address all of these requests by the time we launch [into] Early Access."

The studio also reminded followers that "Ratatan is not Patapon," seemingly a response to complaints from some players that the new game is not what they were expecting. "[Ratatan] is an indie game aiming to deliver a completely new experience," TVT Co. wrote. "So there will naturally be some differences in direction."

TVT Co. also said it's looking into "making adjustments" to rewards for its Kickstarter backers to ensure they're treated "fairly and appropriately," including possible additional rewards for console backers "since they will have to wait longer to play the game"—PC backers will get the early access version, but people who want to play on console will have to wait for the full release—and "establishing thoughtful measures tailored to the support tiers and chosen platforms of our backers." I have no idea what that means but TVT Co. said details will be shared in a future update.

(If you really want to play Patapon, by the way, it's finally coming to PC on July 10.)

Fresh Tracks, Buffalo Buffalo's breakneck rhythm adventure game, has a release date: August 12, 2025.

As outlined in a new trailer aired during the PC Gaming Show 2025, Fresh Tracks teaches us that not only does like come at you fast—so too does the afterlife as we “jump, dodge, and fight to the rhythm of the gods.”

As showcased at lightning pace, hordes of hooded baddies are put to the sword, while similar numbers of plectrums are put to the pick.

“The world will sing your song!” so declares the game’s Steam page, while the process of doing so is fraught with ominous demons, deadly obstacles, ice-breathing dragons, and, um, actor Peter Stormare?

Who knew the man who’s featured in everything from Fargo to The Big Lebowski, Armageddon and Prison Break—who’s also provided voicework for video games Until Dawn, Destiny, The Elder Scrolls Online and much more—was so invested in rhythm games that cross the ethereal plane?

Following in Stormare’s footsteps in Fresh Tracks will see you assume control of protagonist Skaii on their quest to defeat Mar, the Queen of Terror and restore hope to the living land of Norwyn. Told through story and song, you’ll uncover the world’s secrets all the while unlocking upgrades designed to aid future runs.

As you can see above, it’s all very cool in doing so, fast and furious and chock-full of head-bobbing, fist-pumping metal music.

If any of that feels like your jam, you should wishlist Fresh Tracks over on Steam right now ahead of its August 12 launch date. The fate of Norwyn is in your hands.

Check out every game, trailer, and announcement in the PC Gaming Show 2025

Sabrina Carpenter has debuted in Fortnite as part of Season 8 in Fortnite Festival, so if you've been looking for a new skin to shake up your wardrobe, then now's your chance at getting something glamorous. Sabrina's skins and styles will be available for the entire season, which will come to a close on June 1, 2025, giving you plenty of time to unlock her or at least save up your V-Bucks to do so.

There are two different Sabrina Carpenter skins up for grabs this season, with four different outfits on the cards, and luckily they're pretty straightforward to unlock given you've got the virtual cash. You won't need to complete any quests or missions to do so, and they'll be available all season long. Here's what you need to do to get this pop princess in your game.

How to unlock Sabrina Carpenter in Fortnite through the Music Pass

The fastest way to unlock Sabrina Carpenter is by buying the season's Music Pass for 1,400 V-Bucks. Or, if you're already subscribed to Fortnite Crew, you'll automatically unlock this season's pass. Unlocking Sabrina this way will give you the yellow babydoll dress style. But, you'll also get to unlock a yellow bodysuit variant further down the pass if you're a dedicated player, as well as a multitude of other awards that justify the price.

More Sabrina Carpenter rewards are available through the Music Pass, which might make it seem more appealing and worthwhile than just buying the skin outright. Throughout the season, you'll be able to unlock "Juno" and "Nonsense" jam tracks alongside two guitars, an emote, and a banner icon all themed around Sabrina Carpenter.

How to unlock Sabrina Carpenter in Fortnite through the in-game shop

If you'd rather not put in the extra work or commit to a Music Pass, you can also buy a Sabrina Carpenter skin from the item shop. This will be available throughout the season, which concludes on June 1, 2025. If you buy the Tour-Ready skin on its own, it'll cost you 1,500 V-Bucks. But, you can also buy "A Sweet Little Bundle" bundle for 2,800 V-Bucks, which seems a little more worthwhile. The bundle includes the following items:

• Tour-Ready Sabrina Carpenter style
• SC heart purse back bling
• Please Please Please emote
• Taste emote
• Cute cutout contrail
• Sabrina's Mic
• Please Please Please jam track

The Tour-Ready style also comes in two colors, pastel pink and baby blue, which you'll unlock automatically once you've purchased either the bundle or the skin on its own. A Lego version of the skin is also automatically unlocked once you've made a purchase.

After Hatsune Miku's reign as Fortnite Festival's icon during Season 7, a new heir must take the throne. For Season 8, that would be Sabrina Carpenter. After a very obvious teaser was shared on the official Fortnite social media pages, it wasn't hard to guess that the pop star would be the next mascot for the rhythm game, but now it's been revealed can we take a moment to appreciate how scarily accurate her character model is?

The Season 8 music pass features "Please Please Please", "Taste," "Nonsense" and "Juno" jam tracks for you to unlock while you make your way through, and if you're particularly committed to it, you'll even unlock more outfits for the skin. The store will even see the return of "Espresso" and "Feather" jam tracks, so frankly there is more than enough music here for you to sink your teeth into.

As always, the Music Pass for this season will set you back 1,400 V-Bucks if you're not a part of Fortnite Crew, but you'll immediately unlock the yellow babydoll dress skin for the character when you purchase the pass, with a bodysuit variation sitting at the end of the pass. This skin also comes with a Lego version.

A "tour ready" set will also be available through the Fortnite shop during the season, which is modeled after one of the more iconic outfits Carpenter wore during her recent Short N' Sweet tour. This is available in pink initially, with a baby blue alternative style. Additionally, the following items and tracks will be available for purchase in the Fortnite Shop during the season:

• SC Heart Purse Back Bling
• Cute Cutout Contrail
• Sabrina's Mic

A change to emotes is also rolling out as part of Season 8. Any emote involving dancing that allows another player to join in, whether or not they have the emote themselves, has now been labeled as a Dance Emote. In addition, two new emotes have also been added as part of the season, featuring choreography for and snippets of Carpenter’s Please Please Please and Taste.

I'll be honest, I thought Chappell Roan would be the next pop icon to be added to the game, especially given how she practically begged Epic Games to give her a skin. But hey ho, I'm not mad about Sabrina. There's a whole world of pop stars out there that I'm sure would be thrilled to be Fortnite-ified and sent out in the Battle Bus. With that said, there's no use in me placing my bets as to who's next as these collaborations just keep getting more unpredictable, but at least Fortnite never fails to surprise.

I didn't have a PSP when the original Patapon came out in 2007 but I did have access to one at my back-then job, which afforded me the opportunity to play around with it a bit. I don't remember much about it except that it was quite good (and of course the relentless, rhythmic pata-pata-pata-pon that still erupts in my head now and then), and disappointment that it wasn't available for PC.

It's been a bit of a wait—18 years, give or take—but that PC version is finally on the way. Patapon 1+2 Replay, a remastered pairing of Patapon and the 2008 sequel Patapon 2, is coming to Steam on July 10.

At its core, Patapon is simple: You, the God of the Patapons, lead your people on a "grand adventure" against a host of different enemies, controlling their actions through the rhythmic beating of four "mystical drums."

The challenge, as the Steam listing says, arises from "using the right battle commands during the right situation, and creating an army comprised of the classes (jobs) of patapons." Your patapons can be created and enhanced using 400 different weapons and pieces of equipment, enabling the creation of a customized "one-of-a-kind squadron to take on the various enemies and challenges this game has to offer." It plays out sort of like a side-scrolling, rhythm RTS, with spearmen and archers lobbing projectiles at enemy armies and giant boss monsters.

Despite (or perhaps because of) that simplicity, Patapon was one of the best games available for the PSP, and was nominated for numerous awards following its release. It also made a lasting impression on players, as seen in this reaction to Patapon 1+2 Replay on Reddit:

Despite all that, it took years for Patapon to shed its PSP chains: A PlayStation 4 version of the original came out in 2017, followed by Patapon 2 in 2020. But until now (well, July) it's never been available on PC, which makes this kind of a big deal.

This new remaster, which is also coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch, will feature the same gameplay as the original releases along with new quality of life features including adjustable difficulty and button-press timing, and an option to keep the drum icon displayed at all times. Full controller support is included.

Also interesting is that while Patapon and Patapon 2 were published by Sony, this updated version is being published by Bandai Namco. That's becoming kind of a thing for the company, it seems: In September 2024 Bandai announced a PC version of Freedom Wars and then in March 2025 it did the same for Everybody's Golf—both of them previously Sony-published PlayStation exclusives.

Patapon 1+2 Replay comes out on July 10, which I've already said—a price hasn't been revealed but it's available for wishlisting now on Steam.

Fortnite Festival is rolling out Season 7 on January 14, and Epic Games have announced that virtual pop sensation Hatsune Miku is leading the charge. As someone who has actively avoided most things Fortnite, I hate to admit that this might be the thing that lures me in like a siren's song, but it was only a matter of time before it finally sunk its hooks into me.

During the season, you'll be able to unlock a bounty of Hatsune Miku-related rewards through the Music Pass, such as a Miku outfit, themed instruments, and a handful of Jam Tracks. Though some of them are locked behind the premium paid pass. If you already have this pass unlocked, you'll immediately get the Neko Hatsune Miku outfit as a reward, and you can work your way towards the Brite Hatsune Miku Style skin and the M@GICAL☆CURE! LOVE ♥ SHOT! Jam Track available toward the end of the pass.

The skins paired with the matching instruments you can take to the stage are enough to justify the cost of 1,400 V-Bucks to me, which I loathe to admit. You couldn't really ask for more from the collaboration, so everything else just feels like a bonus. Plus, each instrument comes with a very sweet leek charm which I particularly adore.

But if you don't want to pay the pass fee upfront, the rewards will probably be made available in the shop at a later date too. I'm just relieved if I don't seize the opportunity to become a beast at Fortnite Festival now I'll still get the chance to soothe my Miku obsession later down the line. A number of Hatsune Miku rewards will be available in the shop too, in case the pass rewards weren't enough. Throughout the season you'll be able to get ahold of the following:

• Hatsune Miku Outfit
• Pack-sune Miku Back Bling
• Miku Live Emote
• Miku Miku Beam Emote
• Miku Light Contrail
• Hatsune’s Mic-u
• Miku’s Beat Drums
• “Miku” Jam Track by Anamanaguchi, Hatsune Miku

But Hatsune Miku isn't the only selling point of the season, and there are some additional features coming in v33.20. Four new battle stage modes are being added, so you can get an extra layer of challenge to test your skills with certain instruments. Lead Only, Drums Only, Vocals Only, and Bass Only are the four game modes designed to let you compete with others on a more even playing field rather than with the support of a band, but these modes could also be a great way to practise if you're only confident in limited instruments.

Fortnite Festival Season 7 will come to a close on April 8, so there's plenty of time for you to practise and perfect your Hatsune Miku Jam Tracks and cash out every possible reward on the Music Pass before then. I'm more than ready to accept the fact that this is the thing that is going to get me really into Fortnite Festival. I just hope I don't blow it the second I step foot on stage and feel too embarrassed to play again after pouring everything from my wallet into cute skins.

"Long live rock, be it dead or alive," the man once said, and for a little more than a year now, Rocksmith 2014 has indeed been dead. But now it's alive again, and back on Steam in a slightly retuned format as Rocksmith 2014 Edition Remastered Learn and Play.

First released in 2013, Rocksmith 2014 is a bit like Guitar Hero except it uses a real guitar as a controller, and teaches you to play real songs. It's quite good, and amassed a "very positive" user rating over the years on Steam, but in October 2023—its 10^th anniversary—Ubisoft removed the game from sale. A reason for the takedown wasn't provided at the time, but we suspected expiring licenses were the cause, and sure enough Ubisoft has now confirmed that was the case.

"In 2023, Rocksmith 2014 Remastered was temporarily removed due to the expiration of our music licensing deals," the Steam page states. "While we believe Rocksmith+ offers the ultimate destination for learning guitar, bass and piano with its extensive music catalog, we have also heard the Rocksmith 2014 community’s feedback. You asked for Rocksmith 2014 Remastered to return, so we did just that!"

The expired licenses are still an issue: While the re-released Rocksmith 2014 "is identical to the original" in functionality, all of the licensed songs have been replaced with "a collection of tracks and exercises from our popular downloadable content bundles," including:

• Bachsmith and Bachsmith II
• Classic Melody Song Pack
• Rocksmith Easy Exercises, Vol. 1 & 2
• Rocksmith Intermediate Exercises, Vol. 1 & 2
• Rocksmith Advanced Exercises, Vol. 1 & 2

That sounds possibly not great—I want to rock out with Zeppelin, not "intermediate exercises"—but a mountain of Rocksmith 2014 DLC remains: 1,226 pieces of it, including individual tracks and song packs. If you already own the original Rocksmith 2014, you won't be able to download this edition, because otherwise you'd lose access to the licensed music it contains.

I think it's very cool that Rocksmith 2014 is back, and I can't help wondering if Ubisoft's comments about Rocksmith+ offer a little more insight than intended as to the reason for the comeback. Rocksmith+ is billed as "the evolution from Rocksmith 2014 Edition, which had to be retired for music licensing requirements," but full access to the game requires a subscription that costs $20 per month. Adding insult to injury, Rocksmith+ is not compatible with Rocksmith 2014 tracks, so any music you bought for that game is useless with the new one. Predictably, Rocksmith+ currently bears an "overwhelmingly negative" rating on Steam, and hasn't had more than 100 concurrent players since the beginning of June—a small fraction of Rocksmith 2014's concurrent player count, even post-delisting.

Rocksmith 2014 isn't just back on Steam, it's also on sale for 70% off, meaning you can pick it up right now for just $3. Long live Rocksmith 2014.

The creator of famous PSP rhythm game Patapon, Hiroyuki Kotani, is back with a new design, Ratatan, set to release on PC among other platforms in 2025. A combination of rhythm and side-scroller, Ratatan will take up to four players in online co-op. Players will defeat enemies by sending rhythmic commands to their troops in battle. Ratatan will also be a roguelike, meaning your powerups and rewards will be randomized each time you play through it.

"Players act as the Ratatan, using magical instruments to deliver different commands to the armies of Cobun to attack the enemies," said developer Tokyo Virtual Theory in a press release. "In addition to attack and defence rhythmic sequences, there are also actions that allow the Ratatan to move freely, with unique skills for each character, further deepening the musicality of the game."

A key feature of the rhythm gameplay will be "fever mode," where players who accurately follow the rhythm sequences alters the background music interactively to get new powers.

Much like the classic Patapon, Ratatan stars little one-eyed critters, but the backgrounds and overall art style are much more detailed in Ratatan—a real departure from the older, simpler gameplay style for the apparently new more action, strategy, and powerup-focused Ratatan.

Ratatan got funding via a successful Kickstarter campaign earlier this month.

Developer Tokyo Virtual Theory also made a note of its in-house engine, the Theory Engine, which was designed to provide a fast and stable environment for multiplayer with others—key in a rhythm game.

Patapon was a sensation when it released on PSP back in 2007, drawing a ton of attention for its engaging rhthym play often described as "addicting." It went on to have two full sequels, but creator Kotani hasn't been prominently back in the designer's chair since Patapon 3 in 2011.

It's been quite a year for Tango Gameworks. After releasing the acclaimed Hi-Fi Rush in 2023, it was shut down by Microsoft in May 2024, only to be rescued from oblivion a few months later by PUBG publisher Krafton. In a new interview with Game Developer, Krafton CEO Changhan 'CH' Kim explained the company's motivation for snapping up Tango, and he claims it wasn't for money—it was for the love of the game.

"We wanted to maintain their legacy," Kim said. "Although they did not have a big success in their games, we saw many creatives worth pursuing. That's why we wanted to work with that organization."

The real goal of the acquisition, Kim said, is to increase the diversity of Krafton's lineup: Making videogames is an inherently risky "hit or miss" business, "but having more project lineups is actually a way to mitigate risk, because one of them might work out."

"We can't acquire Tango Gameworks based on their financials or their numbers, right?" Kim said. "We don't think Hi-Fi Rush 2 is going to make us money, to be frank. But it's part of our attempt. We have to keep trying [to develop games] in the spirit of challenge-taking."

As for why Krafton picked up Hi-Fi Rush in the Tango Gamesworks deal but not the arguably more well-known Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo games, the short version is that it wanted to get the deal done fast in order to "minimize the gap" for Tango employees. Attempting to acquire all of Tango's games would "complicate" the deal too much, Kim said, and Krafton decided that Hi-Fi Rush is the one gamers really want more of.

Kim said he doesn't actually know how much Hi-Fi Rush earned for Microsoft, although he suspects it wasn't much; his own aspiration for the studio, and more broadly, is simply to "recoup the production costs."

"The big hit shouldn't be your goal," he said. "If you think about it that way, Hi-Fi Rush might have brought in a little bit of a minus in terms of the financials, but it's a team that should be encouraged to create something new and continue their journey. We want to have more teams like that under our umbrella."

I'm not one to lionize videogame executives—quite the opposite, really—but this does seem like a smart and healthy attitude toward game development. Games have to make money at some point, yes, but right now Krafton seems to be rolling in the dough—it announced record-level sales and operating profits in August—and that means that for the moment at least, it can afford to take some risks.

Trombone Champ, 2022's funniest PC gaming phenomenon, is getting a snazzy VR version that aims to fully immerse you in fudging your way through Ode to Joy with the world's most inherently comical musical instrument.

Titled Trombone Champ: Unflattened, this VR version will put players on a virtual stage in front of a "live" audience, letting you slide that trombone with your own two hands as you attempt to play a variety of classic musical pieces. Judging by the announcement trailer (viewable above) the VR version will feature the original's surrealist humour and card-collecting system, letting you exchange cards for novelty trombones you can use to wow/further irritate your audience.

Unflattened isn't developed by Holy Wow Studios, creators of the magnificently daft original. Instead, design duties are being handled by Flat2VRStudios, which is also working on a VR version of destruction racer Flatout, and assisting with an upcoming VR port for retro shooter Wrath: Aeon of Ruin.

The original Trombone Champ became an overnight sensation following Chris Livingston's delightfully dreadful rendition of Beethoven's 5th, selling an estimated 265,000 copies on Steam. "If Beethoven wasn't rolling over in his grave it was only because he'd already burst out of it, staggered around shrieking, and then vomited," Chris wrote of his own performance in 2022. "In Trombone Champ, playing the trombone badly is just as much fun as playing it well, which is just one reason why I love it."

I was likewise given abdominal cramp by Trombone Champ when it released, and I can certainly see the appeal of a VR version. The trombone is arguably the ideal VR instrument, pleasingly physical yet functionally simple enough to adapt well to VR controls (unlike, say, the piano or the guitar). That said, I do wonder whether the VR version risks exhausting the joke. Part of Trombone Champ's charm is how rough and ready it is, with your tooted tunes played to garish backgrounds that often resemble a lost ytmnd page. I worry putting on a VR headset to poorly play a fake trombone in a simulated theatre is all too much effort for something so inherently throwaway.

But perhaps I'm just being a curmudgeon. The world certainly won't be lesser for the existence of Unflattened. We'll find out how well Trombone Champ adapts to three dimensions soon, as the game is due to launch on Quest and Steam this autumn.

In a world where music isn't just counterculture but is downright illegal, being in a band really is the most punk rock way of life. That's the story, or at least part of it, in the upcoming "narrative focused rhythm-action RPG" Unbeatable, the debut project from D-Cell Games. Unbeatable debuted a new trailer and plans for its 2025 launch during today's PC Gaming Show. 

Unbeatable clearly isn't your typical rhythm game at all. D-Cell says the five chapter story takes place in an open world with rhythm minigames and an original soundtrack. The new trailer is heavy on the animation and alt rock soundtrack but you can catch some of its rhythm segments too. 

The main character Beat—which probably won't be confusing; it's fine—leaps, kicks, and blocks to the music in a way that looks a lot like a 2D fighting game as much as it does a rhythm game. There's some over-the shoulder rhythmic fighting here too as Beat fights off enemies inside a railcar. Oh, and a bit of rail grinding on the metro lines too, from the looks of things.

It's got a classic hand-drawn anime aesthetic and dystopian story vibes too—both of which you can catch a taste of in the free side-story demo Unbeatable [white label] set in the same world. 

"As a demo, White Label is phenomenal," said Natalie Clayton when she called the demo "the coolest game of the year" back in 2021. "It gets to the punch quickly, shows you what Unbeatable is all about, and has enough tracks to keep you chasing high scores while waiting for the finished game. But White Label isn't just a demo—over the past year, it's been consistently buffed up with new tracks, new modes, and entire new story segments."

The full game is still a ways off yet, but is now expected sometime in 2025. 

The Japanese multimedia series Love Live! has been around since 2010, and has enjoyed popularity through various anime series, films, and rhythm-action videogames. The setup is fairly simple, and revolves around girls who attend school with each other but are secretly the planet's greatest pop idols. One especially successful entry is Love Live! School Island Festival, a free-to-play mobile-first game that was released in 2013 before being ported to various other platforms.

The publisher behind the game, Bushiroad, announced the game's successor at Love Live!'s 2022 thanksgiving festival. Love Live! School Island Festival 2 would see all player account data carried over and replace its predecessor entirely, and feature various popular groups and idols from the series and its spinoffs. Other than that it's along the same lines: a rhythm game crossed with a visual novel, where you get your J-pop on then talk about maths homework or something. 

The servers for Love Live! School Island Festival closed on March 31, 2023, and the Japanese version of Love Live! School Island Festival 2 released on April 15, 2023. A global version was expected to follow in the same year, but this was pushed back to February 2024.

So here we are, and boy does Bushiroad have some news for expectant players. In what has to be some sort of industry first, Love Live! School Festival 2 has announced its global launch date and, in the same tweet, announced the game will end service a few months later. Here is the full gobsmacking text: 

"We are excited to break the news to you that the global version of Love Live! School Idol Festival 2 MIRACLE LIVE! is launching soon in February 2024.

"However, we also want to inform you that the Global Version will close its doors on May 31, 2024, and cease in-app purchases accordingly. 

"We appreciate the love and support you've shown, and we're committed to making these last few months an unforgettable moment."

Talk about putting a brave face on things. Love Live! Wasn't exactly Grand Theft Auto, but it's a popular enough series to sustain various multimedia properties and spin-offs, as well as the original rhythm game (which even had an arcade version).

It's all utterly baffling, and needless to say the replies and quotes of the announcement do not hold back. "Took me about 3 passes to really comprehend," says Robin Osiria. "We would like to announce a new corpse being buried right after this tweet," adds Flork. A big theme in the replies is folk wondering why the company's bothering to release it at all, and the tweet has now gone viral in the bad way, with 9 million views, 5.5K reposts, and 17.1K quotes, many of which are simply revelling in the absurdity.

While this is funny, you have to feel for players of the now-unavailable original it was supposed to replace. The game is scheduled to release on February 29, 2024 (on the App Store at least). Make the most of it while you can, I guess.

Rock Band 4 never made it to PC. Developer Harmonix said in 2015 that it was uncertain whether there was a sufficient audience for the game on PC, and then in 2016 it proved that worry valid by launching a crowdfunding campaign for a PC version that barely achieved half of its $1.5 million goal. But none of that matters now anyway, because Harmonix announced today that January 25 will be the end of the road for Rock Band 4 DLC releases.

Harmonix put out a lot of music for Rock Band 4 over the years: Nearly 3,000 songs, and more than 3,000 if you include game soundtracks. And to be clear, those songs won't be going away: Product manager Daniel Sussman said live services for Rock Band 4 will continue as usual, and "you can play the songs you own within Rock Band 4 for as long as you like."

But Harmonix was acquired by Epic Games in November 2021 with the idea that the studio would "work with Epic to create musical journeys and gameplay for Fortnite," and that's apparently where the focus is these days.

"The Harmonix team has been hard at work over the last two years to develop Fortnite Festival, which brings rhythm action gaming (and more) to the Fortnite ecosystem," Sussman wrote. "It’s free to play, we have a rotating selection of songs that you can play (for free) anytime. If you are a fan of the rhythm game category, Fortnite Festival is the place to be; and with support for RB4 instruments coming, this is not the time to hang up your guitars just yet."

So there you have it: Rock Band 4 is (partly) dead and Fortnite is (partly) to blame. At the same time, eight years is a hell of a run: We've seen an awful lot of games get put out to pasture a whole lot quicker than that. Fortnite Festival or not, it's understandable that Harmonix might want to move on to something else.

Fortnite Festival "leans heavily on the Rock Band formula," in the words of features producer Mollie Taylor, who spent some time with it in 2023, but at this point it lacks the magic of the original. 

"It's a great introduction to rhythm games for casual players who would have never tried one otherwise—especially those who missed out on the Rock Band/Guitar Hero era—but for a Harmonix endeavour it's awfully barebones," she wrote. "A little more polish and it would be a little easier to look past the classic F2P monetisation of it all and maybe even splurge a little. Until then, I think I'll be default dancing my way out of the lobbies for a while."

One of her chief complaints was the lack of support for pretend-instrument controllers: It's really just not as much fun to rock out with your mouse and keyboard out, after all. With upcoming instrument controller support confirmed, maybe Fortnite Festival will become the proper Rock Band replacement Epic and Harmonix intend it to be. And if not, well, we never had Rock Band 4 anyway, so on that front, things really haven't changed at all.

This isn't the first time Epic has turned a genre-focused developer toward Fortnite: It also recently had Rocket League developer Psyonix, which it purchased a few years ago, produce a racing mode for Fortnite rather than make a standalone new game. It clearly still sees Fortnite as the center of its "metaverse" dreams.

We seriously dug 2022's headbanging shooter Metal: Hellsinger, and that rhythm based FPS just got some love from its boomer shooter brethren by way of a free DLC featuring nine tracks from Andrew Hulshult's excellent Dusk soundtrack.

A musical DLC is a much bigger deal than it might sound given Metal: Hellsinger's rhythm-based gameplay. Similar to this year's Hi-Fi Rush, your score and combos all depend on shooting and dodging to the beat. While Kaile Hultner found Metal: Hellsinger's story a bit of a drag in their review for PC Gamer, they still had praise for "the quality of its soundtrack and its slower, more deliberate gameplay."

And Hulshult's Dusk soundtrack looks like a great fit for that gameplay⁠—it's music to lift weights or punch drywall to, with chunky riffs that pair perfectly with shotgun blasts on the beat. New Blood's trailer for the add-on is pretty convincing, but you can test out Dusk's soundtrack in Metal Hellsinger for yourself right now.

Dusk recently saw the release of its long-promised "HD" update, which is more like a charming alternate artstyle for the game. As my colleague Noa Smith recently put it in their feature on the year in boomer shooters, "Dusk got a kickass new visual overhaul that drags it from 1997 to 2004."

So whether you want to enjoy Hulshult's OST in Dusk or Metal: Hellsinger, you're in for a good time⁠—it's heartening to see both games get continued support and updates this far out from their respective releases. You can nab both games together in a 10% off bundle on Steam.

Pinch me, I must be dreaming: rhythm games are kinda in right now. 

Fortnite Festival has been blowing up, and I've been secretly very giddy seeing so many people on my timeline posting their combo and score achievements with pride. I'm a long-time lover of rhythm games, but also a rather judgemental one (sorry Fortnite Festival, I didn't love you). 

So when a little game called Rhythm Sprout: Sick Beats and Bad Sweets landed in my inbox at the beginning of this year I was curious if not apprehensive. A tracksuit-donning onion who slashes up candies to all manner of original music. Sounded cute, I suppose. I went in not expecting a fat lot, if I'm being completely honest, but came out the other end adoring every second of what I'd played.

It's a single-lane rhythm game, which makes it super approachable. There's only three buttons to remember too, further reducing any sort of information overload while getting to grips with how things work. As someone with perpetual brain saturation, Rhythm Sprout's stripped-back controls are welcome.

Developer SURT gets nice and creative with so little, building increasingly complex note charts that require more dexterity and speed to hit than the easier difficulties. A lot of perfecting Rhythm Sprout comes from nailing accuracy in songs to achieve three stars and optimising the use of its score boost meter.

Rock on

While you won't be getting any pop bangers or licensed music in Rhythm Sprout, it's chock full of genuinely neat original songs that span different genres: K-pop, EDM, hip-hop, rock and more. My personal favourite comes from a level where a ghostly head levitates above you while having a wee chortle, his bellows forming the baseline beat. There's some more chilled-out songs to prance along to, and ones where guitars rip over rhythmic electronic bleep-bloops. It's a wonderfully eclectic mix and I implore you to play the entire thing without finding at least one song you like.

If you're an absolute rhythm wizard—like me, of course (I'm joking, I'm terrible)—and nail all of the songs in their original form, Rhythm Sprout also has the option to mix things up for some added challenge. Songs can be mirrored or randomised to different degrees to make things even more difficult. The total random setting is an absolute devil that should not be trifled with. You have been warned.

All of this music and rhythm gaming is wrapped up in a very Overcooked-ass story. Part of that similarity certainly comes from the fact that everyone is a type of food, for whatever reason, but it has fairly similar humour running through its veins as well. Rhythm Sprout is incredibly goofy, occasionally cringe but mercifully self-aware of it. If you're wanting to cut straight to the rhythm gaming I'm afraid you'll have to play through this first. It's a short story though, there just to piece together each level and provide some breathing room between songs, but it did get a good chuckle out of me at points.

It really is just a very endearing and quirky all round package. In a year where we received some proper lovely rhythm games—Hi-Fi Rush, Rytmos, DJMAX's V Extension IV and V Extension 5 expansion packs, and a new Theatrhythm game for consoles, just to name a few—Rhythm Sprout really stood out to me as a brilliant example of how much you can do with this genre just with the fundamentals. It's kind of like an aglio e olio, a simple dish that only uses three ingredients yet manages to express so much flavour and depth. Bonus: Rhythm Sprout won't leave your breath stinking of garlic once you're done either.

2023 has been an absolutely absurd year for games. Not only have we had some incredible hits like Baldur's Gate 3, but we've also seen some older titles become their best selves, with both Cyberpunk 2077 and Warhammer 40K: Darktide both getting really, really good.

Yet Hi-Fi Rush—a game that power-slid onto Game Pass and swept me off my feet—somehow feels like a distant memory. Maybe it's just because I've had some massive life changes since it came out like oh, I don't know, getting a job at a little website called PC Gamer. But I really don't think Hi-Fi Rush should pass us by without a mention, because in my personal opinion? It freaking rules.

Hi-Fi Rush is a third-person action game that takes after games like Devil May Cry—games where rhythm has always been a massive component. Stringing together combos is as much about staying on tempo as it is knowing which buttons to press. You can't just mash your way through, you gotta get down with the groove.

I'm not a huge DMC fan, but I have played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (which I consider to be a rhythm game masquerading as a soulslike), and it's the same story there. The back-and-forth flow of attacking, jumping, and dodging feels like a high-stakes session of Parappa the Rappa. Even the raids of Final Fantasy 14 are often described by its players as a choreographed dance. We can't escape music in games. It's just in our blood.

Hi-Fi Rush, like a lot of its violent musical contemporaries (such as Metal: Hellsinger and Crypt of the Necrodancer) makes this subliminal Whiplash bootcamp an explicit part of its gameplay. Unlike J.K Simmons in Whiplash, though, the game's not gonna throw a chair at you for messing up. On the contrary, Hi-Fi Rush just rewards you for doing well. Positive reinforcement is powerful.

That reinforcement isn't just in the numbers. Everything about the game's visual design coaxes you into staying on-beat. Chai snaps his fingers in time. Enemies idle and attack to the rhythm. In some levels, even the geometry gets with the groove. Hi-Fi Rush becomes its own metronome. It's seamless when you play it, and I can't even imagine the amount of effort that went into making everything run just-so.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to challenge our own Tyler Colp to a Scott-Pilgrim style bass battle for giving the game a 69 in his Hi-Fi Rush review. Even more unfortunately, he does make a lot of very good points.

Hi-Fi Rush has a gorgeous visual style, compelling character design, superb animation, and a welcoming world to rock through. The characters are all so charming, and often laugh-out-loud funny—unlike Tyler, I grew really attached to Chai by the end of everything. I will, however, concede that Hi-Fi Rush doesn't do a good job at being punk.

The game doesn't have much to say beyond "be yourself, big corporations bad, don't let the man keep you down!" in a way that borders on kitsch. There's this disconnect between the sales pitch and the story's lack of ambition. You're a rebel set against the world, but nothing really changes beyond putting nicer people in power. 

Unruly corporations are bad because they want to use a big silly mind-control device—rather than the overwhelming force, exploitation, and disillusionment that happens in the real world. Mind, Hi-Fi Rush is angling for a lighter tone, but I don't really think there's a peppy way to discuss a lot of this stuff. Rebellion happens because of anger, and while that anger can be righteous, it's always ugly.

On the other hand, I'm a sucker for a simple story. I think straightforward action movies and popcorn flicks have a place in our world. Besides, solid character development gets you far. Hi-Fi Rush's story didn't inspire me in the way I think it wanted to, but I was still completely charmed and smitten with its cast. Ultimately, I think that's fine.

Despite all this, the fact that Hi-Fi Rush is 'just' a great action game and nothing more might be why it didn't hit our GoTY list this year. The spot it would've claimed—Action—went to Armoured Core 6, and I can't say that was outright the wrong choice. That game brought a whole new crowd to FromSoftware's lesser-known series—and it does a better job at touching on the bleakness of a corporation-infested future, too.

Still, I couldn't yet this year pass without shouting out Hi-Fi Rush. It was a completely unexpected treat which kicked the year off with a screeching guitar solo and a boombox cat. Rock on.

Geometry Dash is a cheap and cheerful rhythm-based platformer that originally launched on Steam in December 2014. It recently celebrated its 10-year-anniversary (the game released on mobile devices the year before), which would normally see fans and developers reflecting fondly on a well-made game. But turns out developer RobTop Games had far more in store, as it just released a massive new update for the game, almost seven years after the last one.

Update 2.2 adds a new level to Geometry Dash's core experience, a new, Flappy Bird-ish game mode called Swing, a new game-type called Platformer, which comes with four levels, a new collectible, 700 new character icons, and a huge overhaul of its level editor.

In short, it's a substantial expansion of the game, and as reported by PCGamesN, the response of Geometry Dash's fans has been emphatic. According to Steam DB, the game surged to a massive new all-time concurrent player peak of 88,346 players last night, with 42,537 people playing Geometry Dash as I type these words.

Looking closer at the chart, it seems Geometry Dash has been gathering momentum for a while, with its players steadily increasing from 2020, hitting highs of over 15,000 and 16,000 players in 2021 and 2022 respectively. The highest pre-pandemic spike came around the time of the 2.1 update in 2017, with 9,596 players jumping in presumably to try the new update out.

Developer RobTop has been teasing this new update for the last couple of years, which explains some of the increase in new players. But it doesn't explain the big spike in users the game has received over the last 24 hours. In instances like these, the answer is often that the game was picked up by a major streamer or YouTuber. But in this case it seems all the attention has stemmed from both the game's wild success on mobile (it's been downloaded over 5 million times on Google Play Store) and RobTop's own following. The studio has over 2 million followers on the website formerly known as Twitter, while the update's trailer racked up over a million views on YouTube.

Combined with the game's low price (it costs just £2.79 on Steam) and a certain level of anticipation for the update's release (it was meant to launch in November after several hints and sneak peeks, but RobTop delayed the launch), its players were clearly raring to go.

If you fancy checking out Geometry Dash's update yourself, you can grab it on Steam here . Geometry Dash isn't the only game to see a huge spike in users lately. Lethal Company has gone from nonexistence to one of Steam's most popular games in less than two months. Meanwhile, The Day Before technically had a big spike in users during its launch, before disaster began to unfold.

Thrasher is a surreal VR rhythm action game from the creator of Thumper, and it's coming in 2024. It's the work of Brian Gibson in collaboration with programmer and designer Mike Mandel. (The former also plays in Lightning Bolt which is a brilliant band).

The art style is recognisably from the same creator, but its color palette is more varied. Unlike Thumper, which had the player riding a hellish non-stop rollercoaster, the player appears to be static in Thrasher, as they guide a chrome-hued "space hue" around the arenas. Unlike Thumper, it looks like it's going to be a VR-only affair.

"Use fast paced gestural controls to evolve your space eel from worm to megabeast in a breakneck race for survival that begins at the dawn of time," reads the official description. It also notes that while the game looks characteristically intense, there's also a kinda "vibe out" mode for players who just want to absorb the psychedelic splendor.

Thrasher is coming to both Steam and Meta Quest in 2024. The Steam page is now live.

Rocksmith 2014 has rocked out for the last time: Almost 10 years to the day after the acclaimed learn-to-play-guitar game debuted, Ubisoft has removed it from sale on all digital storefronts.

"Nearly 10 years ago we launched Rocksmith 2014 and set out on a journey of learning and playing guitar together, practicing old favorites, and discovering new ones along the way," Ubisoft announced on October 20, just three days ahead of the game's 10th anniversary. "We thank you for an incredible decade and know a big part of that was being able to feature officially licensed music to learn and play in Rocksmith 2014.

"Now as we approach that decade mark, we must remove Rocksmith 2014 for purchase from all digital storefronts as of October 23, 2023. DLC packs and Singles for Rocksmith 2014 will be removed from those storefronts over time as well."

Anyone who already owns Rocksmith 2014 will still have access to it, and any owned DLC, with "no change or interruption" in service. For those who want to rock but missed the opportunity, Ubisoft's subscription-based Rocksmith+ remains available—in fact, Ubisoft said it's "looking to introduce some of the biggest names in metal, rock, R&B, and more" to the game in the coming months.

Rocksmith 2014 really was quite good. It's earned a "very positive" rating on Steam over the years, and we called it "not just a fun game for guitar players, but the best way to learn how to play guitar or improve your technique" in our 91% review (via Metacritic). A remastered version released a couple years later added features including better practice tools and stat tracking, and the need for a "Real Tone Cable" to connect your guitar to your PC was eventually patched out too, making the software more easily accessible to players. And it boasted a huge library of music: 1,570 songs were available for it when DLC sales were finally halted in 2020.

Some of that Rocksmith 2014 DLC has already been removed from sale, and others will follow in waves over the coming months. If you're an owner and want to ensure you've got all the rock you can possibly handle, now's the time to browse the remaining catalogue and grab what you can.

Ubisoft didn't say why it was compelled to remove Rocksmith 2014 from sale. I would guess expiring licenses are the likely culprit (because that's what it usually is) but it's also possible that it wants to focus solely on Rocksmith+. Whatever the reason, to borrow a phrase from The Who, Rocksmith 2014 is dead—long live Rocksmith 2014.

Hi-Fi Rush was an early surprise in 2023, being announced and released on the same day as well as being a cartoony rhythm-action brawler from a studio known for horror. Our review found it didn't quite stick the landing but nevertheless delivered stellar moments, which is definitely how I felt about it: there aren't too many games where you can beat robots into scrap to the beat of a Nine Inch Nails song, and Hi-Fi Rush certainly delivers that.

The game's latest free update has arrived and brings two new modes, both of which are unlocked after you've beaten the main story. BPM Rush sees guitar-wielding protagonist Chai facing enemy waves with the beats per minute (BPM) of the music increasing as you progress, increasing both the speed of Chai's combos and the enemy movesets up to what Tango Gameworks calls a "blistering 200 BPM".

"For reference, the highest speed in the main game was 160 BPM," said John Johanas, director of Hi-Fi Rush. "[BPM Rush] features an Easy and Normal mode which reflects the amount of damage you receive and enemies take, but the overall gameplay is the same. However, completing either Normal or Easy will unlock an additional difficulty, EX Mode, which starts you almost right at the top speed and puts you against waves of high-level enemies as their damage gradually increases between each wave!"

The second addition is a twist on the existing Rhythm Tower, called Power Up! Tower Up! Players start as a de-powered Chai and, as they ascend between floors by battering robots, choose from a selection of upgrades. It's what Tango's done with the upgrades that makes this mode, with certain ones having positive bonuses and others negative bugs that affect the next battle. Johanas said it's possible with the right upgrades to overpower Chai past his usual max levels.

"Sometimes you’ll get lucky and Zanzo’s laser drones will be on your side and taking out enemies for a floor," said Johanas. "But other times, you may need to watch out for long range enemies since all beam attacks can now deal significantly more damage!"

The update also adds 40 new challenges across the new modes, and a bonanza of new cosmetic accessories and costumes, photo mode rewards including new poses and filters, sticker packs for said photos, and new special attacks. It's by far the biggest update to the game, but definitely not the first: since February Tango has added a photo mode, new assist features to help players stay on-beat, and costume packs.

"Lastly, we have something special for those who like to call themselves… completionists," said Johanas. "We like to go overboard with putting little secrets in our updates but for this one, while it might not be so little, it really is a huge thank you to everyone who’s played Hi-Fi Rush so far."

Well well well. My favourite Easter Egg in the game so far is a big hint that The Evil Within 3 is happening (Johanas directed TEW2), but there's no clue yet what this is and I doubt I'll be pulling off perfect parries at 200BPM anytime soon. If you're a rhythm head who finds something weird in the new update though, you could always send us a tip.

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.

Trombone Champ, the fast-paced rhythm music game filled with nasty toots, just got even nastier by adding Flight of the Bumblebee to its roster of hits. That means as of today's update 2022's best comedy game is even funnier, because the famously difficult piece of music is absolute hell to play on a mouse-controlled trombone.

But don't take my word for it: pump up the volume in the gif below and take my toots for it:

Flight of the Bumblebee in Trombone Champ"

Yeah. Brutal. I'm sorry for doing that to you.

If you managed to make it more than halfway through my callous murder of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's orchestral interlude, you may notice that around the middle I click on something called Practice Mode. It's another new feature of today's update, which allows you to practice playing Trombone Champ's songs at slower speeds. You can turn it all the way down to 50%, which makes Flight of the Bumblebee much easier to play—though not any more pleasing to the ear.

Keep in mind that while playing in practice mode you'll earn fewer toots than when playing at full speed. Toots, if you haven't played Trombone Champ yet, are what you use to buy sacks of famous tromboner cards to spend on cosmetic items like new hats and horns. Toots are not to be confused with turds which is what you get when you destroy those cards, which can then be used to craft more cards. There are also demons, baboons, and hot dogs, by the way. There's kind of a lot going in Trombone Champ besides all the frantic, off-key tromboning.

There are also a few bug fixes in today's update, along with a redesigned character select screen, the ability to open multiple tromboner card packs quickly, and other improvements. Check out the full patch notes.

And if you'd like to hear what Flight of the Bumblebee is supposed to sound like, check out this video of Rousseau tackling it on piano. As someone in the comments says, "I can't even play the wrong notes that fast." 

For two genres that feel familiar on the surface, fighters and rhythm games are more like polar opposites. Sure, they both require precise inputs to a particular flow, but rhythm relies on mechanical perfection while fighting games need a deeper understanding of an often unpredictable opponent. In an ideal world, I think the two could harmonise quite well, but in God of Rock's case, the genres it's trying to blend are often at odds with each other.

It's a real shame, too. Fighters and rhythm are two of my favourite genres, so the idea of a game that marries the two was music to my ears. Instead of lengthy move lists and dedicated punch/kick buttons, God of Rock's battles take place with note charts scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Hitting a note at the same precision as my opponent causes both of us to block attacks, but getting more accurate time lets me break through their defenses and wallop them.

Matches don't end until one player falls, which means two people with perfect timing could be locked in an infinite battle with the note chart becoming increasingly difficult. This is where Modus Studios throws an extra sprinkle of fighting games in. Each character has three supers and an ultra move that can be thrown out with some more traditional fighter inputs like half and quarter circles. As well as hitting the opponent with a cluster of random notes, these abilities can do things like rapidly changing the note speed or letting me heal up if I'm taking a beating. 

God of Rock's song library is perfectly serviceable. I wasn't super wowed by any of its songs and I think the game would have benefitted from a smaller song library or even a sprinkle of licensed songs. The problem is the fighting game portions severely break the flow of the rhythm part. I found it tough to find an opening to do my super inputs—I usually found myself purposely dropping the combo to try and get an attack out. Thankfully, you don't need precise memory of every ability input since you can usually mash it out—a small window above the notes will only show correct inputs so you have an idea of when you're going wrong. These moves are almost impossible to pull off when playing with a mouse and  keyboard, however. While I was still dropping combos when using a controller, it was significantly easier using analog sticks compared to having to shift my hands to an entirely different location on my keyboard. 

There are also reversals that can be executed, but reading and reacting to them properly further added to the visual chaos. A circle in the middle of the screen lights up a particular colour when my opponent is about to throw out a super move. In order to reverse their attack and save myself, I had to quickly respond with a super move of a higher level. Trying to take my eyes away from notes to keep an eye on the circle, read its colour, and then respond appropriately was nigh impossible.

Not only that, but some UI choices make reading notes in God of Rock an arduous task. There's a reason games with horizontal notes are often relegated to one or two input lanes—horizontal note charts are an absolute ballache to read. With four inputs to keep an eye on and poor rebind options, I found it difficult to read more dense note charts. Vertical lanes would improve the experience tenfold, especially when playing with a keyboard.

I have some other small gripes with the UI—the health bar is too far from the notes, making it tough to glance over and get a quick read on how my health—and my opponent's health— s looking. While the actual fighting happening in the background is punchy and a treat to get the odd glimpse of, it's often accompanied by bright white flashes. I got used to it eventually, but it made reading notes during the first hour of the game even more difficult.

Flash Dance Kick 

God of Rock's modes are limited; there's an arcade mode with some lovely illustrated cutscenes for each character that has you fighting through the roster. Freeplay mode lets you play through specific songs either against a CPU or with another player offline. Finally, multiplayer mode has ranked and casual lobbies to face off against other players online.

The thing I was most impressed with was how streamlined God of Rock's online multiplayer was. I jumped in for some games with a fellow rhythm and fighter enthusiast. Setting up a lobby took no time at all, and within less than a minute we were in a match together. Once our game was over, hopping into a rematch was instant. As someone all too used to dealing with lengthy rematch loading screens (looking at you Tekken 7), it was a huge blessing. 

We could also jump straight into a rematch with a randomly selected song, removing the need for us to keep diving back into the song list. The only thing I didn't love was that control over manual song selection lies with the host only. On the bright side, my friend could see me scrolling through the list so we could pick together with a bit of communication.

Despite its struggles, I really did love God of Rock's charm. Its roster is a colourful mix of characters like comic artist Edith or carefree spirit Lyn. I enjoyed some of their unique interactions during arcade intros—though I wish these could be skipped in freeplay or multiplayer—and the game's stage designs were pretty, if not a tad out of place with the game's tone. 

Unfortunately, I don't think God of Rock is going to hold the attention of diehard fans of either genre any time soon. I found myself struggling to want to play for more than an hour or two. Getting these two polar opposite genres to work well together was a tough task, and God of Rock doesn't quite get the two to mesh. It's very pretty to look at and it's clear Modus Games put a lot of love into it, and I look forward to seeing what the developer does with future updates. I do hope it considers making some UI adjustments and adding an option for vertical notes—it would make the experience far more enjoyable.

I'm almost positive that if you looked hard enough, almost every single videogame has some kind of lore in it. Even the ones that seem like pure, dumb fun will end up with some strange world-building nugget that have you questioning everything you know. Hell, even goddamn Just Dance has lore. But it's not the only rhythm game that's stuffed with weird hidden story beats.

You see, I've fallen down a rabbit hole. A deep, strange, musical rabbit hole. I've been on a real rhythm game kick these last two months, my love for the genre revived by too many weekends holed up in my local arcade playing Dance Dance Revolution and Maimai. In an attempt to bring that love back home with me, I reinstalled DJ Max. It's a game that initially didn't resonate with me, but I've been grinding it out pretty hard since the new year.

Super Sentai

It started simply enough. I was going through different songs with friends, making use of the game's pretty sweet multiplayer lobby function. I'd already caved and bought a few song packs to broaden my library, trying my best to become comfortable with difficult four-button note charts while my friends casually aced eight or ten-button ones.

Then, it happened. My friend scrolled past a song called NB Ranger – Virgin Force. Naturally, in all my maturity as a 27-year-old woman, I had a little giggle at the name. "Virgin Force? Like, virgin virgins?" I remember half-jokingly asking my friend. Imagine my surprise when, with no hesitation, he replied "yup."

Something I hadn't had tons of time to pay attention to while grinding away at each song was the music videos that play in the background. Every single song in DJ Max has an accompanying video—rest in peace to my hard drive taken up by all these video files—and NB Ranger – Virgin Force was no different.

Turns out yeah, these are literally Power Ranger-type dudes who hate relationships. The story appears to follow the red ranger, the rest of his comrades lost to girlfriends and other things that are totally against the NB Ranger ethos. But it's fine, because the red ranger is still around to sabotage relationships and ensure no two people can successfully be in love. Until, I'm pretty sure, he falls in love himself. He gets a girlfriend and even seems to have a child.

This spurs on the rest of the force to return and bring their brother back to the way of the NB Ranger. For some reason, they deal with this by hitting his girlfriend with a laser that turns her into a giant. The squad then turn into one mega-ranger, taking her down once and for all.

I was so bewildered and weirdly into whatever was happening, but I assumed it was an isolated incident. Nope! There are a ton of NB Ranger songs that span years of DJ Max games, like the very first one that shows the sexless squad ruining numerous dates. They incinerate flowers, terrorise couples on a ferris wheel and have a wee cry while doing it. But then the sequel introduces a girl ranger, for whom the entire crew seem to battle with their morals to win over. Not only are they fighting each other over their desire to smooch a hot lady, but doing it in their own selfish pursuit of also wanting to smooch her. There's even a version where the squad are all girls instead!

I've become so disgustingly fascinated with it all, and I've been determined to dive into more weird bits of lore. I noticed that DJ Max has two mascots in El Clear and El Fail. Two sides of the same coin, the former being a cheerfully good mascot while the latter is a little chaos goblin who I adore. I assumed they'd always been present in the series, but turns out they've only been around for a few years. After more digging, I discovered they're a split reincarnation of a mascot from DJ Max Portable on the PSP called EL. Who the hell even thought of all this?

Why am I rambling to you all about bizarre lore from a game I didn't even think would have it? I think there's something super neat about spending time with a game and finding all its strange quirks and story that you wouldn't have even known about without doing a bit of digging. There's a weird satisfaction that comes from knowing all these strange facts and background for different characters and songs, and I've loved seeing discussion over on the DJ Max Discord and conversations with my own friends. Uncovering secrets in games is always a ton of fun, but even moreso when you weren't even expecting any in the first place.

A specific frustration has been building among PC gamers for the last couple years: despite the massive leaps in power from modern graphics cards, CPUs and SSDs, the biggest games in the world often still launch with persistent stuttering issues that faster hardware just can't solve. It's a game design—or game engine—problem, leading to threads on Reddit with titles like "The way shader compilation stutter is being overlooked makes it terrible to be a pc gamer right now."

Just a few weeks ago, Redditor Hour_Thanks6235 wrote in that thread: "I have a RTX 4090, and I am getting so annoyed by this I think this might be me slowly going back to console gaming."

Unreal Engine 4 is a common culprit in the new wave of stuttery PC games, with the Final Fantasy 7 Remake being a particularly high profile example. But it doesn't have to be this way, and we have proof. Tango Gameworks' rhythm-action game Hi-Fi Rush came out of nowhere on January 25, with a surprise release the same day it was announced. And an even bigger surprise awaited within: this Unreal Engine 4 game is smoother than a Chuck Mangione flugelhorn solo.

How did they do it? I had no idea, so I asked.

"First, we were careful in choosing performant tech that fits our gameplay and game aesthetics, so that we can have a great CPU/GPU performance base to work from," lead graphics programmer Kosuke Tanaka wrote over email. "We also track CPU/GPU performance daily at the in-game checkpoints to make sure we aren’t introducing  performance problems. We use standard UE4 functionality to adjust latency timings and analysis with  profiling tools and careful in-game playtesting to make sure we are providing users with the best gameplay feel."

Game director John Johanas added that so far since release, Tango Gameworks has gotten "an incredible amount of positive feedback on our work on optimization and how smoothly it runs on even very old hardware," and I can attest that Hi-Fi Rush runs beautifully on the Steam Deck. But Tanaka's explanation might make you wonder if other UE4 games just push hardware too hard, or if their developers aren't noticing the kinds of spikes the Hi-Fi Rush team carefully watched for.

Likely no—many of today's issues stem directly from the DirectX12 and Vulkan graphics APIs. "The problem is caused by DX12, Vulkan PSO (Pipeline State Object) compilation," Tanaka wrote. "When a game loads a shader for the first time, GPU drivers begin compilation causing hitches. Devs spend a lot of time replaying the same scene, so tend to miss PSO compile related hitching."

Here's a very quick explanation of what a shader actually is, but the main thing you need to know for this problem to make sense is that your graphics card will compile and store shaders once a game uses them for the first time. This is why using a new ability or entering a new area is most likely to cause stuttering: the game's basically caught off guard and takes a few hundred milliseconds to pull the new shader out of its pocket. There are other reasons games can stutter, but this is one of the most common culprits right now, and is why stuttering will be at its worst early in a game and lessen over time as you build up a shader compilation, like Tanaka mentioned.

Why is Unreal Engine 4 so notorious, then? The engine has a feature in place to cache shaders and prevent those stutter-causing in-the-moment shader calls, but it doesn't cover everything. 

"Hi-Fi Rush uses Unreal Engine 4’s PSO Caching functionality to avoid large hitches," Tanaka wrote. "UE4 misses some cases such as certain lighting shader combinations, computer shaders, Niagara VFX, and these may still cause hitches. In Hi-Fi Rush, some hitches remain, but they are mostly during certain cutscene transitions that don’t affect gameplay. In another one of our UE4 titles, Ghostwire: Tokyo, we currently preload problematic assets in the title screen background to minimize hitching and try to provide a better gamer experience."

Hi-Fi Rush uses DirectX12 (but unlike with FF7 Remake, you don't have to switch to DirectX 11 to avoid stuttering). If there's a secret to Hi-Fi Rush's success, then, it's simply going above and beyond how Unreal Engine 4 works by default to ensure that any shaders or assets that could come up during gameplay are cached before the game asks for them. Other developers, like The Ascent's creative director Tor Frick, have previously lamented how the PSO caching misses Niagara effects and also doesn't work for raytracing shaders.

Valve is actually doing something similar at the system level for the Steam Deck, which is why Elden Ring was actually less stuttery on the Deck than on PC when it launched last year. "We have a unique GPU/driver combination to target, and the majority of the shaders that you run locally are actually pre-built on servers in our infrastructure," Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais told Digital Foundry. "When the game is trying to issue a shader compile through its graphics API of choice, those are usually skipped, as we find the pre-compiled cache entry on disk."

More games, especially Unreal Engine 4 ones, need to make sure their shaders aren't slipping through the cache. As for players—as frustrating as it can be to run into a lengthy shader compilation load when you boot up a new game, just grab a snack and remember you're facing the lesser of two evils. 

For all of its screaming electric guitars and raucous drums, Hi-Fi Rush is surprisingly low-key. Smashing apart killer robots to the beat of licensed rock tracks from artists like Nine Inch Nails, The Black Keys, and The Prodigy is rad as hell. It's like going for a run and trying to sync each step to the album you're jamming to. It's playing Devil May Cry, but every drum hit in Bury the Light is an opportunity to continue your combo. But after establishing its hook in a killer opening, Hi-Fi Rush's high energy starts to wane.

Hi-Fi Rush has a bright, cel-shaded world and top-heavy killer robots, the kind of goofy aesthetic that'd play well on a blurry TV screen in the background of an NCIS episode—it looks extremely like a videogame from the mid-2000s. It's largely the music, combined with its snappy animation style, that elevates this simple aesthetic. Trees, lampposts, and pipes bounce along to the soundtrack, and main character Chai is constantly snapping his fingers, which causes a tiny comic book spark to appear each time.

Vandelay Technologies, the evil corporation that accidentally replaced Chai's heart with a Walkman, is the stage. It started out manufacturing robotic limbs for people in need, and then pivoted to selling helpful robots that are a software update away from becoming an army. The man at the top, Kale Vandelay, has a very cartoon villain plan to use the implants for mind control.

Everything in Hi-Fi Rush runs on classic cartoon logic. Chai casually dusts himself off after being punched through a wall and, in one scene, faces the camera in shock just before he plummets down a chute like a Looney Tunes character. He isn't bright but neither are a lot of the characters in Hi-Fi Rush. At times Chai sounds frighteningly close to a Joss Whedon character. I'm pretty sure he did a "Well that just happened!" in the first hour.

Chai's incompetence is the point, and the game quickly partners him with a crew of much more interesting and charming characters to bounce off. Peppermint and her cute robotic cat, 808, team up with Chai to go after Vandelay's C-suite. Soon you meet Macaron, a pacifist robotic psychological analyst with a metal buddy named CNMN (pronounced like cinnamon). And a fourth character that I won't spoil, but will say is fun to have around even if their accent is totally incomprehensible.

Band together 

All of these characters (except CNMN) are available as summons during the beat-based combat. Chai has heavy and light attacks that you can combo together and end with a finisher in time with the song. At any moment (or as a finisher) you can pull in a teammate to help you. Peppermint blasts enemies with her gun and is necessary for knocking enemy shields out. Macaron smashes armor apart, and the final character you get is able to douse pockets of fire in the arena.

As you progress and defeat bosses that test your parry timing and sometimes become just literal rhythm games, you can buy additional moves and passive bonuses. By the end I could grapple toward a robot, launch them into the air, and then call in Peppermint to fire a massive laser beam into them, and if that didn't cut it I had Macaron on standby to smash them into scrap metal. Because the enemies only attack on the beat and are telegraphed with lines and circles on the ground, you can easily dodge or parry them back for damage. Some attacks can only be dodged, but spamming parry when the song lined up just right almost always kept me safe.

I'm not sure if it's because I funneled a lot of my upgrades into lowering the cooldown on the summons or by playing on normal difficulty, but Hi-Fi Rush eventually stopped being much of a rhythm game halfway through. The game starts to use original songs that all feel like a similar tempo and aren't particularly memorable and the combat loses all its oomph. I was suddenly playing an OK character action game where every fight I cycled through my summons and performed simple combos until the score screen came up. Other than a few gimmicky boss mechanics, Hi-Fi Rush rarely pushes back on button spam. And without recognizable music or challenging tempo shifts, everything blends together.

The only place the music remains important are the sections in between each battle arena. Geysers of lava and other environmental hazards make up the platforming sections. You have to time your jumps and quickly summon a teammate to break through shields and doors before the next beat hits. Sometimes the game even locks the camera and becomes a sidescroller. Nailing these parts without dying or breaking your rhythm is like making it through a Mario level on pure reflex. The song guides you through the obstacles. You almost don't have to look at the screen.

The exploration sections are where the mid-2000s vibe begins to feel a little like a curse. There are crates to smash, collectibles to find, text logs to read, and power-ups for your health and special attack meter hidden throughout each level, but all of it just slows the game down. I was strong enough for anything Hi-Fi Rush could throw at me after only a few hours, and there were only so many emails I could read about robot labor abuses and incompetent bosses. Nostalgia for this era of games (if you even have it) can't make up for the hours you spend dashing past a bunch of stuff you don't need. 

Hi-Fi Rush's commitment to the marginalia of the games it's aping is impressive for its specificity, but makes me wonder if it could have retained a retro feel without it. A dull lead with a group of way more interesting secondary characters and only a handful of solid licensed rock songs struggle to match the energy of the game's first few hours. Another version of this game could have swapped Chai out with Peppermint and filled the tracklist with sharper rock and punk hits that match the anti-capitalist message the game is reaching for but can't quite grasp by the end.

As a surprise from a developer known for its horror games, Hi-Fi Rush is a promising concept. A sequel that refines its samey level design and combat and expands its list of songs could be the game I wanted Hi-Fi Rush to be. As an average action game with a handful of stellar moments that heavily rely on its rhythm-based structure, it's not worth choosing over all the other great options in the genre.

Hi-Fi Rush is like going back and listening to the songs you listened to as a teen. Sugar, We're Going Down still goes incredibly hard, but Fall Out Boy's newest songs are able to nod at their roots and incorporate enough modern production and structure to sound like something new. Hi-Fi Rush's setlist is too limited to fully embrace its chosen era of music, and it's too dated to resonate with what's hot right now. It's stuck, unable to fully commit to its own pitch and unable to capture the moment. It's a strong teaser for a more cohesive game, and it has me crossing my fingers that one day it will come.

What's coming next from Tango Gameworks, the studio that brought you the gruesome and terrifying Evil Within and Evil Within 2? No, it's not another chilling horror game filled with freaky fetuses and blood-soaked butchers. It's a colorful, cartoony action rhythm game called Hi-Fi Rush.

If this sounds strange, brace yourself for more weird news: Hi-Fi Rush has already launched. Yep. It's not a demo or a beta. The full game is out on PC right now.

In Hi-Fi Rush you play as Chai, a "wannabe rockstar" who wields a guitar and takes on cadres of robotic opponents in sci-fi arenas. Your attacks are synced to the beat of the soundtrack, and you can build up powerful combos by tapping buttons to the rhythm. Enemies, obstacles, and even cutscenes follow the beat of the music.

"Your moves and attacks help create a living soundtrack, that means all your flashy moves, stylish and devastating combos add a layer to the music," says game director John Johanas. "The more you flow with the beat, the better you can connect your attacks and abilities. You are in total control during combat but everything you do syncs up like an awesome music video."

Chai will also meet and recruit fighting partners in Hi-Fi Rush, each with different specialties like armor-smashing attacks and enemy-juggling abilities. And he's got a cute robotic cat named 808 who hovers over his shoulder while he battles. Music includes licensed tracks from groups like Nine Inch Nails, The Black Keys, Wolfgang Gartner, and others. 

Hi-Fi Rush has hit PC Game Pass, along with a deluxe edition with extra outfits and skins for Chai and his guitar. It's also on Steam, at a price of $30. Check out more gameplay in the video below.

It's very rare for a game to be so dire that it earns a single-digit rating on Steam. It certainly happens, though, as proven by O2Jam Online's release last week. The rhythm game is currently sitting on a 4% rating, with only around 41 of its 1,000+ reviews recommending it.

It's a pretty justifiable reception, too. The series has been largely dead for a while. It originally appeared as a PC game in the 2000s, with all of its public servers being closed down by 2012. Dedicated fans have been setting up private servers since then, and a mobile version attempted to revive the series some years later. So when the announcement for O2Jam Online came out of relatively nowhere, it was a pleasant surprise. My own friends were hyped to see classic rhythm games returning, and hopes were high.

Unfortunately, O2Jam Online's launch has been mired by some horribly questionable decisions and a myriad of bugs. The game's currently free-to-play, but forces players to buy songs that they can only keep for either seven days or 30 days. There's no option to permanently unlock a track, with every aspect of the game—including note skins—only being offered to you for a week or a month.

Outside of shady business practices, reviews have lamented how garbage the game looks. It appears to have lifted a large chunk of its UI from the mobile version. The resolution goes no higher than 1920x1080, looking painfully blurry on 1440p monitors. Everything is stretched out and notes are comically large, making the whole thing pretty difficult to look at. We won't even talk about the fact that BPM is misspelt as BMP.

There have also been issues with track audio desyncing, making songs incredibly annoying to play. I noticed in my brief time with the game that attempts to use similar keybindings to what I have in fellow rhythm game DJMax straight-up didn't work. I could bind them, but then trying to use them would result in an automatic miss. Players have also vented their frustration at the key colours—with O2Jam traditionally being a seven-button game, having a differently-coloured middle button helps heaps with figuring out which side the notes are coming in from. But with no tertiary colour for the middle button, note charts have proven unnecessarily difficult to read.

Perhaps the most bizarre thing of all is the fact that O2Jam Online has, in fact, no online functionality to be seen. The entire thing is single-player only, which is the crap icing on top of an already pretty rubbish cake. It's now the 18th worst-reviewed game on Steam, according to a score given by Steam250. Even then, its percentage rating still remains significantly worse than the 17 games above it. It's also, as far as I can tell, the only game on Steam to have an overall rating below 10%.

The only game I can think of in recent memory that had an equally poor reception is last year's eFootball. The game originally launched with a measly 8% rating on Steam and quickly became one of the worst-reviewed games of all time for the platform. It's managed to claw its way up to 32% since then. Will O2Jam Online manage similar improvements? Right now, it doesn't seem likely. And that's a darn shame.

Did you know that there are at least three depictions of an "onion knight" in mainstream media? I sure as hell didn't. You've got your classic Onion Knight of the Final Fantasy variety, which is the only one I knew about until now. Then there's Game of Thrones' Davos Seaworth whose nickname is Onion Knight, a fact that completely flew over my head despite having watched the whole damn show. Finally, there's the Knights of Catarina from Dark Souls, derogatorily nicknamed the Onion Knights. Poor guys.

Wanna know what grinds my gears about these, though? Not one of these fellas is actually an onion. They're just dudes with swords! Thank god for Rhythm Sprout: Sick Beats and Bad Sweets, a game that actually features a literal onion knight. He's a lil' bulb with a knight's helm! And, oddly enough, a blue sports tracksuit. So imagine my joy when I spotted a demo for me to tinker around with before the full game releases in February.

Rapscallion

I've been on somewhat of a rhythm kick lately, and I always love ones that take the traditional formula and put their own little twist on the delivery—like the way Bit.Trip Runner blends combat and sidescrollers, and how Rhythm Doctor uses visuals and a single button to make every single level unique. Rhythm Sprout is another nice spin on the genre, a kickass rhythm game that has big dungeon-crawling vibes. Notes fly down the screen and every successful hit takes my little tracksuit-wearing vegetable one step closer to the goal. It's a simple three-button control scheme—left, right, and a dedicated dodge button for obstacles and some sugary baddies.

These enemies—gingerbread men, chocolate bars, and other sweet treats sporting comically giant human noses—get in the way of my onion knight's quest. If my stank doesn't knock them out, my sword sure will. Travelling takes a brief pause to cut the critters to pieces before happily skipping along each level once more. Reach the end of the level, and my little onion man celebrates by immediately going honk-shoo right on the goal. Saving the world must be a tiring job.

It's one of those games that took me by surprise with just how much fun it is. I'm rather fussy with my rhythm games—and especially the music—but Rhythm Sprout's five demo tracks have been stuck in my head for the past few days. I found most of the note charts a little on the simpler side, but some more complex patterns in the fifth level have me hopeful for what's to come in the full game. There are also modifiers like mirror mode, turbo, and note randomisers that can be tweaked to make each chart a little more difficult. 

If you're a fan of rhythm games, Rhythm Sprout is one that should most certainly be on your radar. It's simple enough to get into, features some absolute bangers and I can see later levels becoming a nice challenge for seasoned genre players like myself. Developer SURT is promising all kinds of music like K-Pop tracks, Lo-fi and Drum'n'Bass, so there should be a little something for everyone. If all the levels are as good as what the demo has to offer, I'll be a happy scallion.

You can peep the Rhythm Sprout demo over on Steam now, with the full game releasing on February 1.

Fighting and rhythm games are two genres that have been in my life for as long as I can remember. It's unfortunate, then, that they haven't always had the best run on PC. That's been changing over the past few years, though, and 2022 has been the year of my favourite rhythm games heading over to our platform: Taiko no Tatsujin and Hatsune Miku: Project Diva MegaMix+. A shoddy port frustratingly mired the former, but with Project Diva it almost made me mad that we didn't get this series on PC sooner.

OK, I know that rhythm games aren't everyone's cup of tea. Especially rhythm games featuring virtual Japanese idols, computerised beats and carefully placed phonetic samples to make it sound like an actual human is singing. But the Project Diva games have had a death grip on me for over eight years, and MegaMix+ is the most robust and complete entry in the series to date.

There's something that's always fascinated me about the way Vocaloid songs are put together, which is part of what makes them so damn fun to play. Hatsune Miku and her fellow pop idols aren't real. They're not bound by a particular genre or image that defines their entire career. They're malleable, only limited by the tastes and abilities of the producer dropping their vocal library onto a timeline. I can play pumped-up poppy beats like Popipo and the all-too-relatable MMORPG Addict's Anthem. Scrolling a few songs down and you'll find heavy drum kicks and guitar riffs in Unhappy Refrain, and a few more into full-blown showtunes like Miracle Paint.

I never expected to really be a Miku person. I've been a fan of J-Pop and J-Rock for as long as I can remember, but always saw Vocaloids as an incredibly niche subsection of that. Now I regularly walk around with synthetic vocals bored into my brain, suffering from cutesy Japanese brain rot.

Full combo

The versatility of Miku and Co's huge library of songs coupled with Project Diva's thoroughly moreish gameplay is what makes this the main rhythm game I recommend to all my friends, whether or not they're into J-Pop and adjacent genres. It's one of those easy-to-learn, hard-to-master games that makes you desperate to play just one more song. The home console series has pivoted to sharing the same control scheme as its arcade machine parent in recent years. It means more challenging inputs—holding double, triple and quadruple notes while trying to successfully hit the rest of the note chart keeps me on my toes and satisfies that craving to constantly improve.

Focusing on the notes flying in from all directions, I almost forget how good the music videos that play behind them are. MegaMix+ has two art styles that can be flicked between at the push of a button. My personal preference is the Future Tone style, though the music videos look great in MegaMix's more cartoonish style, too. Some songs, like Sadistic Music Factory, even use notes for further immersion in the music video, almost making them seem like interactive inputs to open doors, levers and get stabbed by comically large cutlery. It's that clever use that makes the whole experience such a joy to play and why it's long been one of my favourite rhythm game series.

It's been pretty damn cool seeing all my favourite series and genres coming over to PC in the last seven or eight years, and seeing some of the best arcade rhythm games embracing the platform has made this hobby so much cooler for me. If you've been looking for a new rhythm game to play or saw Jerma's stream earlier this year and wondered what the hell this was all about, give it a go. But don't blame me if you become a Miku convert. 

Trombone Champ toots its way to victory as our favourite comedy game of the year—and also one of the best rhythm games, too. For more of our GOTY picks, head to our end of year awards hub.

Jody Macgregor, AU/Weekend Editor: Folks get a kick out of watching Trombone Champ, the best and probably only trombone-based rhythm game we'll ever need, but it's even more fun to play yourself. Mousing up and down (I uninverted the controls) while pressing a single key is so straightforward you know every mistake you make was your fault. 

But where the sound of a guitar hitting a bum note is a distressing jangle, the farty parping of a clumsily played trombone is pure comic bliss. No offence to tromboners, but it's a silly instrument. There's a reason Monty Python picked a John Philip Sousa military march to be their theme music, all bombast and self-importance, completely ruined by three trombones tooting away.

Mollie Taylor, News Writer: Trombone Champ managed to elicit the kind of guttural, delightfully awful cackle from me that hasn't exited my body in years. It's stupid fun and I love its liberal use of royalty-free music, with the occasional dash of trap thrown in. It's a game you can't be mad 'cause bad at, because being bad makes the experience so much more wonderful.

Chris Livingston, Features Producer: The best games are the ones that don't just teach you something when you fail, but make failing just as much fun as succeeding. And whether I've tooted well or horribly in Trombone Champ, I've never not had an absolute blast. It's an easy game to dismiss as a joke—and an excellent joke, because it's hilarious—but it's also a genuinely great, not to mention extremely challenging music rhythm game.

And it's not just the tooting to accompany songs that have no business being lightning-paced compositions like Take Me Out to the Ballgame, it's the ridiculous cinematic assault of each song's background scenes which try to force your eyeballs away from the speeding notes. Spiralling carousel horses, dancing violinists, scores of baboons (and occasionally a pug) appearing and vanishing in time with the music. The jokes and gags in the background come as fast and furious and funny as the songs themselves. Accomplishing an S-Tier performance feels not just like you're a musical prodigy, but a survival expert.

Morgan Park, Staff Writer: I have 33 minutes logged in Trombone Champ on Steam, but if you believe that the true spirit of "playing" Trombone Champ is more than just the person behind the mouse, then I've actually played more like nine hours. That's how long I've watched my friend try to S-Tier every single song over Discord, and though he probably wouldn't admit it, I'm having more fun than him. When he's nailing every note, the trombone's comical sound register melts into the background of Bach's masterpieces, and when he totally bones it up, I get to giggle at the funny sounds. I've probably ruined a few runs myself with ill-timed laughter, but Trombone Champ is so inherently ridiculous that we usually end up cracking up together. 

What impresses me most about about Trombone Champ aren't the songs themselves, but the surprisingly robust progression behind it all. Apparently there's an entire card collecting mechanic that highlights actual historical trombone players like they're from the hottest new Hearthstone booster set? And you can feed the cards to a baboon to unlock a secret ending? Forget the fact that this is a small indie game made by a handful of people, that's an amazing idea that any of the three thousand iterations of Guitar Hero or Rock Band could and should've thought of first.

The DJ rhythm game Fuser made a pretty good impression on us when it released in late 2020: It melted James' EDM-hating heart, and convinced Tyler that Smash Mouth's "All-Star" belongs, well, in pretty much every other song you can name. "Fuser feels like a natural evolution for Harmonix and, scoring system aside, lets players take control of the music more than ever before," we wrote in our 77% review. Very solid appraisals all around!

Unfortunately, just two years after it launched, Fuser is going away for good. "On December 19, we will be disabling Fuser's live services and all sales of the game, as well as its DLC," Harmonix announced today. "Players who already own Fuser will still be able to play the Campaign and Quick Play with any DLC they have already acquired. Thank you again for your support and for all the amazing mixes over the years."

Harmonix didn't provide a reason for the closure, but the numbers on Steam tell the tale. Fuser managed a peak concurrent player count of just 837 in November 2020, according to Steam Charts, and it's been mired in double-digit concurrent player counts since May 2021; its peak concurrent player count over the past 30 days is just 34. That's not the total player base—Fuser is also available on the Epic Games Store and consoles, and concurrents mean less for a singleplayer game than a multiplayer one—but it doesn't paint a very promising picture for the overall player base.

It's also a far cry from the impact of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games developed by Harmonix and released in the early 2000s. Vice paid tribute to Harmonix' most influential series in a 2021 Oral History of Guitar Hero, saying that a song featured in the game could see its individual downloads boosted by up to 843%; publisher Activision said in 2008 that Aerosmith earned more royalties through the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game than it did from any of its albums.

"Since its debut in 2005, the Guitar Hero series has sold more than 25 million units, making more than $2 billion, and cementing itself as one of the best-selling video game series of all time," Vice wrote. "It was also a watershed moment culturally, with some of the largest bands in the world seeking out their own deals with Activision, hoping to cash in on the Guitar Hero boom."

The bloom eventually came off the rose: An attempt to resurrect the Guitar Hero series in 2015 was met with indifference, and a crowdfunding campaign to bring Rock Band 4 to PC barely managed to achieve half its goal. Fuser looked like an intriguing change in direction when it was announced in early 2020, but also failed to reignite interest in the rhythm game genre; Harmonix itself was actually acquired by Epic Games in November 2021, which the studio said would enable it to "bring our unique brand of musical gaming experiences to the Metaverse," and more specifically Fortnite.

Sometimes, when things are bad, all you can do is laugh.

So it is with Trombone Champ, comedically absurd rhythm game (and Chris' game of the year contender) which is apparently guaranteed to make us laugh no matter what we do with it. At first we were just laughing at silly charts of famous songs. Now we're laughing at world events.

Naturally, the trombone champ chart/disaster du jour is a  of UK Prime Minister Liz Truss' resignation speech. Truss came into office on 6 September 2022 and will now resign, a little more than a month later, holding the dubious honor of becoming the shortest-tenured Prime Minister in the history of the UK.

Trombone Champ has given us some real delights in the past month. First we had rhythm game required-listening Megalovania, straight off the Undertale soundtrack. Then we had actual trombone professionals at the Philadelphia Orchestra being terrible at Trombone Champ. Most recently, we had the Final Fantasy legend rock-operatic bombast of One Winged Angel, but with trombone toots. Now we have Liz Truss.

I am reminded in many ways of a favorite Niels Bohr quote: "Some subjects are so serious that one can only joke about them." (The subject is trombones.)

Worth noting that this video is AutoToot enabled, so it's not a human scoring all those perfecto notes. It is a robot. Just like Liz Truss, who I have on good authority was built by serpent people in a cavern deep beneath the Earth.

Last month a few million people collectively laughed at me playing the trombone terribly in music rhythm game Trombone Champ. But what the heck do I know about playing the trombone? Surely expert trombonists could handle a virtual trombone better than a novice like me.

For instance, if you sat down the trombone section of The Philadelphia Orchestra, they'd probably be fantastic at the fast-paced trombone rhythm game even though it uses a mouse and keyboard instead of the actual instrument. Right?

You can find out in the video above, in which The Philadelphia Orchestra's trombone section takes a stab at playing Trombone Champ on a laptop. 

It... does not go well.

The players in question are Nitzan Haroz, principal trombone, Matt Vaughn, co-principal trombone, and Blair Bollinger, bass trombone. The three musicians have, as The Philadelphia Orchestra's director of communications told me in an email, over 130 years of combined trombone experience between them.

That is a hell of a lot of trombone expertise on display, so I'm somewhat pleased to see they suck even harder than I do at Trombone Champ. I mean, they really eat it. To be fair, the game has nothing to do with skill at the instrument itself and is more about a steady mouse hand and quick-clicking reflexes. They're also tackling a 5-star song, which is medium difficulty and a tricky piece to start with your very first time playing. But still, I can't help but find myself a bit heartened by their terrible performance. I'm better at fake trombone than real trombonists!

At least they seem to (mostly) have enjoyed playing Trombone Champ, though there are a few looks of confusion when they're getting started. "This toots?" Bollinger says while hesitantly tapping the spacebar. "Now I'm tooting."

He adds: "Yeah, we can't play sixteenth notes on a real trombone, either," during the more frantic moments of the song.

"Mozart is rolling in his grave," says Haroz while struggling through Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, though to be fair he may have never attempted a trap mix of the 1787 composition on his actual trombone.

"I'm humiliated," says Vaughn as the three musicians laugh about their virtual performance after trying the game. "It just goes to show you that practicing the trombone is a waste of time."

"I'm gonna tell your students you said that!" says Bollinger.

"Nasty! Nasty!" yells Haroz, mimicking the game's most famous bit of feedback.

Fun stuff. And since it doesn't feel right to see these three masters humbled by a damn videogame, please take a few minutes to enjoy them (along with a fourth, Eric Carlson) performing Beethoven's Three Equali on trombone in the video below. It's an outstandingly beautiful performance. Or, as Trombone Champ would say: Perfecto.

Trombone Champ is an indie rhythm game that just keeps blowing us all away. When Chris Livingston first started posting videos of his attempts at the game, the PC Gamer chat was full of laughter. Those hilarious bad notes coupled with his over enthusiastic avatar and a screen that flashes up 'NASTY' to mock your attempts is simple comedy brass.

But of course it gets better. We're by far not the first people to fall bell over slide for Trombone Champ as fans have been getting in on the action. Recently, one skillful fan showed off their VR implementation which really looks like it takes the game to the next level. Naturally, a trombone peripheral would be the next step here, and once again the ingenuity of people delivers.

You may have heard of Rudeism, the hardware madlad who loves to play games in unconventional ways. We've seen him stream his way through Sifu with punching controls, played Untitled Goose Game as a goose, beat Hades with a pomegranate, and just heaps more. He's the king of controller shenanigans, and he's working on the next step in Trombone Champ's natural evolution.

Rudeism posted video of his trombone controller working on Twitter, explaining that an ultrasonic sensor controls the slide part of the trombone, while the microphone controls the toots. Normally this would be moving the mouse for the slide, and clicking or pushing a keyboard button for the toots, so you can see how this translated across.

He also explains that the slide doesn't move as far as it should, and that's super true. In the video you can see he can't extend it beyond the bell. Tromboners will know that this isn't near enough, and only gets you to about third position on the slide, if that from the video. That's only three out of seven. Of course cool tromboners like me, also won't care.

But it turns out Rudeism isn't the only one putting their hands to the grindbone. Trombone Champ's developer Twitter account has been sharing shots of all sorts of fan made peripherals. 

There's a tiny controller made by ThereminHero on Twitter, which is super cute. It uses arduino controls and a mic trigger to power a trombone that looks about as big as a laptop from the video. Scaling the build down probably helped with the distant issues Rudeism was having on the slide. Plus with that username, I'm just happy to see more theremin love out there.

Another great effort is by TheNoochGoodler. This is another arduino build, but looks a lot more DIY friendly in what it's made out of. Another example of a great working slide that also seems to be having difficulty with the distance options. TheNoochGoodler also did us the goodler service of posting their project to github, so feel free to check it out if you're wanting to improve your own Trombone Champ setup. 

There's something wonderful about a charming indie darling skyrocketing into virality. Especially when it's a game as weird and hilarious as Trombone Champ. With all these people already on it, we're sure the V2 round of trombone controllers will be even better. Nothing quite sparks creativity in the community like the challenge to make something amazing, just that little bit sillier. 

Metal: Hellsinger, the high-speed headbanging FPS from Hell, features a "great soundtrack and well-integrated rhythmic combat," we said in our 78% review. But what's a poor gamer to do if they want to rock out against the hordes of Hades but, well, they really just don't care for metal?

Enter the power of mods. Announced today by The Outsiders and Funcom, Metal: Hellsinger's free modding tool enables users to insert their own music into the game, and make it react appropriately to the player's performance. Want to be a K-Pop Killer? A Disco Death Machine? An EDM MDK? All things, at least insofar as musical massacres go, are possible.

To rock out with your mods out, you'll need Metal: Hellsinger on Steam or Game Pass—either the full game or the free demo will do—and a copy of FMOD Studio. With that in hand, head over to metalhellsinger.com/modding and snag the modding package itself: It's 383MB in size, so not too bulky. You'll also find a modding tutorial there, which explains the basics of the process. 

A few points of note: You'll need to use the FMOD Studio template provided by The Outsiders (a blank FMOD Studio project won't work), all FMOD features should work but some "may have side effects" that could impact performance, and the music you use needs to have a fixed beats-per-minute because Metal: Hellsinger doesn't currently have runtime beat detection and so can't adjust to tempo changes on the fly. (Sorry, prog fans.)

Here's a crash course video:

The mod tools open the door to all kinds of new genres in Metal: Hellsinger, and despite the BPM limitation, which I hope will be addressed in a future update, the results as seen in the Jazz: Bebopswinger video at the top of the page speaks for itself. It's a little thematically jumbled, sure—basically the videogame equivalent of Charlie Parker covering Dream Evil, which, yeah, it's kinda weird—but it works! To me, that's pretty metal.

Update: Funcom initially indicated that Metal: Hellsinger mods could be shared through Steam Workshop, but that's not actually the case. For now, developers are looking into adding Steam Workshop support "at a later time." 

If you haven't noticed, all of our hearts over at PC Gamer have turned trombone shaped over Trombone Champ. This indie is just oozing charm with its trombone rhythm action, bum notes, and plenty of baboons. These oddities have delivered a fun tromboning experience with laugh out loud moments that skyrocketed the game to viral fame, and now it can be played in VR.

It's always great to see an indie capture the attention of so many. We even got to have a chat with the brains behind this one to find out the important questions, like why, and also why, and what's with the Baboons. While overall excellent, playing with a joystick or mouse isn't the most intuitive control system.

To play the game, you move the mouse or joystick forward and backwards to mimic moving the slide of a trombone. Depending on the position of the slide, you'll make different notes so you want to line these up with the incoming prompts. It's essentially a rhythm game, but the lack of precise options and the trombone's natural hilarity as an instrument make it extra special.

As someone who toyed with the bone in high school, it's actually not that different to a real trombone. It doesn't have the same positions, lacks the need for mouth input, and you can't dump your spit valve out on the annoying guy who sits in front at band practice. It's close enough, but it's made even more so with this excellent looking VR mod.

Raicuparta on Twitter is a self-confessed big fan of bringing VR to games that never asked for it, and has recently turned their talents to Trombone Champ. For this one example, I'd just like to say we were all asking this time, and thank you. 

In a video posted to Raicuparta's Twitter account you can see them playing the game with the VR controllers, using the slide by moving the controllers further from the face. Their grip could absolutely use some work, but otherwise Trombone Champ is looking excellent in the new digs. Though a VR trombone controller would make it even better, and maybe have a go at Megalovania from Undertale modded in while you're at it.

Holy Wow, the developer behind Trombone Champ even retweeted the video to its account. "One of the amazing things from the past week is seeing people do in a few days what would probably have taken me months," the tweet reads. 

The mod further fuels the flames of hope towards an official VR version of Trombone Champ we can all have a go at, somewhere down the line. Hopefully someone will slide into our DMs and toot us a little message if they do.