Hi-Fi Rush (XSX) Review

Rock out!

 

 One of the year's surprise hits, Hi-Fi Rush comes to us from Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Ghostwire: Tokyo). A light-hearted affair compared to their horror offerings, it stars a wannabe rockstar out to expose a shady corporation. It was shadow-dropper earlier this year on Xbox Series consoles to high praises, which interested me to eventually check it out. So, is it worth all the hype? 

 We follow Chai, an upbeat and aspiring rockstar who volunteers for "Project Armstrong" to get a cybernetic arm from Vandelay Technologies, an electronics giant. Chai's procedure goes wrong when his music player gets fused with his body, making him feel at one with his music. Now labelled a "defect", he'll need to escape Vandelay's forces while joining up with allies to uncover the company's sinister secret. Along the way, he'll meet his trusty gang of: 808, his cat-companion; Peppermint, a genius hacker with a secret; Macaron, a burly-yet-shy robotics expert; and his assistant, the snarky robot CNMN. The cast quickly grew on me with how likeable they were and thanks to the funny writing, made me love them a lot. The villains-- while one-note--- were still an interesting yet eccentric bunch, namely Zanzo, whose a walking JoJo's Bizzare Adventure reference, and egotistical main boss Kale.

Chai's in for a wild adventure.

 Hi-Fi Rush is a hack-and-slash platformer with rhythm elements. You control Chai as you explore Vandelay Island, platforming, fighting goons, and beating bosses. Chai's main weapon is his scrap guitar that can slash enemies with heavy and light attacks. The twist here is that levels follow the beat of the music and you must time your attacks with the beat to deal bonus damage. Parrying attacks and dashing works when timed with the beat, so you'll need to always be in sync. There's quick-time events that appear with the beat, so you'll need to execute them swiftly to beat some of the tougher encounters. Luckily, the game offers a beat meter that shows the exact time you need to attack to match the beat, which is helpful in the first few hours. 

The gameplay may seem overwhelming, but it's easy to get used to.

 Initially, you beat enemies with basic combos but as you collect gear parts scattered in levels, you can unlock new combos, chips that offer perks like extra health recovery, and new special attacks that Chai can pull off when his battery gauge is full. The levels are packed with enemy variety, though you'll start to notice that Chai alone can't take some of them down. This is where you call-in his friends to assist with Peppermint's long-range attacks destroying force-fields and Macaron's beefy punches shattering shields. You can even upgrade their attacks for added damage and unlock new move-sets too. Your performance is graded each battle is ranked with how good your timing, damage taken, and clear time was, like many action games.

The levels are filled with style and secrets.

 What's great about the gameplay loop is how it changes, as one moment your playing normally, only for it to shift into a 2D platformer. Some boss fights even had their phases change into a Guitar Hero segment, which was amusing. Another felt like a slow fighting game where you're looking for an opening to attack, while carefully blocking attacks. Levels packed secrets like graffiti, golden statues to break, text logs, and health and battery fragments to collect and I often ventured off to find them. It took around 12-15 hours to beat with me getting most collectables. There's post-game content with a harder difficulty, an arcade mode, and Rhythm Tower that's akin to Devil May Cry 3's "Bloody Palace" survival mode. My main issue was the lack of a lock-on feature as it was tricky keeping track of the fast-moving enemies, especially when they're off-screen.

 At first glance, you can tell that Hi-Fi Rush is brimming with personality. From the colorful cel-shaded visuals to the expressive character models, and vibrant backgrounds, it's easily the most visually impressive game I've played this year. It ran great on Series X at 60fps with no instances of slowdowns. Voicework was good with many nice performances all-around. The soundtrack was great with many catchy to boot. The more notable ones are the licenced tracks from bands such as Nine Inch Nails and The Offspring, which were great to hear.

Hi-Fi Rush is simply stunning.

 Hi-Fi Rush was a blast that exceeded my expectations. The gameplay was simple-yet-challenging, cast were likeable, presentation was top-notch, and fun-factor was all-over the place. That said, was too short for its own good and a lock-on feature would've helpled greatly. As a fan of Tango Gameworks, I was happy to find that Hi-Fi Rush was a success and I'm excited to see what's in store for them next. If you're looking for a charming and engaging action-rhythm game, then this is a must-play.