Developer: Tango Gameworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Available On: PC, Xbox Series X|S
Reviewed on Xbox Series S
In what’s surely going to be one of the most surprising moments of the year, Tango Gameworks announced a brand new video game called Hi-Fi Rush during an Xbox Showcase in January. The shift to a colorful and comedic action-rhythm game was seen as a huge departure from the horror games the studio is known for (The Evil Within/Ghostwire: Tokyo), but what really made this announcement such a shock was that the game was immediately available for purchase and added to Xbox Game Pass. So-called “shadow drops” like this are rare, and while this absolutely makes for a great news story, it’s also resulted in an early GOTY contender and a title that feels like a massive step forward for the genre.
The world of Hi-Fi Rush is full of scrappy heroes, ruthless villains, and groovy tunes. You play as Chai, an aspiring rockstar with a broken arm, a big dream, and a once-in-a-lifetime shot at a limb replacement surgery at Vandelay Technologies. While the surgery is a success and gives Chai a shiny new cybernetic arm, an unforeseen accident also leaves a music player embedded in Chai’s chest, allowing him to feel the beat of the world around him in strange and helpful ways. Marked as a “defect”, the heads of the different divisions at Vandelay view Chai as a threat and take it upon themselves and their army of machines to take him down. It’s up to you to guide Chai through the massive Vandelay campus, team up with some unlikely allies, and take down the division heads, all while uncovering a conspiracy at the heart of the company.
The sincerity and heart at every corner are what sell the story and characters. Chai is a lovable goofball and while he definitely makes mistakes and is rarely the smartest person in the room, his charm is undeniable and the performance by Robbie Daymond is an absolute blast to watch play out on the screen. Likewise, Chai’s allies are just as great to be around. Peppermint (voiced by the always lovely Erica Lindbeck) is a determined hacker spearheading the investigation of Vandelay, often coming off as a more responsible older sibling, despite being younger than Chai. There’s also a really fun duo in Macaron (Gabe Kunda) and CNMN (pronounced “Cinnamon” and played by Sunil Malhotra). Macaron is a gentle giant and the former head of Vandelay’s R&D department who was demoted for disagreeing with the direction of the company, while CNMN is a quirky psychology robot he made to keep him company. The entire cast is terrific, but CNMN is arguably one of the funniest characters in the game, using a dry-erase marker to constantly put new emotions on his face and being overwhelmingly blunt and straightforward with his thoughts and opinions.
That same sense of playfulness even manages to extend to the villains. The Vandelay heads are each distinct and gleefully evil in their own way, making every encounter with them memorable. While Kale Vandelay, the CEO, is the one calling all of the shots, each person under him in the company structure is just as formidable. From Zanzo and his habit of wasting company resources on stupid projects (like plushies of himself), to Korsica and her no-nonsense focus on providing the best security for the company, each head provides something different to the Vandelay corporation and seeing how they all bicker with each other is a constant source of humor. It also helps that none of the villains feel like they’re being wasted, with each of them getting their own moments (and sometimes entire levels) to shine.
Hi-Fi Rush is broken into 12 “Tracks” that serve as unique levels. While the length of each Track varies, it takes roughly 10-15 hours to finish the game, depending largely on which difficulty you choose and how much of the game you decide to engage in. Vandelay Technologies is located on a giant island and while they call it a “campus”, it feels more like a giant city, complete with skyscrapers and high-tech transit systems. The visual style of the game does a tremendous job of making everything look bright and colorful, giving off the impression that you’re playing a high-budgeted Saturday morning cartoon. The use of cel-shading is fantastic here and the shift between gameplay and cutscenes is handled so well that every time the transition happened my jaw dropped. Visually speaking, this is one of the best-looking Xbox exclusives to date, and I would even go as far as to say it’s one of the best implementations of cartoonish visuals in the medium.
As great as the story, characters, and visuals are, it’s the way the game uses music that made me fall so deeply in love with it. Since Chai has a music player stuck in his body it allows him to see and feel the beat of the world around him. There’s constant music playing during each level of the game and the rhythm of said music can be seen all around you. Trees sway in accordance with the beat, lights flash in timing with the notes, and if you’re standing still Chai will start snapping his fingers to the rhythm of the song. You also have a robotic cat made by Peppermint that turns into a floating orb that constantly displays the rhythm, in case you find it difficult to read the cues from the environment. Everything about the level design is in sync with the music, and the greatest part is discovering just how subtle and clever the dev team got with some of these touches. As for the songs themselves, the soundtrack is mostly comprised of rock music, and while the majority of the tracks are made for the game, there’s a handful of special moments where licensed tracks from bands like Nine Inch Nails and The Black Keys drop in for some extra flavor.
However, the music plays a much larger role than just being a fun visual trick. Almost every action you make is in-step with the music, creating a gameplay system that feels unlike anything else. While basic moving and jumping are pretty straightforward, there are a handful of benefits to performing certain actions in timing with the music. For example, you can perform a dash that allows you to cover ground a little more quickly, and by carefully timing your input to the beat you can chain up to three dashes in a row. This is often needed for platforming sections where you have to move from one point to another quickly while avoiding hazards that, as I’m sure you already guessed, move with the beat. Timing is everything in this game and while that can seem overwhelming at first, there are plenty of tools and difficulty options to help players of all skill levels make their way through the world in a stylish and fun manner.
As cool as it is to see the music and traversal blend together so seamlessly, it’s the way music informs combat that makes this such a hard game to put down. In Hi-Fi Rush the vast majority of the enemies you encounter are Vandelay robots. Armed with swords, guns, flamethrowers, and more, there’s a nice variety to be found here and it takes paying close attention to the music in order to come out on top. While the combat system relies on several pillars of the character action genre like light and heavy attacks, blocks, and counters, every action happens on the beat of the music, including the attacks of your enemies. You can hit the corresponding buttons whenever you want, but the actions won’t play out until the beat hits, which is hard to explain in writing but immediately something you just “feel” while playing. However, performing each action exactly on the beat lets you chain attacks more easily and deal more damage, so you really have to pay attention to the rhythm of the music if you want to make the most out of the combat system. Since enemies also move and attack in timing with the beat, paying attention to the music will allow you to predict when they’re going to strike, slash, or shoot at you, letting you know when to dodge or block their attacks. I know this sounds complicated, but the game does a terrific job of tutorializing the mechanics in a way that makes them easy to learn and leaves you feeling confident in your abilities.
One of the more unique ways the game adds to these features is by introducing partner attacks and abilities. You can temporarily call in your allies to assist with certain obstacles, both in and out of combat. Some enemies have shields that can only be broken by Peppermint or armor that can only be destroyed by Macaron, but their skills also come in handy in other scenarios. Peppermint can be called on to shoot distant switches while Macaron can smash down barriers and move large heavy objects. While using them in combat is as simple as pulling a trigger, more precise timing is needed when calling for aid while exploring and platforming, such as timing a punch when calling on Macaron. You can even upgrade these abilities for more functionality, like team combos.
Speaking of upgrades, exploring the world provides several opportunities to collect its currency: gears. Gears can be spent to unlock new attacks for Chai, expand the moveset of your allies, gain more health, or increase your Reverb Gauge, the meter used for pulling off special attacks. Gears can be found out in the open, tucked away in secret areas, or earned for destroying enemies in combat. While there are plenty of gears in the game to pick up a number of upgrades, it’s impossible to get everything in one playthrough, and will likely take another run or two in Chapter Select to get them all. Completing the game will also give you access to a new shop where you can unlock several fun and cool costumes for Chai and the gang, although their prices can get rather hefty.
In fact, replaying the game has more of a benefit than just funding you for more upgrades/costumes. Several new areas with special challenges open up after you complete the game, giving you another incentive to replay earlier chapters. While there’s a scoring system in the combat designed to push you to replay chapters for bragging rights, the new areas are far more worthwhile and interesting to uncover. I’m still working through them myself, but an early example of what one of these challenges is like is a timed fight against aerial enemies where the timer only goes down if you touch the ground, forcing you to chain aerial combos for as long as possible. Along with these challenge areas, there are also a few hidden locations with extra upgrades, gears, and lore notes that can only be accessed by replaying some of the early chapters and using late-game abilities. Lastly, there’s a challenging mode called Rhythm Tower that tasks you with scaling 60 floors of a tower before time runs out, with high scores in combat and clever use of your abilities adding more time to the clock. I haven’t messed around with this mode too much, but it’s an excellent challenge for those looking to get even more out of the experience.
Finally, while I can’t speak for the PC and Xbox Series X versions of the game, Hi-Fi Rush was smooth as butter on the Xbox Series S. The visuals looked sharp and gorgeous with no texture hiccups or other mishaps, and the framerate felt like it was locked at 60 FPS with no noticeable drops in sight. Everything looked and ran like a dream and I never felt like there were any performance issues. This is great news since frame rate issues would be especially awful in a game like this where timing is such a crucial aspect of the experience.
FINAL VERDICT
Hi-Fi Rush feels not only like an early GOTY contender, but quite possibly an all-time classic in the making. This joyous experience is full to the brim with great art direction, a fun story, lovable characters, and a rhythm-based gameplay system that feels unlike any other. Its 10-15 hour length feels perfect for what it’s trying to accomplish, although a robust suite of post-game features helps the fun keep going long after the credits roll. It’s a game full of heart, charm, and catchy tunes that’s incredibly hard to put down and once it clicks with you it’s easy to fall head over heels in love with it,. The imaginative, and more importantly fun, blend of the action and rhythm genres ensures it a spot on eventual “Best Of” lists at the end of the year, but it’s the immense vision and creativity here that really gets me excited. This feels like the type of game that’s going to inspire a generation of upcoming developers and I can’t wait to see the impact it will have on the future of this industry.
– Zack Burrows
Sight-In Games 