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Hi-Fi Rush review: it’s a bangers bonanza in this electrifying rhythm-action gameHi-fi beats to rage to
Hi-fi beats to rage to
Sometimes I want to describe games in the most high-brow way possible. I might smugly write something like “it elevates the genre” while sipping wine and eating cheese, musing on how a game pushes the media forward as an art form. Other times I just want to write that a game is really bloody good, actually, and I like it lots.
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This beat wants to be synonymous with your own actions, too. The action part of Hi-Fi Rush is a free-flowing brawler, where Chai smacks robotic enemies with a metal guitar, all while dodging and ducking through hordes of outstretched robot weapons. The challenge is to strike and dodge in time with the music, to create a smooth flow to combat and make you feel like you’re a god of the dance.
This electrifying feeling feeds into the wider world as you race through Hi-Fi Rush’s thumping linear levels. There’s platforming aplenty between whacking robots in interspersed arenas, making you feel like you’re always progressing forward at a rapid pace.
Hi-Fi Rush races you through a vibrant and colourful world that stops short of burning out your retinas with too much neon.
Thankfully, you’re not actively punished for failing to match the beat. Not every strike and jump has to be in time with the rocking beat of guitars and drums, and you can just take it at your own pace if you aren’t fussed about obtaining a high combat rating for each encounter. It’s a clever little direction from Tango that welcomes in hesitant players while boosting the skill ceiling for those more dedicated to their rhythmic craft.
Combat is a surprisingly deep beast and has all the fun markings of aDevil May Cry-like system. There’s last-minute parrying, a zipwire ability to leap from foe to foe, an airborne toss move that throws enemies sky-high for combat chains, and much more. It’s all bundled together in a streamlined system that uses merely a few buttons, a design direction that, once again, doesn’t overwhelm players and instead gets you to experiment.
Hi-Fi Rush’s overall vibe is undoubtedly goofy, and Chai’s the biggest goofball of them all. When we first meet him, he imagines himself as a new-age Kurt Cobain of sorts, but thankfully his gimmick of wanting to be a rocker boy really super badly doesn’t stick around for long enough to become insufferable, instead merely establishing the sort of protagonist we’re dealing with in the opening 30 minutes or so. It’s endearing without verging into annoying.
This type of one-note anime character cliche of wanting to be the very best like no one ever was works for Chai, but it fails others. Macaron, for example, who’s built like an ox but scared of using violence, is never properly explored as a reluctant fighter, because Hi-Fi Rush’s script favours jokes and quips over character moments. Tango’s game whips along at a cracking pace, but it’d have been nice to slow down (for just a moment) to delve a little deeper into Chai’s cohort.
Hi-Fi Rush is a fantastic cocktail of rhythm-based head banging and action-packed platforming. The combat system is surprisingly deep and malleable for any style of player and meshing it gently into the musical beat without putting pressure on the player is a deft touch. Its writing and characters might leave a little to be desired, especially when compelling narrative beats are so painfully overlooked, but that doesn’t stop the entire package from being a certified banger.
