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How Hi-Fi Rush rediscovers its rhythm with an all-time-great fight sceneInvaders must dine
Invaders must dine
Hi-Fi Rush, our inauguralRPS Game Clubgame, sets its on-the-beat beatdowns in some pretty interesting places. Glistening sci-fi skyscrapers. An underground volcano lair. A Smaug-pleasing gold hoard, conveniently adjacent to a finance executive’s office. Who’d have guessed, then, that its absolute best fight – not just a thrilling brawl in itself, but the point at which a stumbling adventure plants its feet back in greatness – would take place in a canteen?
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Then you’re shot from a cannon into a cafeteria full of robots, the opening of The Prodigy’sInvaders Must Diestarts pulsing in your ears, and glorious, cathartic hell breaks loose. It’s a pitch-perfectly designed fight in general: smashing tables and flying condiments add some chaos that’s absent from the bare arenas that most combat encounters use, and the interrupted diners include a challenging yet nicely balanced mix of the different ‘bot types you’ve been scrapping previously. Plus one in chef whites, which is just amusing.
And my word, what an utterly superb choice of backing track. Licensed music has yanked me out of games in the past, but Invaders Must Die sounds like it was crafted for this scene note for note. A subtle rising intro builds a tension that, again, most battles aren’t afforded, before a perfectly timed chorus drop signals the fisticuffs. And no disrespect to the original music of Hi-Fi Rush (especiallyNegotiation), but nothing else in the soundtrack has a bassy, fuzzy, DUN-DUN-DUN punch that melds so satisfyingly with Chai’s combos. It elevates the whole sequence, as does a mini-cutscene showing, for the first time, Chai’s fellow resistance members lending a hand without bickering. Maybe his real musical robot powers were the friends he made along the way.
Of course, if you think I’m talking nonsense, and the turning point is in fact the Mimosa fight fifteen minutes before this one, why not say so in theRPS Game Clubdiscussion at the end of the month?
