Have to know
What’s it? A cel-shaded rhythm motion sport with a mid-2000s rock soundtrack.
Anticipate to pay: $30
Launch date: January 25, 2023
Developer: Tango Gameworks
Writer: Bethesda Softworks
Reviewed on: RTX 3080, Ryzen 9 3900X, 32GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Hyperlink: Official site (opens in new tab)
For all of its screaming electrical guitars and raucous drums, Hello-Fi Rush is surprisingly low-key. Smashing aside killer robots to the beat of licensed rock tracks from artists like 9 Inch Nails, The Black Keys, and The Prodigy is rad as hell. It is like going for a run and making an attempt to sync every step to the album you are jamming to. It is taking part in Satan Could Cry, however each drum hit in Bury the Light (opens in new tab) is a chance to proceed your combo. However after establishing its hook in a killer opening, Hello-Fi Rush’s excessive power begins to wane.
Hello-Fi Rush has a shiny, cel-shaded world and top-heavy killer robots, the type of goofy aesthetic that’d play properly on a blurry TV display within the background of an NCIS episode—it appears extraordinarily like a videogame from the mid-2000s. It is largely the music, mixed with its snappy animation type, that elevates this straightforward aesthetic. Bushes, lampposts, and pipes bounce alongside to the soundtrack, and essential character Chai is consistently snapping his fingers, which causes a tiny comedian ebook spark to look every time.
Vandelay Applied sciences, the evil company that unintentionally changed Chai’s coronary heart with a Walkman, is the stage. It began out manufacturing robotic limbs for folks in want, after which pivoted to promoting useful robots which can be a software program replace away from turning into a military. The person on the prime, Kale Vandelay, has a really cartoon villain plan to make use of the implants for thoughts management.
The whole lot in Hello-Fi Rush runs on basic cartoon logic. Chai casually dusts himself off after being punched by way of a wall and, in a single scene, faces the digital camera in shock simply earlier than he plummets down a chute like a Looney Tunes character. He is not shiny however neither are a whole lot of the characters in Hello-Fi Rush. At instances Chai sounds frighteningly near a Joss Whedon character. I am fairly certain he did a “Effectively that simply occurred!” within the first hour.
Chai’s incompetence is the purpose, and the sport shortly companions him with a crew of way more fascinating and charming characters to bounce off. Peppermint and her cute robotic cat, 808, crew up with Chai to go after Vandelay’s C-suite. Quickly you meet Macaron, a pacifist robotic psychological analyst with a metallic buddy named CNMN (pronounced like cinnamon). And a fourth character that I will not spoil, however will say is enjoyable to have round even when their accent is completely incomprehensible.
Band collectively
All of those characters (besides CNMN) can be found as summons throughout the beat-based fight. Chai has heavy and light-weight assaults that you may combo collectively and finish with a finisher in time with the track. At any second (or as a finisher) you possibly can pull in a teammate that can assist you. Peppermint blasts enemies together with her gun and is critical for knocking enemy shields out. Macaron smashes armor aside, and the ultimate character you get is ready to douse pockets of fireside within the enviornment.
As you progress and defeat bosses that take a look at your parry timing and generally turn into simply literal rhythm video games, you should purchase extra strikes and passive bonuses. By the top I may grapple towards a robotic, launch them into the air, after which name in Peppermint to fireside a large laser beam into them, and if that did not lower it I had Macaron on standby to smash them into scrap metallic. As a result of the enemies solely assault on the beat and are telegraphed with strains and circles on the bottom, you possibly can simply dodge or parry them again for injury. Some assaults can solely be dodged, however spamming parry when the track lined up excellent virtually all the time saved me protected.
I am undecided if it is as a result of I funneled a whole lot of my upgrades into reducing the cooldown on the summons or by taking part in on regular problem, however Hello-Fi Rush finally stopped being a lot of a rhythm sport midway by way of. The sport begins to make use of authentic songs that every one really feel like an identical tempo and are not notably memorable and the fight loses all its oomph. I used to be instantly taking part in an OK character motion sport the place each struggle I cycled by way of my summons and carried out easy combos till the rating display got here up. Aside from a number of gimmicky boss mechanics, Hello-Fi Rush not often pushes again on button spam. And with out recognizable music or difficult tempo shifts, the whole lot blends collectively.
The one place the music stays vital are the sections in between every battle enviornment. Geysers of lava and different environmental hazards make up the platforming sections. You must time your jumps and shortly summon a teammate to interrupt by way of shields and doorways earlier than the following beat hits. Typically the sport even locks the digital camera and turns into a sidescroller. Nailing these components with out dying or breaking your rhythm is like making it by way of a Mario degree on pure reflex. The track guides you thru the obstacles. You virtually do not have to take a look at the display.
Hello-Fi Rush’s setlist is simply too restricted to completely embrace its chosen period of music.
The exploration sections are the place the mid-2000s vibe begins to really feel a bit like a curse. There are crates to smash, collectibles to seek out, textual content logs to learn, and power-ups in your well being and particular assault meter hidden all through every degree, however all of it simply slows the sport down. I used to be sturdy sufficient for something Hello-Fi Rush may throw at me after only some hours, and there have been solely so many emails I may examine robotic labor abuses and incompetent bosses. Nostalgia for this period of video games (for those who even have it) cannot make up for the hours you spend dashing previous a bunch of stuff you do not want.
Hello-Fi Rush’s dedication to the marginalia of the video games it is aping is spectacular for its specificity, however makes me surprise if it may have retained a retro really feel with out it. A uninteresting lead with a bunch of far more fascinating secondary characters and solely a handful of strong licensed rock songs battle to match the power of the sport’s first few hours. One other model of this sport may have swapped Chai out with Peppermint and crammed the tracklist with sharper rock and punk hits that match the anti-capitalist message the sport is reaching for however cannot fairly grasp by the top.
As a shock from a developer identified for its horror video games, Hello-Fi Rush is a promising idea. A sequel that refines its samey degree design and fight and expands its listing of songs might be the sport I wished Hello-Fi Rush to be. As a mean motion sport with a handful of stellar moments that closely depend on its rhythm-based construction, it is not value selecting over all the opposite nice choices within the style.
Hello-Fi Rush is like going again and listening to the songs you listened to as a teen. Sugar, We’re Going Down nonetheless goes extremely laborious, however Fall Out Boy’s newest songs (opens in new tab) are in a position to nod at their roots and incorporate sufficient trendy manufacturing and construction to sound like one thing new. Hello-Fi Rush’s setlist is simply too restricted to completely embrace its chosen period of music, and it is too dated to resonate with what’s sizzling proper now. It is caught, unable to completely decide to its personal pitch and unable to seize the second. It is a sturdy teaser for a extra cohesive sport, and it has me crossing my fingers that sooner or later it should come.
