i absolutely adore rhythm games. i love Spin Rhythm XD (2019), which is one of my favorite “pure” rhythm games, thoroughly enjoy Crypt of the Necrodancer (2015), have dabbled in Osu! (2007) a little bit before, and enjoy me some classics like Guitar Hero and PaRappa the Rapper (1996). i also love me some action games. granted, i’ve never played any Devil May Cry-adjacent game, but i really enjoy reflex-based experiences. yet, this isn’t actually the first time i’ve played a game that marries together rhythm and action! i have played a whopping TWO hours of BPM: Bullets Per Minute (2020), which is an action-roguelite/fps/rhythm game. i absolutely adore the concept of linking together dynamic, fast-paced situations with the beat of a song, but BPM didn’t really do it for me. enter: Hi-Fi Rush (2023)

that’s right. it’s time to Hi-Fi Gush about Hi-Fi Rush. (mae ain’t pick the verbs.)

this game very quickly earned a spot in my top 10 favorite games of all time. it is pure sex from every angle. i love the vibes, the visuals, the characters, and the fun, albeit simple story. it truly checks all of my boxes. yes, you could argue that sometimes the humor is a little too “erm, that just happened”, but for the most part, i do be giggling like a little idiot at every facet of this game, and not just the jokes. so many things are just absolutely delightful. the environment pulsing to the beat, the mini-cutscenes of Chai and 808 in between waves, and who knew that all quick-time events needed to be fun was synchronization with the music??? like yeah, mae that’s uhh what a rhythm game is. you're just QTEing constantly, but here it's soooo damn satisfying and oozing with style that i felt child-like joy throughout the vast majority of the game.

it is a universally known fact about letter-based scoring schemes that being able to spell out ASS on the score screen is the highest honor you can achieve. it doesn’t get better than that, folks. uh, sorry my “producer” (if you can even call him that) is trying to tell me that SSS is the best you can do. not really sure what that’s about. SERIOUS MODE. it is an extremely rare occurrence for me to actually enjoy going for high scores. the idea of combos is usually so frightening to me. they’re complex, and i often fall into the trap of just mashing, completely destroying the purpose of having a well-defined combo system in the first place. Hi-Fi Hi-Fixes that (admittedly skill) issue through the nature of syncing to the beat. you’ve pretty much just got a couple buttons when it comes to the basic attacks. light (L) and heavy (H). you start out with just some chill easy to remember combos at your disposal. wanna hit a dude quick? LLLL, my friend. have a bit more time to really bonk a bot? HHH. essentially all of the core combos in the game are just permutations of L’s and H’s. but, what’s that you say??? to do something like HHH, you don’t just do H on beat 1, then H on beat 2, then H on beat 3? nope! game design win inbound: light attacks take one beat, heavy attacks take two. whaaat???? “holy shit, you mean the heavy attacks are heavier and thus take longer, ms. maeam from backloggd.com???” yep. as a consequence of this, the timing of EVERYTHING is hardwired into your brain. “how many frames does the tremolo attack have to start-up? blah blah blah” you don’t need to know. you know that its HLL, so,, a total of 4,,, plus the three until the beat hit. whaaaat?? “a beat hit?? maeam from backloggd.com, you buried the lead, you sly dog!” don’t talk to me like that, i don’t know you. anyways, yes. at the end of basically every combo is a three-beat countdown with an Osu circle to the final big hit of the combo. except,,, you can instead shmix on em and substitute that final hit with a unique, context-sensitive move from your currently selected partner. i don’t want to go into partners too much for spoiler reasons, but i will say this. by the end of the game, you can use partners SOOO frequently that “optimal” gameplay involves a bajillion people saying voice lines and doing a quick little attack and then recharging in like 5 seconds. obviously, you can just not do that, but like,,, it’s kinda funny, if not a little overwhelming. to wrap all this fighting up, the game does a fantastic job of easing you into the game’s mechanics. you don’t learn the parry move until like stage 4, and you have to purchase the vast majority of the combos and counters and special partner moves. this is really good! you don’t even technically have to follow the beat early on, and you don’t feel like you have to memorize everything right out of the gate. there were a couple times where i technically had the currency to purchase a new combo, but i said “nope. i wanna get more comfortable with what i have first” and that is such a blessing. a rare combo system i love to interact with. for real, i be goin like LLHHH+LHLH (goated combo) and shittt. also. the multiple-parry sequences with bosses and more significant enemies are a fantastic bite-sized helping of Rhythm Heaven. i played through the whole game on hard mode without streamer mode turned on for a first playthrough, and it was a consistently challenging, yet rewarding experience.

the stages, er,, tracks, as the game calls them. they’re pretty fuckin neat. rather than enemies just being continuously spread out across every single possible part of the level, they’re in discrete mini-arenas (called Choruses), which helps isolate battles from platforming; you’re never worried about some robozo (robo bozo) waiting to clock you on a ledge. on the subject of platforming, i have some reservations. the exact same movement system functions for both fighting and platforming, which makes sense! you’re not stepping into an arena and then suddenly worried about Chai controlling in a completely different way. however, i feel as though the Chai’s movement physics are far more geared towards combat than they are navigating a 3D space with obstacles. that’s not to say that it’s complete dogshit, but while it may feel really nice and snappy to have Chai have a super high fall-speed when you’re fighting, it feels weirdly clunky when you’re trying to jump from platform to platform. there’s a bit of end lag when you land too, adding to why it doesn’t necessarily feel as fluid as i would like. the beat is constantly going even when you’re not in battle, and you can jump when not on beat, but that just kinda feels bad. at the same time, i think that cycle-based platforming is automatically elevated to a higher level when it’s aligned to rhythm, such as with the cassettes in Celeste (2018). as i mentioned before, there’s some actually fun QTEs to break up the levels, and of course, a bottomless well of charm and silly antics that bring a smile to my face every time. there’s also some secrets here and there, as well as numerous reasons to return to previous levels on replay that i have not yet explored myself.

the art direction (and the characters). hoo boy, the art direction (and the characters). i like em! there's a lot of visual flair with onomatopoeias, the environment, and the general aesthetic. the game frequently transitions completely fluidly between 3D cutscene, gameplay, and even 2D cutscenes at times. it’s drool worthy. the character designs are absolutely fantastic!! world’s first “Handsome Jack” type individual. jojo’s bizarre adventure. cinnamon without the toast crunch. HR? nah, that’s noir. there’s a satisfying range. Korsica and Peppermint, my beloved. there’s some FANTASTIC English voice acting in this game, especially for those two. 808 is probably one of the cutest fucking things in any game ever. on a slightly different note, i was not expecting this game to incite bisexual panic in me. as embarrassing as it feels to say: yes, i even have a tiny crush on Chai. silly people do me in. sue me or something. for real though, it’s a great cast of characters that doesn’t take itself too seriously. love the stuff. i’ve even got a Korisca pfp at my time of reviewing this. overwhelmingly gender. i wish she would hit me over the head.

i’m hoping to finish this review before Monday 3, so i’ll wrap it up. Hi-Fi Rush is a fantastic game that had me gripped from the start of the opening cutscene to the end of the credits. i can not think of a more transformative gaming experience that i have had in the past several months. yet, there’s still SO much more that i have left to do in the game! there’s a wall of fame with a bunch of optional challenges that give you tangible rewards in terms of currency, but also adds new portions of the mural, which is a great way of incentivizing completion outside of simply ‘having done it’. beating the game unlocks a suite of new features and modes, and even a new difficulty. needless to say, I WILL BE RETURNING TO THESE HALLOWED HALLS OF BEATS AND BRAWLS. CAPSLOCK IS BROKEN! MAE WORKS HARD AND TYPES HARD!

fuck you, michaelsoft, if that’s even your real name.