The first part is my review of the game, the second is my rant over Xbox.

Review: WOOOAAA-OOOOOOH YEEEEEAAA-AAAAAAH

Xbox fans love to defend Microsoft buying out studios because Sony does it too, but at least when Sony does it, they don't IMMEDIATELY shut down an entire 14 year old studio a year after they put out their first exclusive for the company, which also happens to be the best game on their platform in DECADES just to line the pockets of their executives.

Japan Studio's closure was the worst thing Sony ever did. But in the bleakest of perspectives, it makes sense as their games were never financially profitable, and were bleeding money for over a decade, especially after the development hell The Last Guardian went through, only to sell a little over a million copies.

Hi-Fi Rush was a much smaller game that reached universal acclaim with 3.5 million sold copies in just a little over a year. That is insanely good for a mid-budget game. Microsoft had zero reason to shut down the studio to prop up Bethesda with their most mediocre game yet that even IGN gave a 7/10, along with an extraordinarily generic Indiana Jones game and a generic Marvel tie-in game.

Not even to mention that Microsoft is a TRILLION($3,000,000,000,000+) dollar company that has zero reason to purge studios that make successful games.

Hi-Fi Rush was one of the most unique games we've gotten in years and now it will never receive a follow-up thanks to corporate greed and incompetency from the worst company in the entire gaming industry. Far worse than EA or Ubisoft.

Friends, loved ones, we gather here today to remember our good friend Hi-Fi Rush

The cliche saying "life comes at you fast" is apt to describe Hi-Fi Rush. It simultaneously announced and released at the end of what I would generously describe as a very mid Xbox game presentation in January 2023 to the delight of half-asleep gamers watching everywhere.

Hi-Fi Rush is rhythm-based character action game that had unique gameplay. It was forgiving to casual audiences so as to acclimate them to rhythm aspects of the game, but had aspects about it that made it the most hardcore character action game out there if you wanted it to be. If you wanted the highest ranking. If you wanted Chai to be holding a real guitar, you had to earn that shit in blood.

The game embraced a fun cast of characters. Embraced a saturday morning cartoon setting and story. It made Xenogears references when half-jokingly describing running out of budget for the last act of the game. It had licensed music from bands like Nine Inch Nails. Hi-Fi Rush was truly a hi-fi rush that made thousands of people think the game was tailor-made for them. Simply by being more in line with what people actually like. It was nice to see as such cases of personality and life being that it was rare to see such on a major publisher level.

Hi-Fi Rush was pushed out into the world to be loved, and to help boost a rapidly dying gaming platform, but actually mostly that first thing...

But mostly that second thing, actually.

The cancer of corporate consolidation and power, a time when optimal financialization is the only language those unrightfully holding the reigns of the industry speak. That is what killed a moderately successful game studio. Lack of passion or enthusiasm didn't kill Hi-Fi Rush. A financial officer running numbers and determining a sequel would make X amount of dollars less than a Call of Duty skin killed Hi-Fi Rush.

So as we lay them down to rest, we celebrate Hi-Fi Rush as it reminded gamers of a time when all games both big and small were released to be enjoyed unconditionally; with the upfront price tag of exceptional games were the beginning, middle and end of what was asked to own it.

Sadly, those days are snuffed out. You must now rent and subscribe to begin to be pumped with complicit, tedious gameplay trends that feel more diluted with every repackaging. Will we die with capitalism? Probably. Shit crazy out here, b.

Whether or not you cherished the life of Tango, or it's products like Evil Within or Hi-Fi Rush, you must understand that gaming on consoles is dead. Dead until the console platform holders release their own Steam Deck and it's probably going to be lame as fuck compared to a Steam Deck if your name is not Nintendo, but whatever.

Rest in peace, Hi-Fi Rush.