The exploration sections are where the mid-2000s vibe begins to feel a little like a curse. Hi-Fi Rush's setlist is too limited to fully embrace its chosen era of music. You almost don't have to look at the screen. The song guides you through the obstacles. Nailing these parts without dying or breaking your rhythm is like making it through a Mario level on pure reflex. Sometimes the game even locks the camera and becomes a sidescroller. You have to time your jumps and quickly summon a teammate to break through shields and doors before the next beat hits. Geysers of lava and other environmental hazards make up the platforming sections. The only place the music remains important are the sections in between each battle arena. And without recognizable music or challenging tempo shifts, everything blends together. Other than a few gimmicky boss mechanics, Hi-Fi Rush rarely pushes back on button spam. I was suddenly playing an OK character action game where every fight I cycled through my summons and performed simple combos until the score screen came up. The game starts to use original songs that all feel like a similar tempo and aren't particularly memorable and the combat loses all its oomph. I'm not sure if it's because I funneled a lot of my upgrades into lowering the cooldown on the summons or by playing on normal difficulty, but Hi-Fi Rush eventually stopped being much of a rhythm game halfway through. Some attacks can only be dodged, but spamming parry when the song lined up just right almost always kept me safe. Because the enemies only attack on the beat and are telegraphed with lines and circles on the ground, you can easily dodge or parry them back for damage. By the end I could grapple toward a robot, launch them into the air, and then call in Peppermint to fire a massive laser beam into them, and if that didn't cut it I had Macaron on standby to smash them into scrap metal. Macaron smashes armor apart, and the final character you get is able to douse pockets of fire in the arena.Īs you progress and defeat bosses that test your parry timing and sometimes become just literal rhythm games, you can buy additional moves and passive bonuses.

Peppermint blasts enemies with her gun and is necessary for knocking enemy shields out. At any moment (or as a finisher) you can pull in a teammate to help you. Chai has heavy and light attacks that you can combo together and end with a finisher in time with the song. Besides, Xbox has admitted that the Game Pass doesn't incentivize gamers to buy games.All of these characters (except CNMN) are available as summons during the beat-based combat. The fact that this comes after rumors that Microsoft is willing to sell the Xbox brand under the right circumstances will induce panic within the gaming community. Grubb responded on his latest Games Mess Mornings on Giant Bomb episode after the statement was published, where he clarified that his comment 'was just a small, passing statement in a larger conversation.' Grubb then closed things out by saying, 'OK, that's fine, we'll leave it as that.' But, while Grubb says he didn't mean any harm with his statements, you can't blame the industry for picking it up.Īside from the fact that Grubb is one of the most trusted insiders, he also talked about how Microsoft wasn't satisfied with the Xbox brand, in general. We couldn't be happier with what the team at Tango Gameworks delivered with this surprise release. Hi-Fi Rush was a break-out hit for us and our players in all key measurements and expectations. Here's what Greenberg said about Hi-Fi Rush: Hi-Fi Rush was Tango Gameworks' first non-horror title.Īaron Greenberg, the Vice President of Xbox Games Marketing, went on Twitter to clear the air about the rumor that came from the industry insider, Jeff Grubb. It appears the talk about Hi-Fush not making 'the money it needed to make' was false.

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