Hi-Fi Rush is a great rhythm action game with popping comic book style visuals and a soundtrack that makes you want to clobber to the beat. You play as doofus teenager Chai, who during a visit to Vandelay Industries (Seinfeld joke!) to receive a robotic arm accidentally has his mp3 player fused to his chest, resulting in improbable rhythmic powers. Immediately declared a Defect, Chai escapes Vandelay's robots with the help of a cybernetic cat called 808 (drum machine reference!) who belongs to Peppermint, a rebel hacker intent on exposing Vandelay's misdeeds. Chai is charmingly arrogant, stupid, and rash, and proceeds to hammer his way through the game like a complete idiot. The incredible visual style really helps sell the comedy, and I enjoyed meeting characters like CNMN (pronounced "cinnamon") and Macron, who join Peppermint's rebellion and aid Chai. Chai must attack on the beat in order to do more damage, and his library of combos will grow and grow, and it's quite the pleasure to trigger a satisfying attack after some strategic button-mashing. Staying on beat isn't hard, but add parrying, dodging, grappling, and special enemies that require a summon from Peppermint, Macron, or Korsica, and you have quite the difficult game after a while. There's a lot of platforming, with much of it timed, but thankfully Chai is fun to move. Learn how to parry, people; if you don't the game will get very hard very quickly. The difficulty curve does ramp up around the half-way mark, but I never found myself frustrated. Hi-Fi Rush could have used a few more licensed songs; The Black Keys' Lonely Boy and Nine Inch Nails The Slip show up early, with recognizable tracks only appearing again at the end. But hey, this was probably a budget-limited affair, and it's a great fifteen hours or so of third-person jiving. Here's to hoping that Tango Games puts out a sequel to this charming game.
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