Rhythm action struggle to separate themselves form the crowd, for a variety of reasons. One is that the genre lends itself to bizarre and memorable set ups. So when some typical entries in the genre include lovable oddities such as Gitaroo …
Rhythm action struggle to separate themselves form the crowd, for a variety of reasons. One is that the genre lends itself to bizarre and memorable set ups.
So when some typical entries in the genre include lovable oddities such as Gitaroo Man, Parappa The Rapper, and Ouendan how do you even begin to stand out?
It’s an issue Double Kick Heroes answers with admirable aplomb. It has a thumping and varied soundtrack, an eye-catching visual style, and a impressive range of play modes.
The set up is simple. There’s a zombie apocalypse and you take control of a heavy metal band in a vehicle rollicking down the highway – who via well timed button presses to the accompanying music sees weapons fired at the approaching undead hordes (plus other enemies, including – memorably – satan).
Pressing a certain button you fire at enemies approaching from the top, another hits ones from the bottom – and so on.
There’s five difficulty settings that see you use an increasing number of the face buttons, and even an option that allows you to use the joy cons to manoeuvre your way through levels via thrashing away at the motion controls.
This helps take away some of the frustration if you’re struggling, although as far as rhythm action games goes this is far more forgiving than most.
There’s also the soundtrack to fall back on, which is a robustly assembled collection of tunes from a range of genres including metal, synthwave, and, er, thrash metal.
They’ve all got a good range of fast and slow segments, and even if you’re not a fan of the aforementioned genres you’ll still enjoy the beats they offer up. They may not be classic tunes, but they fit the tone of the game well.
What isn’t hugely enjoyable are the cutscenes, which are poorly written and only repeatedly drive home how unlikable the main characters are.
This is an almost negligible issue though. Double Kick Heroes offers up a solid – if on occasion unspectacular – rhythm action game that fans of the genre should certainly check out.
