While this indie rhythm game has nothing to do with the similarly-titled A Song of Ice and Fire, you could say it shares a bit of the... brutality at points. It's a bit hard to get a grip on and can be a punishing test of endurance, but beneath the surface is a satisfying and fun musical experience.

This is a one-button game with an odd visual layout. Most rhythm games have notes scrolling toward the bottom or center of the screen in a predictable pattern. In this game, you follow this rotating pair of circles along a set path, and hit a button/key on the beat as the circles intersect with the path. Hard to explain, but here, check out what's probably my favorite level:

There's a reason why casual rhythm games don't do things like this. It's pretty hard to "read", particularly when you're screwing something up and need to figure out what's wrong. In a game like Rock Band, I can pick up most songs and do pretty well on the first try thanks to familiarity with the mechanics. In this game, it feels more like I actually need to learn the beat of each song individually, part by part, and am simply using the visuals as a reminder of what is next. And while it can be hard, it works.

The drawback of doing something weird is that the game is constantly having to spend time on tutorials to teach you its patterns. In fact, it's a weirdly structured game in general. The base part of the game is pretty quick, with 5 short songs, each preceded by a series of short tutorial sections, then a big finale song. That finale is really tough, requiring you to complete a ton of odd rhythmic passages in a row nearly perfectly. I think many players would stop here, but it's worth pushing through.

After completing that big hurdle, you unlock a set of "guest tracks" featuring music or even level design from other creators. The guest tracks feel like where it goes from good to great. They feel really fleshed out and fun, and feature some of the best music and visual styles in the game. I'm glad this stuff is here, because the pre-credits stuff by itself would definitely leave me thinking "That's it?" to an extent. And then after that there's even more extra bonus songs, plus cheap DLC. Haven't touched any of those yet, but looking forward to it.

Even in the base part of the game, though, there are some pretty fun little ideas. My favorite pre-credits song is this jazzy one that gets a really nice groove going:

As previously mentioned, these big songs test not only your rhythm, but also your endurance, as they go on and on through a big range of patterns. There's often no checkpoint or just 1 at most, and it's easy to mess up and fail, even at things you previously had been nailing. But with a bit of time investment to "get good" and learn the tracks, it's quite enjoyable and worthwhile.