Hi-Fi Rush (2023)

As far as merging the seemingly incompatible demands of action reflexes and music matching button presses, this is as good as its ever been done. Still room for improvement, but the best so far by a long shot.

Playing this game on hard is like being the drummer in a professionally demanding band. When you're on top of the rhythm and flow it's exhilarating and you feel like one with the other members. But start to lag behind, and you will be reprimanded harshly for your lack of diligence.

An impressive piece of design even if the back half is a little mechanically bloated.

This was getting a ton of press, so I decided to jump in and give it a try.

There was a lot of fun things going for the game and the music that was in the game was great too. The control was fun and the rhythm mechanic was great too.

The writing was pleasant and they didn't take themselves too seriously, which was even better. The art style was special and really worked for the game as they were conveying it.

Honestly, I didn't beat it and I'm not sure why, but I just got my fun from the game after a few hours and moved on. This is the beauty of GamePass and I'm here for it.

~David.

I find it hard not to smile and have fun when the characters on the screen are doing the same. Many times i found myself bobbing my head to the beat of the song that Chai was also snapping his fingers to. Hi-Fi Rush consistently made me smile with just how FUN it is. Not just gameplay, but the dialogue, the characters, the general atmosphere. This game is oozing with love from the developers.

I did have some occasional missteps while playing. Maybe in my old age my reflexes aren't as good as they were in my 20s and I had some hard times with some of the parry challenges, but I got better as I went on. Enemies I feared became just another obstacle later on. General tip for combat: try not to get surrounded, the screen can become a bit cluttered. I'm not gonna rate this amazing game down for that, though. I've given good scores to games that do far worse.

I've read that people find Chai annoying. I didn't. I think he's legit hilarious as voiced by Robbie Daymond (Fushiguro from Jujutsu Kaisen), but all the voice cast are INCREDIBLE, too.

If you want to smile at the hilarity and badassity, try Hi-Fi Rush.