20 hours gone in a blink of an eye…
SUPERBEAT: XONiC – Nintendo Switch – Released: 11/21/17 – $39.99
Short Review (Review copy provided by PM Studios)
Let’s just say I haven’t put this game down since I received it. I was under the impression that this would be a simple music game that doesn’t get that hard but I was wrong! It keeps pulling me back just for one more song or having another shot at another All Combo. I really love seeing my rank go slowly up with each song and enjoying every bus ride to and from work because of this game. It loads quickly so giving a song one more go before having to work is a breeze. This game I would highly recommend to anyone that grew up playing the Rock Band or Guitar Hero series like I did. I didn’t know 99% of the songs but now I own the soundtrack for the game so that tells you something. Another thing to point out is that it does have some issues if you aren’t connected online. This results in many times seeing the “It can’t connect online” error between songs that try to update your online score. I was informed that this was an issue that can’t be fixed due to the way the game is coded but putting it in airplane mode makes it just 3 A presses and you are onto another song.
Story
It is a music game…. I would rather not have a story in my music game to focus on everything else.
Gameplay
The game offers 5 modes each with variety of difficulties. The game starts you off with a tutorial just to explain things but then it just lets you go where ever you want. The first 3 modes require you to play 3 songs in a row as a set. 4Trax is the “easy” mode which gives you the bare minimum with only 4 button types. 6Trax takes it one step further by having 5 button types. 6Trax FX is where things hit the fan and you have to unlock this mode before you can access it. This requires 6 button types but is incredibly hard for anyone new to the series. Then you have Free Style but you have to get a certain rank for a song in the other modes to unlock it as a Free Style Song. You are able to choose between the 3 other modes in this one and play just one song. The last mode is World Tour and this for me is the hardest mode because it has special effects that will change up how you play songs. It has everything from combo a certain amount, don’t fall below a certain percentage, notes that appear a split second before you press them, and random notes.
Personal Experience
To be honest I’ve known about this series for a very long time and I would see it on the shelf at Gamestop every time I went there. I thought it looked interesting but at the time I didn’t own a Vita so when the Vita finally bit the dust… it disappeared from the shelf once I got a PSTV for really cheap. Slowly I forgot about the game but when I saw it was coming to the Switch I instantly remembered it. I knew I wanted to try this game so when I reached out to PM Studios about a review copy, I honestly didn’t think I would get a copy. Then day before release it was there and I played it all night long.
Final Thoughts
I would say 100% go for this game if you need to scratch that music itch. I am always down for rhythm games even though sometimes I can be terrible at them but I am glad to say that I may not be the best but I did get within the top 15 on day one…. but that isn’t saying much since I was able to get several hours in before the game went live. After that I dropped to around the 50 range and currently still in that area after a few weeks. I can’t wait until more DLC drops because I will be picking them up as soon as they go live. I can’t wait to see the next Superbeat game and hopefully it has some songs I actually know.
UPDATE: 5/30/18
I am currently close to 100 hours in this game so I will gladly give this game a 10 out of 10!
First time playing for 25 Minutes:
End Credits
Woot woot! Got a new writer and we are having ROUND 2 of our giveaway! There will also be another giveaway starting in two weeks that will go into the end of the year so follow on Twitter for more information to be the first to know. I will be giving away a copy of Dead Synchronicity.
100hoursreviews.wordpress.com 
How are the controls for this game? I actually have a physical copy for PSVita but I could never get into the touch controls. I much preferred the button-based Hatsune Miku Project Diva F 2nd back when I was more into rhythm games. Is there any requirement to using touch controls?
Controls in particular can be really finicky with rhythm games. Do you feel like there’s any input latency? Does it play fair? What kind of music is in the game? Pop, techno, rock, etc? How does it play in handheld mode vs. docked mode?
A little more information about the game would be nice 🙂
LikeLike
I personally don’t like the touch controls just because sometimes they don’t feel precise and I don’t have time to let my brain figure them out since I typically play on a bus. So it is impossible for me to play any deep touch screen games. I feel like there is no issues with latency when it comes to the button presses and when the notes line up. The game is pretty fair in terms of how long you have before and after the button press which will result in just a “Good” label instead of a “Superbeat” label for hitting the note in time. It is hard to say what music since I didn’t know anything of them and to be honest no clue what genre some of them could be. I highly recommended people in the review to listen to the music on YouTube before you decide since you will be play a good bulk of the easy songs many many many times before you get good enough for the hard songs. There is no difference between handheld and docked.
LikeLiked by 1 person