Starts off very fun, with it giving you the choice between doing the level legitimately or going for a more destrucive, chaotic approach. Only the completion time for a level really matters towards your end rank, and it's lots of fun fooling around and causing a lot of destruction or trying to avoid it (and failing). However, the further you get in the game, the more it gets rather frustrating instead of fun, with one or two floors having essentially 'escort missions' where the AI either doesn't accept a more creative answer, or it gets stuck on level geometry and it's a hassle getting it unstuck. To top it all off, it crashed on us a few times as we played, and though not a huge problem since most levels can be cleared pretty fast if you know what to do, it does take away from the fun of destruction a bit if you also need to watch out you don't overload the game and lose progress.

Still a great time, especially in co-op and probably best experienced that way, but later levels became a tad too frustrating to score the game higher.

Decidedly one of my favourite games in recent years. I’ve always had a love for when things line up to the beat in games and movies, and no game I’ve ever played has committed to it by this much, to where the entire game is built around it.

The story isn’t anything too special and doesn’t ever take itself super seriously, but I absolutely loved the characters, and I think this comes down to how much heart and passion was poured into this game. The animation, the music, especially the voice acting all sell it perfectly. It gets away with a lot by how genuine it portrays itself. For example, the writing can be very quippy and pun-riddled, but thanks to the voice actors all doing an excellent job and the fact the game plays it straight and sticks to its guns, it all comes off more charming than annoying. The writing in itself is very well done, with it hitting all the right notes to set the appropriate mood for every scene, be it goofy, climactic or more emotional.

The entire world is so vibrant and full of life, literally bopping to the beat alongside you. With an action game entirely based around hitting enemies on the beat, it’s so easy to get into a flow-state that never lets up, since everything in combat is dedicated by the music. Said music can get a little bit samey at some points, but it’s always good, with especially the tracks by the end of the game really getting dang good. Only downside I personally had is that because it requires such constant focus on hitting things on the rhythm, it can end up a tad tiring for longer play sessions, so no harm in taking a few breaks. Though it’s not a point against the game in my opinion, that constant focus also made it so that I didn’t really experiment with the different combo’s much. Since it takes quite a bit of focus to stay on beat and the basic combo’s do the trick just fine, I rarely had to change it up, but that didn’t make getting those S ranks any less satisfying.

Its greatest strengths really lie in the passion that the game practically exudes as you play. All the love, time and effort put into the animations, the cutscenes, how it all syncs up with the music flawlessly, the amazing voice acting, the character designs… there’s just a general optimism at play that put me in a good mood while playing it, and the humor, both visually and in writing, landed often enough to make me chuckle and even sometimes laugh out loud a bit.

I have nothing but praise for Hi-Fi Rush, and I think everyone owes it to themselves to at least try it. It might just be your jam, just as it was for me.