I really love this game!
Art and designs are some of my favorites from lately, music is incredible, the characters are likeable and interesting. I really, really enjoyed my time in the world of NSR.

Sadly, this game REALLY falls off in the gameplay department. It has neat ideas and it has all the pieces to make a good action game, but doesn't manage to make anything work. Combat feels pretty stiff, parrying can sometimes feel unresponsive (or sometimes telegraph but just not execute), the normal enemies are awful.
Having the rhythm play a part in the combat is a neat idea, but doesn't really work since all the chaos just feels like sensory overload. Stickers don't really feel like they have an impact. A lot of mods feel useless and don't really do anything interesting.

Bosses, one of the highlights of the game, also have a ton of problems. While they are mostly good at the start, the execution starts to nosedive after the third boss. The ideas are definitely there, but it fails to make a functional boss fight. I just wish the Approach sections (which are very obtuse and uninteresting) were scrapped to enhance the bosses.

Another big problem I have is that there is a very clear lack of testing. Co-op has a ton of bugs and the camera is AWFUL!!! Tons of things in the game were very clearly no though out for the co-op mode.

No Straight Roads is a really entertaining game with a lot of heart behind it. Every little thing about it shows how much the dev team loved the project. I just wish I could give it a 4.5, but the unpolished gameplay is something that I can't just turn a blind eye to.

Still, for a first game, this is REALLY good. I'm really looking forward to more games from this team. This was a really enjoyable experience, one of the most charming games I've played!

If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with several things: boss rush games, dystopian fiction, and music. And while this game is far from perfect design-wise, it's a special game that checks all the right marks for me.

The story centers around Mayday and Zuke, two rockers shunned from society because of their love for the genre. Together, they take on the members of No Straight Roads, a government that powers cities on the backend of EDM. It's a short story about rock vs. EDM, as well as a satire for various sub-genres of the music (vocaloids, boy bands, etc.). And this is all backed by a really entertaining set of characters, some witty writing, and even some excellent art direction!

The trouble comes from the game's combat. Yes, the boss rush structure of the game works well, having the player traverse a course of enemies before facing one of the NSR bosses. Combat, however, is based around this weird rhythm-based action that is "easy to learn, hard to master"...and I mean that in a way of them really not explaining how the combat system works. Luckily, I did manage to learn more as I went through the game, but it's no surprise how confused I was towards the earlier hours of the game. It's a system that'll either hook you as you parry attacks based on the background music, or frustrate you as you can't land a single hit on the enemy.

No Straight Roads is a unique title, and something I've been craving for quite a while now. It's like the love child of Psychonauts and Rhythm Heaven, and it hooked me from beginning to end. The pay-off of the story is quite inspirational, too. I cannot recommend this game enough, especially since it can be finished in around 5-6 hours.

(Worth noting that I played the Switch version, and it is unfortunately full of bugs right now. If you're interesting in checking this game out, I recommend trying the PS4/XB1/PC versions instead.)

No Straight Roads is a fantastic game bursting with charm and personality. There's great music, gorgeous artwork and fun characters around every corner and that's only scratching the surface of the great things this game has to offer.

Not everything's perfect, but there's so much soul here that you can't help but have your heart taken by the game. For sure a must play, then a must "listen to the soundtrack on repeat for the next 4 months" kinda game.


(Note: One thing that originally let the game down for me was the combat system, which although it had its cool moments, it felt like I was required to hit tank for too much of the game.
I somehow... missed the entire upgrade system and suffered through the game without any of the helpful buffs which also add a lot of variety to brawling/bosses? Not sure HOW I let this happen but I feel I can't really discredit this part of the game when I flat-out played it wrong.)