How did you like last night? Did you like the conference that Microsoft brought us? The Xbox Developer Direct showed us the next news from the Microsoft family in its video game ecosystem. An event where we could learn more about their upcoming titles, such as Redfall, Minecraft Legends or The Elder Scrolls: Necrom.
However, the big surprise of the night was brought to us by Hi-Fi RUSH, a video game created by Tango Gameworks (belonging to ZeniMax, a company that Microsoft bought at the end of 2020) that caught the attention of all of us who watched the conference for more for a reason.
Be one with the music
If you’ve ever wondered what would come out of mixing Devil May Cry with PaRappa the Rapper (the typical thing one would wonder), Hi-Fi RUSH is the answer. We are facing a rhythmic hack’n slash (with a more than striking resemblance to Sunset Overdrive) where we will have to fight enemies to the rhythm of the battle music.
Once you enter combat, you will be able to attack the enemies following the beats of the song, chaining series of simple, strong and special attacks that will multiply the score you get if you manage to do it right. A mechanic that is very intuitive, easy to execute (even for people who lack a sense of rhythm) and that penalizes the player almost nothing if the rhythm is not followed correctly.
With that, it should come as no surprise that their music, as well as the way they combine it with the player’s actions, is so wonderful. In addition to its own tracks (mostly composed by Shuichi Kobori), Hi-Fi RUSH’s musical repertoire contains songs such as ‘Invaders Must Die’ by The Prodigy, 1,000,000 by Nine Inch Nails or Wolfgang’s 5th Symphony by Wolfgang Gartner.
Its artistic section is another of the most remarkable aspects of this striking video game. Those of us who saw it live, were quick to see the similarities between this title and the movie Spider-Man: A New Universe, which has a similar visual style and where certain frames are omitted/cut (with a narrative sense in the animated film).
But best of all, by far, is that the game can be played now. Yes, just hours after its announcement at the conference, the game was already available to play on Xbox Series X/S and PC, and included in the Game Pass subscription. So if you feel the rhythm in your “body”, you know what to play.
