Beat Hazard
Before reading: this review is about Beat Hazard Ultra, meaning the basic game + dlc. While I still recommend Beat Hazard on its own, it is more simplistic and lacks online co-op that the Ultra version provides, so I strongly recommend this game to be played with DLC.
Beat Hazard Ultra is a fast paced space shoot’em up with bright colorful graphics. At first sight it does not look like much, however it has several features that have made it one of the most pleasant surprises in my library.
The graphics look amazing at first, they tend to tire out your eyes pretty easily however, so it is not recommended to play for long sessions. There is an option to scale them up (!) or down inside the game menu though.The battle is fluid despite the abundance of color, enemies and the genral chaos that takes place on your screen especially on the higher difficulties. I have even played this on a linux netbook -yes it plays on linux and mac as well- with minimal capabilities and I was honestly surprised at its smoothness. Gameplay is fluid as well, regardless if you are playing with a controller or a mouse and keyboard. In fact, I even find myself preferring the mouse and keyboard mostly because the mouse provides more precise aiming than thumbsticks. The difficulty curve is just right, meaning you can choose from 5 different difficulty settings (easy, normal, hardcore, insane, suicidal) and play in whatever mode you feel comfortable with. This makes the game equally enjoyable for both hardcore shmup players as well as people who are new to the genre, or not particularly skilled. There is also a nice “perk” system implemented, where you can buy upgrades, such as a few special attacks, more multipliers, etc.
– Real player with 56.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Shoot 'Em Up Rhythm Games.
I have played Audiosurf for a long time and I was not sure if Beat Hazard was a game that could stand out for me as a music-based game. I finally decided to give Beat Hazard a try after it was available for several years on the market. It feels like a game inspired by the classic game Asteroids, but with songs from your music library playing while you control your spaceship. So the basic premise of the game is you maneuvering a spaceship while avoiding asteroids and many enemy spaceships of varying types and sizes. There are many games of this genre in a crowded market, but Beat Hazard carves out its own identity with its challenging action and allows you to take on numerous enemies and other hazards as you enjoy the rhythm of the songs of your favorite artists and built-in songs.
– Real player with 46.3 hrs in game
Symphony
This is a bullet hell style vertical shooter but with a very casual difficulty curve. You basically can’t fail (you will play until the end of a song), but your score and rewards will depend on your overall performance so there’s still a reason to try. The higher difficulty options can offer quite a challenge, but you can take as much time as you want before ever attempting anything above easy while still getting the play value from all of your music.
Basically the game is designed to be relaxing and let you browse your entire music collection while using elements of the song to customize the game play. Things like the tempo of the song determine how fast the game scrolls or the beats can determine some number of the enemies in each wave and then your difficulty selection magnifies these customizations. I don’t know all the specifics and the customization differences are often minor, but it does mean every song you play will be slightly different.
– Real player with 103.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Shoot 'Em Up Rhythm Games.
In Short:
This game is for those who like 2D plane slightly angled from top-down shoot em' ups in which one is predominantly dodging and destroying enemies that move and act in response to the tempo and all else of ones' (favorite) audio over a minute and thirty seconds long (that is on the computer you are playing on), then this game is for you.
Note: The enemies rarely fire at you, but unlike bullet-hells, you’re entire ship is the hitbox, so enemies can be smashed into, but it will damage your ship. Luckily you can repair it via collecting “Music Notes” (dropped points) from enemies one has shot to death after your ship lost part of itself (took damage).
– Real player with 48.0 hrs in game
Audio Infection
As a music enthusiast in general and as someone who loved playing games like AudioSurf, Beat Hazard & Swarmlake, I found this game appealing. I played without VR equipment, and that’s, besides using either the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, perfectly possible!
The game offers a handful of visually pleasing areas where you start listening to (your own = possible) music, and try not to get infected; e.g. the lower your accuracy and/or level of mastery, the more damage you will take, and the more infected your audio gets = lower music levels, but the enemies and their battle sounds will then take over the place. So you’d better listen to some garbage music, or you will get annoyed if you fail at shooting ;properly!
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Love the game so far, havent played it too much but its really fun to play. People might say at first its not a game they like, but its really fun to grind points and lvl up your weapons. Eventually you will have better weapons and then you will see difference in the game. I enjoyed my time playing and it also kind of calmed me down :o
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Freedom Finger
The silly and offensive art style is what drew me to this game, not the musicians or voice actors. Despite its cartoony look Freedom Finger is a proper shmup. You have a ship and you shoot enemies with plenty of bullets, enemies and walls to be dodged. The game has two unique game mechanics for a shmup namely grabbing and punching. It’s a bit unusual but it is quite fun. It allows for a lot of different ways to play a level.
Fortunately there’s no shop with upgrades for your ship, you can follow the story but also just hop into any level and start competing for the leaderboard. If you want an upgrade go grab an enemy ship!
– Real player with 38.0 hrs in game
Check out my first impressions gameplay video for Freedom Finger here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1OPbuRzCk
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-QUICK FIRE REVIEW (If you don’t have time to watch the gameplay video)
-Story:
Save the American Lunar base from the Chinese who have taken over!
-Graphics:
Very cartoonish. Kinda of reminds me of the adult cartoons you’d see on Adult Swim.
– Real player with 11.0 hrs in game
Space Probes
A challenging bullet hell shmup with great music. The dev is helpful and updates the game very frequently.
– Real player with 20.7 hrs in game
+1 Arcade
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
BeatShips
Simple, yet fun
– Real player with 35.6 hrs in game
Great game with huge potential! Will probably end up playing this every now and then when I’m looking for something chill.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
RHYUP
RHYUP is a challenging, 5 button rhythm game with shmup elements. Defend your home planet as you take control of a spaceship and move and shoot to the beat of the music while weaving through an onslaught of eye catching, enemy fire and boss fights all set to an amazing sound track of 20 unique songs and levels, each with 2 difficulty settings.
Minimum requirements are for low settings 30+ FPS.
Space Haters
Was fortunate enough to be able to play test this, developers obviously care a lot about this game and you can tell. the music and graphics look and sound great, definitely worth a play, try giving it a try with speakers too it’s great.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Beat Hazard 2
We all enjoy listening to music. But when was the last time you played your music? This is Beat Hazard, an intense twin-stick space shooter powered by your favourite artists and songs.
Bigger. Better. Brighter
Beat Hazard 2 builds on everything that made the first game successful—then takes it to the next level. For example, the new “Open Mic” system detects and uses the audio output from your PC. This means you can play to literally any music source. YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music? Everything’s supported. Feel like some karaoke? Plug in your mic and start singing! The game uses ACRCloud Music Recognition to detect and identify your tracks automatically and update scores to a track leaderboard where you can compete with other players. The visuals have been overhauled with new art and a gorgeous 3D lighting system. Crank up that visual intensity to 300% and enjoy the carnage! Encounter massive procedurally generated bosses created by your music.
– Real player with 786.2 hrs in game
_I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be positive about this game, until I got to finally play it.
For someone who didn’t play the original Beat Hazard before, I can easily say that it’s really fun game._
Beats powered by YOUR music! EMBRACE THE SEIZURE!!
Beat Hazard 2 is a music-driven arcade shooter where you pilot a spaceship that fights ridiculous amount of space junk asteroids, other battleships and numerous intimidating flagships while listening to the beats of music pumping through your ears.
– Real player with 136.6 hrs in game
BIT.TRIP FATE
BIT.TRIP FATE is a pixel rhythm game loosely based off of old-school sidescrolling shooters, in which the player is on a literal rail as the screen scrolls to the right, and is responsible for shooting the enemies before being shot. It is the fifth game in the BIT.TRIP series, and pretty readily the easiest of them all.
Like other BIT.TRIP games, as you string together a number of successful hits without a miss, the game will move to a “higher” mode which has more graphic effects, and as you miss enough without getting an appropriate number of successes, you will move to a “lower” mode, which has fewer. FATE continues the pattern of adding a new mode with each successive game, adding GIGA. In addition to the modes, there is a series of powerups which the player can pick up which will modify their weapon in one of four ways. Additionally, the power-up, when combined with GIGA mode, gets extremely powerful.
– Real player with 12.9 hrs in game
Bit.Trip Fate is a colorful twin-stick shooter on rails. Movement is quite clever, as you can move faster when you are not shooting. This kind of detail makes the experience less random and more strategic. Since each bit sequence is predetermined, memorization plays a huge role in how effective you can be, especially against each final boss. Boss battles are really well made and I imagine that putting in the hours to master them will feel rewarding. The better you play, the more intense the visuals and sounds become. This type of feedback is very effective in allowing the player to judge how well they are doing without needing to quickly glance at their score during play. Even your rate of fire and spread become more powerful when you don’t make mistakes. There are no checkpoints, but you can select any level as long as you have beaten the previous one. If you are looking for a challenge that will reward you for skillful play, then it is your fate to take this trip. Game on.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game