hHow did someone ever tell you that you lack rhythm? Have you ever burped a flat note at karaoke and watched the room visibly deflate in front of you? Have you ever picked up a guitar to show your crush, only to mess up the fingering and wreck that lovely, romantic chord? Have you ever been at least somewhat musically successful, but now realize you’re not the cool young alt-rocker you used to be, but a middle-aged, lactose-intolerant dad of 6 Music with a mortgage that worry?
Sometimes you just need to pretend you’re a leather jacket-wearing rebel with a cocky smile and knees that won’t break every time you bend over. And there’s no better place for that than a video game. Guitar Hero brought rock star fantasy to millions. The Artful Escape casts you as the son of a popular musician trying to make his way playing operatic sci-fi progressive rock. And then there’s this year’s Hi-Fi Rush, which puts all its hyper Labrador energy into making sure you feel like a true rock star.
This unlikely rhythm action game was surprise released on Xbox Game Pass by renowned horror studio Tango Gameworks earlier this year. It stars a deeply dated and talentless young dude transformed into a rock god, and the game wants to have the same effect on you. “The game is not only a love letter to music (especially the rock genre and the idea of a rock star in general), it is also a way for non-musician players to experience the kind of ‘high performance’ which one would get playing live music,” explains director John Johanas.
It doesn’t play like the rhythm games that dominated the 2000s, like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but more like an action game, closer to Devil May Cry than DJ Hero. You land your attacks and combos on the beat, using a makeshift scrap guitar as a weapon. “While the gameplay is nothing like playing guitar or being in a band, the visceral feeling of your attacks landing to the beat… to me it’s a side version of what it feels like to be in that trance-like state in the that you are one with the music. says Johannes.
He is right. When you play, you will notice that the whole world beats to the rhythm of the music. Do you want to jump further? Do it to the beat. Do you want to finish your combo by hitting a guitar on the ground and making shock waves? Play a full bar and play all the notes in time. Do you want to fire off some great shots between melee attacks? You’d better learn to work with a syncopated beat, then.
It sounds harsh, but thanks to the living world nodding with you to the beat, whether it’s swaying trees or factory machinery springing to life in 4/4 time, there’s enough to guide even the deaf to the rockstar beat. But making the world match the music, and vice versa, was a technical and creative challenge.
“It’s not an exaggeration to say that this game was driven by music, even at the programming level,” laughs audio director and composer Shuichi Kobori. “When he demoed songs, he would build them up and down in intensity, according to a visual document provided by the director for the level at which they would be used. Since level progression and music progression are inextricably linked, I had to match the arrangement to stage design or stage tricks, constantly adding or adjusting sections… There were times where we specifically wanted to do match something in-game with a phrase or riff in the music, so I had to channel a rhythm game mentality and arrange the song as I played to come up with something to match.”
The result is a handcrafted audiovisual fusion, music and game design working in harmony. When the controls are taken away from you for a scene in the story, the musical engine continues to purr. “For the scenes, the music had to blend seamlessly with no breaks to keep the tempo,” explains Kobori. “For that, there was a lot of trial and error to make sure the song would connect properly.”
The developers came up with a tool called Inst FX, which offers a set of musical sound effects when the player or enemies attack and land their hit. “We had to make it feel like what the player was doing, or what the enemies were doing, was added to the song to create a kind of unique jam session,” says Kobori. “This was a key component of the fun of the game.” So even if you launch an attack and come in before the chorus, so to speak, you’re adding something to the sonic landscape, but it could be more cutting room stuff than just lead.
The game’s original soundtrack is a vibrant and upbeat mix of alt-rock and electronic fuzz that falls somewhere between Refused and indie sleaze, but the licensed tracks are a main draw. Headlined by Nine Inch Nails and the Black Keys, the set list looks more like a rock festival poster than a video game collaboration. But that was always the intention. “It was personal for me,” Johanes smiles. “Showing the music you listened to growing up is almost like reading your diary. I think following personal taste rather than selecting for an audience has its own charm.
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But how would the director’s teen mixtape fit in with the composer’s work? Johanes had it clear from the beginning. “I gave instructions for the original music to feel like a backing band, with Chai [the player character] as the protagonist of the song, making it his song. Specifically, with how they fighting and the added flair they add to the track by fighting to the music. In a way, the player drives the soundtrack.” Boss battles, meanwhile, are more like guitar battles, swapping riffs and playing against the boss’ signature track (eg 1,000,000 NIN).
Hi-Fi Rush’s licensed tracks are deployed strategically, such as placing a hard-hitting, well-practiced cover in the middle of your set. In-game, the effect is euphoric: you lose yourself in the beat, hammering combos to the beat, listening to Trent Reznor’s voice and the growl of distorted guitars as you dodge, jump, slam, slide, and grin.
Tango Gameworks designed this game to be fun, but it’s more than that: to its developers, it’s an expression of rock star fantasy, reveling in the music while playing with all the rules that make it work. Its grunge reinterpretation of the rhythm game for 2023 has been one of the best surprises of the year.
