Just yesterday, we saw industry leakster @BillbilKun claim that Tango Gameworks would be announcing a new game called Hi-Fi RUSH. He also claimed that there was the possibility of the game being available at the same time as the announcement. All of that actually happened, as Bethesda announced the game during the Xbox & Bethesda Developer_Direct event.
Hi-Fi RUSH is a singleplayer rhythm action game, primarily anyway. There are some platforming bits, as well as parts of the game get 2D Metroidvania-like as well. According to Bethesda, everything in the game revolves around a musical rhythm. From stage hazards during the platforming sections to enemy attacks during combat encounters. Your player character is not restricted to moving with the beat in combat, but you’re highly incentivised, and rewarded, for doing so.
Speaking of player character, in Hi-Fi Rush you play as Chai, a wannabe rockstar that got involved in a robotic enhancement procedure, giving him not only a robot right arm but a music player fused with his heart. The corporation that did this deemed him a defect and intends to erase him. It’s up to Chai and a few, seemingly similarly-fated allies to resist and take down this “heartless corporation”.
Overall, the formula of Hi-Fi RUSH is very familiar if you’ve played BPM, or Bullets Per Minute, an indie rhythm-based first person shooter rogue-like that was released in 2020. The rogue-like elements aside, the visual aesthetic of the game is highly reminiscent of Doom, but with the added twist of having you fire your guns to the music beats. Hi-Fi RUSH takes this very interesting formula and applies it to the third-person action genre, and loads the game up with tons of campy lines, an odd mix of eastern and western aesthetics, and licensed tracks.
Despite that last bit though, the game isn’t too expensive. It’s no indie, but it comes with a price tag of RM104.90 on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Or you can opt for the Deluxe Edition for a few additional skins, for a slightly higher price of RM139.88. With Tango Gameworks being a Bethesda subsidiary, which itself is now owned by Microsoft, it’s only available on the Xbox Series X and S on the console side of things.
