Have Game, Will Play: Kickbeat
Rhythmic action is at the forefront of this great title from Zen Studios. Zen Studios has shown once again that it is more than the developer of great pinball games. This is nothing like their previous offering Castlestorm but the quality and fun gameplay are just a strong.
Kickbeat puts you in control of a character being surrounded and attacked by multiple enemies. Pressing the the Vita or DS3’s face buttons when prompted and to the beat of the music enables you to kick, punch or throw your enemies. But there’s more to it than that. The color of the enemies in addition to their placement give the player visual cues on their behavior. Some enemies even glow which allows you to link together moves to despatch of them. Power-ups and bonus points are placed above the heads of your rotating combatants and can be acquired by double tapping the required button(s), while staying on beat. This creates a simple yet effective risk-reward system.
Despite artists like: POD, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, Papa Roach and Pendulum not being exactly my cup of tea; I still thoroughly enjoyed Kickbeat’s gameplay. The soundtrack never got in the way of my enjoyment. The music analyzer also allows you to create new tracks with your own music.
The game is single player(with split screen mode on PS3 only) but much like many other Zen Studios games it lends itself to leaderboard chasing. Once you get over the rather tame learning curve there is much fun to be had with this game.
Platform: PS3/Vita
Price: $10 cross-buy, but it at $10
Genre(s): action music/rhythm game
Developer/Publisher: Zen Studios