If you haven’t playedHi-Fi Rushyet, you should. Made byThe Evil WithindevsTango Gameworks, these games have very little in common, if anything. In Hi-Fi Rush, you play as Chai, a wannabe rockstar (his words) who goes to the Vandelay Corporation to replace his broken arm with a robotic one and accidentally ends up with his music player implanted in his chest. Because of this accident, he’s labelled a ‘defect’ and has to go up against various high-ranking members of the corporation to defend himself, getting mixed up in nefarious corporate plots in the process.
The main draw of the game is that this implanted music player causes Chai’s attacks to become stronger when done on beat with the game’s music, turning a simple action game into one driven by rhythm. The world pulses and moves with the music too, making the environment a groovy visual spectacle, replete with flashing lights, bright colours and a vivid, anime-like style.
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If you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself bopping your head to the beat as you fight your way through robotic enemies. The soundtrack sure helps, with a killer combination of Nine Inch Nails, The Black Keys, and other indisputable bangers. Most of these songs are drum-driven with crunchy, heavy guitars – obvious picks for a game so focused on rhythm. I got excited early into the game and searched up the full soundtrack – when I foundInvaders Must Die by The ProdigyandWolfgang’s 5th Symphony by Wolfgang Gartneron the list, I started to re-imagine the game entirely.
These songs are, without a doubt, the most electronic and rave-like tracks on the whole list, and they are also my favourites. I am, unfortunately, the kind of person to beg my friends to bring their DJ controllers to my birthday party so the rest of us can nod our heads to techno and house. As I fought my way through enemies, I couldn’t help but think about Devilman Crybaby, even though the gory (and distinctly graphic) Netflix anime and Hi-Fi Rush are worlds apart in tone.
There’s one scene in Devilman’s first episode where club-goers are massacred by demons toone of the dankest songs I’ve ever heard in an anime. The scene is so iconic it even became a minorTikTok meme, with people posting themselves in clubs with the song in the background with captions like “they have no idea”. Completely decimating enemies to the beat of thumping electronic music made me wish with all my stupid little raver heart that I could have my Devilman Crybaby moment, tearing things apart to the rhythm of the dirtiest drops imaginable.
That would’ve been an entirely different game, I realise, one not centered around a mildly idiotic himbo just doing his best with the limited brain cells he has while snapping his fingers cheerily to the beat. Perhaps it is criminal on my part for wanting to turn something that is, at its core, fairly wholesome and good, into a murder rave. Then again, considering Tango Gameworks’ previous games, maybe this darker version where I get to be the villain is the game it would’ve made in an alternate universe. I think I’d like to play that game, too.
Next:Hi-Fi Rush’s Beat Visualizer Would Be Useful In Other Action Games, Too
