RATH'S REVIEWS: Hi-Fi RUSH

I'm throwing down the gauntlet with this next statement and I mean it to be as surprising as it sounds:

Hi-Fi RUSH is one of the best exclusives the Xbox platform has ever had, especially in the last two gaming generations. In an era where Halos don't hold the same luster and Gears of Wars are not as memorable, Xbox has been getting smoked by Sony and Nintendo on the must-have exclusives front. Aside from the basically perfect Forza Horizon series, I've been outright disappointed with the lack of exclusives I've had during my Xbox One and Xbox Series X years. I still get plenty of play time on the console(s) with most of my FPS games, but there's a reason I had a whole post dedicated to PS4's dominance last gen.

But trust that when I say that Hi-Fi RUSH is one of the best exclusives Xbox has ever had - I don't mean that as an "in comparison" - I mean that genuinely this game is just f**king amazing.

For starters, how cool is the way it was released? In a time where we get game delay after game delay (something I support, BTW, for a multitude of reasons), it's awesome that this game was announced by developer Bethesda and Microsoft and then released on the SAME DAY. And on Gamepass no less. The more I played the game, the less I could believe that this fully-fledged, arguably AAA title was just "shadow dropped" into gamers laps. It's legitimately one of the best surprises ever as a gamer to get something this good the same day I heard about it for the first time. That just doesn't happen anymore.

Minigames within boss battles
that are fun and challenging

And I'd like to emphasize yet again: this game is good. For so many reasons. This is largely one of those beaming reviews where I hardly know where to begin so I'll start with my biggest surprise: the game is hilarious. I quickly warmed to all of the instantly memorable characters like Peppermint, Macaron, CNMN, and others, while the main protagonist, Chai, is a wannabe-rocker airhead who balances the fine line between authenticity, stupidity, and being awesome. His animation, and specifically facial animation, paired with a laugh-out-loud script were the "secret sauce" to elevate this game even further. I genuinely laughed and, given it's very-light "Teen" rating, the humor is pretty simple and family-friendly, just damn funny. Physical comedy, situational comedy, and moments of pure zaniness left a grin on my face nearly the entire time. Couple that with an excellent story that eventually gets going about a band of rag-tag heroes trying to take down a company department-by-department and you have the makings of a wonderfully designed game that could have gotten by on its gameplay and aesthetic alone, but decided to give us a compelling, comedic-driven narrative as well.

And that gameplay is truly fantastic, especially as more abilities unlock when you progress. Similar to the story, it feels like it starts slow and at one point I was thinking: "ok, so the combat is pretty rudimentary, but I'm enjoying everything else". Eventually things open up and it becomes a lot more involved, invoking memories of Devil May Cry. Oh, and did I mention the combat (and everything for that matter) is synched up to the music? If it sounds crazy, it is. And if that sounds hard to master...it is. But the challenge is a blast and trying to create your own Baby Driver fight scene can be really rewarding and satisfying, with your foot tapping in real life and your trash-guitar crushing enemies in the game. Enemy variety is vast, keeping the challenge consistently fresh and fun, and the boss battles are just *chef's kiss*. I also appreciated that it grades you on more than just "timing" to the beat - which I was weakest at, but got better - and you can still get high scores and "S" ratings with other fighting talents. Combat aficionados will dig deep here, and I'm sure some of the higher scoring Hi-Fi RUSH players will have videos of their play time that looks like poetry.

Combat can get pretty hectic!

Wait wut?

When it was a shadow release on Game Pass, I also [wrongly] assumed that it would be a short game. While it's certainly not the lengths of God of War, it was surprisingly longer than I thought, with reason to go back through, beyond just having more fun and beating your high score. Outside of combat, the game can throw less challenging, but very fun traversal elements at you across a variety of exciting maps that make levels unique and distinct. At times, this includes changing up the gameplay completely (my favorite was when the game would change into a 2D side scroller) and honestly it just seemed like Hi-Fi RUSH was always out to keep me entertained and having fun.

A lot of that sentiment also comes from the glorious, colorful, cell-shaded art style. Not only does it allow our characters to pop and be very expressive, it brings the world to life. Minor elements throughout the various levels bounce in time to the beat and colors of bright blues, distinct reds, vibrant yellows, and intense greens are common. It's a mix between anime and Borderlands, and if you shy away from animated "things" in general, I'd highly advise you to not let that deter you here. In strong connection with the world is the music, a solid collection of real-life rock songs and music made specifically for the game. It's always good in the moment, but in hindsight, it's perhaps the weakest element of the game in the sense that I don't quite remember a single track and I wish there had been more variety. Throwing in a couple pop and rap songs/beats could have livened things up (and still fit with Chai's rockstar dreams) and I hope in the inevitable sequel they pick a broader variety of music.

A highly memorable boss battle

Hi-Fi RUSH is one of the few games that I literally jumped back into the first level moments after the game was finished, I loved it that much. For it to have released so suddenly and been a Game Pass delivery is a BIG win for Xbox because this will be a game talked about in GOTY conversations. Beyond the noise of its release though, this thing is just pure, good natured, hilarious, FUN. It should not be skipped by anyone, even if you think you'll be bad at it, because i) I guarantee you will get better and ii) even if you suck, you'll still be having a toe-tapping blast.

CONS

Takes a little bit for the story to get going, and even [slightly] longer for the combat to really open up
I would have liked more music variety + I think it would have helped this element stand out more
Longer than I expected but still would have loved more!

PROS

Has an infectious spirit and nails the tone it aims for
Hilarious. One of the funniest games I can remember playing and I had a smile on my face the entire time
Engaging story that may be a cliche good vs. evil, but more than makes up for it with a cast of instant-classic characters
WHAT A RELEASE SURPRISE!
Addicting combat that is fairly easy to get "good" at but very hard to master. It allows many people to pick it up and play while others will strive to get perfect scores