Beat City will have you tapping, sliding and holding your way to restoring the beat. Beat City was developer Universomo’s first foray into handheld development; unfortunately it was also their last. The game is a collection of different rhythm m...
Beat City was developer Universomo’s first foray into handheld development; unfortunately it was also their last. The game is a collection of different rhythm mini-games in which you must tap, slide or hold on cue to the beat, funnily enough.
The similarities to Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven will be the first thing you think of when you hear about Beat City. There is no escaping it, so instead of comparing the two, let’s just push Rhythm Heaven aside and see what Beat City is all about.
Beat City teams you up with a Mudkip-like alien with headphones and a guy with a speaker in his head as you work together to restore the out-of-tune Beat City to the vibrant and colourful place it once was. The evil Dame Isolde Minor and her Cacophony Corporation has taken the beat out of everyone and turned the people of the city into a bunch of depressos.
The game is presented in a story mode split over a calendar month with a couple of games each day. For each event in the day, you must collect stars in order to not only restore everyone’s rhythm, but to get you
r new alien friend home. The story idea sounds familiar (de Blob anyone?) but the presentation is unique, with the game shown through colourful and bright comic book-style cutscenes.
There is no voice acting but the art conveys the story well. The game is played in ’book’ orientation with the bottom screen reserved for a colourful tapping pad, and the top screen filled with a scene that p
lays out depending on how well you do. Each game has a tutorial before it to give you an idea of how it works.
The mini-games are played with either a tap of the screen, flick of the stylus, a hold-and-release method or a combination of each. The music featured in the game is pretty catchy, which you’ll see helps make the game fun. It isn’t as zany or wacky as Rhythm Heaven, but what is? It does, however, feature an eclectic collection of 8-bit chiptunes and electric-style tunes.
As well as the adventure mode (which looks like it could take a while to complete), you are able to go back over the games you’ve unlocked in the story mode and try to perfect your score.
Beat City seems familiar for the story and the style of play but nevertheless has a freshness about it.
FREEDOM WARS Remastered, Once Again and Super Onion Boy+
To pass the time.
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