Hi-Fi RUSH: Devil May Cry, Sunset Overdrive and Guitar Hero thrown into a blender

New game from The Evil Within devs, just announced in the Microsoft video this afternoon with a surprise release of immediately, and of course on Gamepass.

Figured it deserved its own thread, I’ll chime in with more impressions when the tutorials are done, which should be around hour 12 if the first 30 minutes are any indication…

Reminds me of the late 90s early 2000s, space channel 5, jet set radio and sunset OD… colorful Dreamcast days! downloading it now!

Just because someone always does this when I create threads. I’ll do it this time.

This game is a delight. So much love and so much joy there. I’m loving every single minute of it. Too bad I had to stop playing - and I played with my foot and my body as much as I did with the controller. This game is a banger. :)

For people wondering what this is, it’s like Devil May Cry, Sunset Overdrive and Guitar Hero thrown into a blender and speckled with love and references. You have the combos like in DMC or Bayonetta (including combos you can buy/unlock with the game equivalent of red skulls/rings), the overall vibe resembles Sunset Overdrive with its cartoonish graphics and colorful world, and everything is tied to the beats of the (awesome) rock soundtrack.

In short, this is a wonderful surprise and I’m pretty sure it will be one of the highlights of this year. And if games like this and Pentiment are what we should expect from Microsoft from now on, I couldn’t be happier.

I think we need to stage an intervention to get the main character of Forspoken transported into the world of Hi-Fi Rush. Everyone seems to love it there!

Played about 30 minutes of this during lunch. Seems pretty decent so far, the rhythm stuff seems implemented pretty well. There’s even a Guitar Hero-esque combo meter that fills if you consistently hit on the beat. The platforming bits so far seem a little iffy, since the jumping animation seems a little too fast IMO.

I’ve only heard one licensed song in the game (the Black Keys one in the trailer) and I’m really hoping there are more because the generic rock songs made by the developer are a little flat IMO.

Oh God no. Why would you want to ruin a good thing? No. Please. God. No.

I had a lot of fun with this last night. I played up to getting to the hideout after beating the first big boss. Basically the end of the tutorial, I think.

I hope those hint fridge guys are throughout the game, I find them hilarious.

I was initially excited by the stylish animation but as soon as I realized this is one of those “attack on the beat” rhythm games, I lost interest.

I tried to like Metal: Hellsinger and Pistol Whip also but I just find the core gameplay feels arbitrary and eventually frustrating. I can’t really tell when I’m succeeding or not. Maybe it’s the disconnect between prioritizing what you’re hearing vs. what you’re seeing. I loved Audica and all the other Harmonix games.

Oh, well! Definitely a ‘me’ thing. I wish I liked it better because the character and world design is awesome and it seems genuinely funny too.

P.S. I didn’t think that Black Keys song was the best match for the opening cinematic. Seems like it wants a different genre of music laid over it.

I’m back to Hi-Fi RUSH after playing Wo LONG and just got to the parry mechanic in chapter 3. I think this is too hard for my brain to process! I’m excited to get into it though.

I downloaded the PC version of this from Game Pass and find the implementation of the “strong attack” a little weird, especially in combos.

For instance, I see there’s a combo that calls for button presses (Xbox controller): X, Y, X, X, where X corresponds to the “light attack” and the Y to the strong. I’d interpret that as hitting the X on beat 1, the Y on beat two, not hitting any button on beat three (the character’s audible sneaker slap), then hitting the X and X on the next two beats.

But when I see the sample animation for the combo it looks like the character is doing “hit(X), sneaker slap, hit(Y), hit(X), hit(X)”. Is it that the strong attack’s animation happens on the beat following the Y button press? That might explain it.

Maybe I’m not doing the strong attack right in the first place. Am I supposed to hold down the Y for two beats or something? I thought hitting the button and waiting a beat before hitting another was sufficient for the game to parse it as the strong attack.

BTW I’ve met the Rocker GRRL and am in the hideout, having beat the first boss out of sheer bloody minded button-mashing.

You just have to experiment and figure it out. I’m not an expert. There’s some weird things with the timing windows where sometimes it gives you a longer opportunity than you’d expect.

One reliable approach is to follow the tutorial and press the next button when the character does the swipe from the previous attack.

I have been trying the game.

It’s a pity. The presentation with the cartoon art style is very good, the character are goofy in a charming way, the music is great of course, the way the rhythm applies to everything is cool, the abilities are explained at a good pace…
but do I have fun playing the game? Eh. A bit I guess. I have never been a beat’em up guy, and less one with combos, so this is a ‘me’ issue.

I’m also bad with rhythm games, and already on the part they teach me how to parry I have issues blocking and countering the lasers, lol. I know there are accessibility options to make the game easier, but giving the main gimmick is precisely playing on the beat, it kinds of defeat the purpose if I don’t try to play that way.