Saturday, December 15, 2018

Akihabara - Feel the Rhythm Remixed (Nintendo Switch) Review


You a fan of puzzle games and want to go to Japan but can't afford to?  Well, I can't help you there.  What I can help you with is by telling you whether or not that this game is any good.  What game am I talking about? It's a puzzle game that's set in Japan.  This is Akihabara - Feel the Rhythm Remixed for the Nintendo Switch.  Yup, this is also a stand alone updated version of Akihabara as well (the game, not the place).  This is quite a risky move but will it be worth it?  (Click on "Read More" to read the full article).







Story

N/A




Gameplay

This is a puzzle game where you arrange falling shapes into groups, then you clear them for points.  Well that sounds simple, right?  Well there's a bit more to the game than that, you gotta group the shapes into four or five (depending on the games difficulty) and it doesn't matter if they are connected vertically or horizontally.  You can have two horizontal shapes connected with two vertical shapes if you want.  Once you have that chain then you can connect more single pieces of the same shape to create an even bigger chain.  The real kicker is that the chains don't clear automatically, you've got an extra button to clear the blocks manually.

Guess what?  There's STILL more to it!  For you see there's a line that will scan the field and when you have a chain, the blocks will turn grey and when the line crosses a grey block, then you can hit the clear button to clear the blocks.  It's still not that simple, you've gotta hit the clear button at the right time.  You'll get some big beefy bonus points if you did it right.  The clearing won't erase all of the grey blocks at once, the field is made up of sections.  If those blocks were connected to blocks in another section but still in that same chain, they'll still stay grey.  You can choose to clear them when you want to.  Hitting the clear button at the right time will also add stuff to a bar that's on the left side of the screen.  When this bar is full, you can hit another button that will give you a bomb piece that will clear blocks without needing to hit the clear button.

Phew! There's a lot going on in this game but...  THERE'S STILL MORE!  There is a goal in this game other than earning a high score, there's three different campaigns full of stages and the way to beat them is by surviving them.  Each campaign is made up of a time limit because they are also full album and each level is a track from those said albums.  You can play the tracks by themselves but you'll need to unlock them by playing though them during the campaigns.  

As full and complicated as I make the game out to be, it isn't, it's really simple and easy to get the hold of.  The system works and I did have fun, however the campaigns aren't very difficult and I had no trouble beating them.  The controls are also really simple and smooth, if you've played any puzzle game of this type before, you shouldn't have any problem adapting.

The only real problem is if you tried to complete a super crazy ultra combo and failed miserably (that happened to me) or if you have little patience.  The reason why I mention patience is that two of the campaigns run for half an hour, the other campaign goes for fifth-teen minutes.  I didn't have any reason to go back to the game after I had beaten all three campaigns, not even to top my old score.  This is one of those games where it goes back on the shelf (digital shelf in this case) only to collect dust before I want to replay it.

The main differences between this version and the regular version is that the game plays much differently.  The original version didn't drop two blocks at a time, it dropped four.  All of the campaigns are also unlocked in this version and being able to use your own music files has been cut as well.  I'm sure that there are more differences than the ones that I had mentioned but those are the obvious ones.  You can still buy the original version via Steam if you want to have both editions for the completionist experience (I'm not talking about the hairy one, or the original but less popular one either) but honestly, this version is enough.




Graphics

The graphics are clean but basic and I do like how the shapes and backgrounds change when a new song begins.  The only other graphic that you'll find is a mascot, in the form of a cute but slightly cheap looking anime/manga girl.  Animation isn't anything mind-blowing but it doesn't need to be, it only needs a consistent and easy to follow animation and that's what this game has.




Sound

Now here's one of the vital elements of the game.  If the music in this game isn't good, it ruins what this game is meant to be. Well, that's what this game makes itself out to be.  The music in this game is full of EDM AKA Electronic Death Metal (kidding).  Yeah, I know that "EDM" means Electronic Dance Music and this game is sure full of it (wait.  I already said that).  Most of the music isn't bad and does have a fun sound although I wasn't a fan of the music found in the second campaign.  The beat of the music doesn't go with the manual block clearing element what so ever.  Like I had said earlier, you gotta hit the clear button at a certain time.  Does this out of beat button pressing ruin the experience?  No! Not what so ever.  




Overall, this game has its moments but it soon becomes a very standard puzzle game that's good to whip out every few months.  I'm giving this game a 6 out of 10.


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