KickBeat has been announced for the PlayStation Vita over on the PlayStation Blog. It’s a music game, from Zen Studios and it has an eclectic selection of tracks and visuals that are a little different, for the genre.
Before we go any further, watch this trailer:
Right, now you know what it looks like. Did you see the bit around 1:08, just after the voice over claims they’re the guardians of all the world’s music? I bet that’s him unplugging PirateBay servers.
PlayStation has a long tradition of music games, as is pointed out by Neil Sorens in the announcement post. From Parappa the Rappa to Patapon, Sony’s audience has been tapping their buttons to the beat for years. In fact, Neil sounds like a man after my own heart, tying harder beats to Hong Kong cinema adroitly:
The first thing about KickBeat that is immediately visible is its fighting theme. If you watch the old Hong Kong kung fu movies, you’ve probably noticed that the fight choreography is heavily rhythmic. We noticed that too, and figured it would be a good theme for a beat-matching game. Combine the martial arts theme with heavy, aggressive music that goes well with punching and kicking, and you’ve got a game with a little more edge than the ones where you get jiggy to the latest autotuned pop hit (not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially with friends and/or limited sobriety).
Sony isn’t slowing down with game announcements in the run up to E3, are they?
Source: EU PS Blog
bmg_123
Looks pretty fun. Priced well and it could be a hit, looks like it should hit around the £10-15 if on PSN.
Kennykazey
It looks really good, but I don’t understand how it’s played. They have my interest though. I wonder when Zen will release Zen Pinball 2, which is more like an update for the current game and will be released on the Vita?
colossalblue
As enemies attack, you press the direction (or the button that’s in the direction) they attack from. So if two enemies attack, one from the left and one from the right, you could press left on the D-Pad and the circle button to take them both out. Could get quite complex.
Kennykazey
Hmm… sounds a bit dull to be honest. But so does Patapon’s control scheme and it’s great! Come to think about it, that sounds similar to the dance dance revolution-like games, but played with thumbs instead of feet.
bowie
colossalblue, when you put it like that it sounds like the Matrix dream sequence in Daxter. Which I recollect was quite fun.
Kivi95
ZP2 will be released within 1-2 months.
Foxhound_Solid
Liking this…
hazelam
i’m not a fan of rhythm games usually, but this looks interesting.
TSBonyman
Not for me these rhythm-action games but it looks alright at that, certainly a refreshing change from the regular scrolling prompts you see in other rhythm games.
I am quite looking forward to the Zen Pinball update though.
Sympo
Talking of Parappa.. its about time a new game was created.
gaffers101
I’m always rubbish at rhythm-action games, so I wait and see on this one.