Superbeat: Xonic Review

A spiritual successor to the DJ Max series, Superbeat: Xonic has been created by many of the same team, who now go by the name of Nurijoy. Subtle, their game is not, with ridiculous upbeat music to play with, flashy visuals, and wide eyed anime characters.

As with any rhythm action game, the aim is simply to tap in time with the on screen beats, using either the touchscreen or the buttons on the PS Vita. In a twist on the usual top to bottom presentation, beats emerge from the centre of the screen and zoom out to the edge of a circle, for you to try and match your timing.

Adding a little more spice, you also have to hold and “scratch” longer notes, by sliding your finger up the screen or twiddling the joysticks. Using the buttons and sticks actually seemed to be a lot harder than just tapping along, and it actually made for a nice change of pace to be using the PS Vita’s touchscreen for once. Then again, I did find the touch controls slightly inaccurate, although this may be because I have hands the size dinner plates.

Each song is accompanied by generic, but not distracting, visuals, and occasional cute anime art. Complete a song and you will be grade, earning you XP which will level up your character, unlocking new songs, DJ profile icons, and extra in game gubbins. These give you nominal boosters, but to be honest they are not much of an incentive to keep playing; some new background visuals might have been a better idea.

Superbeat-IL1

Beat matching games are hardly revolutionary but Superbeat: Xonic tries it’s best to innovate with a number of game modes. 4TRAX uses just four areas on the screen with ten possible beats to match, whilst 6TRAX adds a middle beat zone, and there are further iterations on that play style. There is also a “World Tour” mode in with levels linked to famous superclubs such as London’s Fabric and Space in Ibiza. To progress through these you must achieve a specific win condition, like managing to pull off a 60 hit chain.

Flash visuals and grinning anime characters aside, Superbeat: Xonic was only ever going to succeed if it had a decent selection of music. This being a small game made in Korea, you probably won’t recognise any of the artists but that’s not say the songs are rubbish. In fact, if you like bouncy, thumping dance music and cheeky K-pop then you will be in heaven. Some of the tracks aren’t in English, but they only last for a couple of minutes if that matters to you

I’m really impressed at just how good some of the songs are, they are well produced and incredibly catchy, ranging from slow chill out piano tracks to full on dance floor fillers with wub wubs a-go-go. They cover plenty of musical genres, including pop, house, R&B, easy listening, trance, and even “Gypsy Jazz Tech”, which I think they made up. Of course, there has to be a couple of duff tracks, and one or two sound like rejects from a Final Fantasy intro movie, but the overall quality and range of songs is excellent.

Whilst the first few tracks of the game are rather easy to master, the difficulty ramps up very quickly and some of the faster paced trance tracks are ridiculously complicated, even in 4TRAX mode. That said, when you do master the tunes it does give the feeling that you are actually “playing” the songs. “Collaboration” by Newton even has ‘hands in the air’ moment, in which you have to press and hold the top two tracks as the song kicks in full force.

What’s Good:

  • Superb selection of tunes.
  • Touch and analogue controls.
  • Pure rhythm action gameplay.
  • Perky presentation.

What’s Bad:

  • Difficulty spikes quickly.
  • Could have done with more visual FX.
  • Limited game modes.

Playing Superbeat: Xonic is like going to a nightclub and being force fed Haribo Tangfastics whilst hooked up to an intravenous drip of Moutain Dew. It’s really enjoyable if, like me, you like a good thumping dance tune and a bit of K-pop. Superbeat is a welcome addition to the dwindling PlayStation Vita library and one that will keep you entertained for many train journeys to come.

Score: 8/10

4 Comments

  1. As soon as I read “Perky presentation”, I thought “Tuffcub review?!” and was happy to know it was. :D

    • It took you all the way to the bottom of the review before you realised that?

  2. Superbeat: Xonic is a nice unexpected surprise for the Vita.I was looking forward to Persona 4: Dancing all Night to fill my rhythm game quota this year, but was very disappointed with the music selection for it. Though the background visuals are lackluster on Xonic, on the audio department the game delivers some of the best tunes to hit rhythm games since DJ Maxx on the PSP. The idea for the controls are neat, and make good use of the Vita’s touch screen. However, I have to agree with the review that it’s hard to hit the right spot, the devs could have made the touch region a bit more forgiving. Anywhere inside the ring is a miss, and it’s very easy to slip your fingers there. This doesn’t happen with the buttons+direction pad, but this is not really how this game was meant to be played. However, this is a small issue with an overall great game. If you’re still deciding between Xonic and P4: Dancing all Night, I’d recommend Xonic at any moment. If you’re still wondering, watch some Youtube gameplay videos for both games to see which music style fits your tastes better. I did it and don’t regret it :).

  3. I have the physical edition pre-ordered as I’ve been looking forward to this so much. This years Vita Rhythm games have been amazing between this, P4D (which I have to say is fun but the music hasn’t ingrained in me) , Taiko No Tetsujin V and IA/VT which I don’t think will come out of Japan anytime soon. There’s also Miracle Girls Festival coming next month to round off the amazing 2015 of Vita Rhythm. Love love love it.

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