Hi-Fi Rush was easily one of the surprise hits of 2023, which just so happened to be one of the best years for game releases collectively. Despite not having the immediate chance to experience the latest creation by Tango Gameworks due to Xbox exclusivity, Microsoft’s recent announcement of PS5 support has finally enabled us to dive into this excellent rhythm-focused action game. And by no surprise, it’s just as enthralling as it ever was, and an essential title for those looking for a hyper-stylish experience.
The game focuses on a wannabe rockstar by the name of Chai, a young man with a non-functional right arm who arrives at the Vandelay Industries campus to join a scheme to replace his arm with a robotic prototype. Inadvertently, a music player finds its way into Chai’s surgical procedure machine, embedding itself into his chest, resulting in him sharing a musical relationship with the world around him. This mishap then causes him to be branded a defect, resulting in a fun narrative focused on his attempts to evade his pursuers and put a stop to some corporate shenanigans.
The overarching plot of Hi-Fi Rush is enhanced by some truly spectacular writing. This is mostly evidenced through the game’s dialogue, which is often fourth-wall-breaking, full of comedic one-liners, and occasionally thought-provoking when it decides to provide a layer of commentary regarding the entire concept of video games. Chai’s role as the game’s protagonist further exemplifies the strength of Hi-Fi Rush’s writing, as he’s both a charming and amusing character. The supporting cast is also similar in this regard, with some excellent voice performances across the board.
Chai’s musical connection to the world is the framework for the game’s mechanics, being entirely centred around attacking enemies to the beat of the music. Although this may seem overwhelming for those unfamiliar with rhythm games, Tango Gameworks has taken lengths to make sure mechanics are introduced at a nice pace, meaning you never feel like you’re being thrown into the deep end. At the end of a combat segment, you are graded based on your performance and ability to perfectly time attacks to the beat. This is subsequently exchanged into a points system, which then calculates your overall score for the stage upon completion.
Despite this, sometimes inputs don’t seem to register as intended, especially during stages that have unpredictable rhythmic patterns. This for the most part, is a minor inconvenience at best, though it can easily become frustrating when tons of enemies are thrown at you in quick succession. Nevertheless, there are remedies to this issue, with an option to view the timing of the beat with a simple press of the Dualsense touchpad button. This makes the musical compositions on harder stages easier to read, as you have a direct reference for when you should be pressing a button.
Speaking of stages, Hi-Fi Rush boasts twelve unique levels, each with their own aesthetic, combat scenarios, and of course, musical tracks. The earlier stages have an emphasis on introducing you to basic gameplay mechanics such as attacking on beat, but as you progress through the game, you learn about dodging, parrying, and other useful tools to help you take full advantage of the music-focused combat system.
The combat itself is versatile, too. Your options, like previously mentioned, are expanded when you start to learn more about Chai’s move set, but there’s a lot more you can work with. Hi-Fi Rush features a bespoke upgrade system in the form of an upgrade shop run by Peppermint, one of the supporting characters. This allows you to spend gears obtained in stages to purchase new attack combos, special moves, and assign passive abilities using chips. The shop is in different locations during stages, and in the hideout between missions, a hub-like area that also allows you to pet the game’s robotic cat named 808 – how adorable!
Equally important to the overall gameplay experience is Hi-Fi Rush’s presentation, which is full of glamour, and we’d consider it to be one of the most visually impressive games we’ve ever played. The cel-shaded art style, combined with the music-focused environmental design, results in a game that can present itself flawlessly in a hyper-stylish manner. Everything in a stage, whether that’s an object, decoration, or enemy – will move or behave in conjunction with the beat. Moreover, you can use your surroundings as another way to detect whether you’re timing inputs correctly.
Unsurprisingly, a game with such a strong presence of music results in a truly excellent soundtrack. The music of Hi-Fi Rush is varied throughout its roughly 12-hour runtime, containing an assortment of both original and licensed music. Each stage utilises music differently, constantly switching up the tempo when reaching certain checkpoints, or when encountering one of the game’s many boss fights.
The bosses in Hi-Fi Rush are incredibly engaging, too, offering an extra layer of challenge compared to the main stages. They are usually thrown in towards the end of a level, forcing you to use your knowledge of the core gameplay mechanics to achieve victory. Unlike normal combat scenarios, the bosses will usually invoke some sort of gimmick within the fight, ensuring that they stand apart from the normal enemies you’ve seen countless times before.
Conclusion
Hi-Fi Rush is a gorgeous rhythm-action game with a strong cast of characters, addictive gameplay, and an incredible musical score. The game has a ton of replayability with the way it's structured, allowing you to improve your timings to perform better in the game’s rhythmic combat. This is an essential title for PS5 owners, and we’re glad Xbox has allowed us to finally experience it.
Comments 65
IMO the best game from internal Xbox studios this gen. Had tons of fun with it.
It shows how great Xbox games are as well
So a higher score than Spider-Man 2?
Sounds an interesting concept - let’s hope the idea of game sharing continues 👍
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Downloaded and ready to play at midnight,hope it's as good as it looks as rhythm games are favourite genre
Definitely the one that's most up my alley from the four Xbox games coming over. Instantly looked like a special game when it was first shown so I'm happy to be able to play it on PS5. Good stuff Tango Gameworks!
I don't have time to fit this in between Rebirth, Ronin, Stellar and Dogma but I'm sure I'll pick it up someday on a deep sale.
I have been confused between this game and High on Life, since both games dropped on Xbox at the same time. Why publishers seem to always release similar titled games right next to each other I’ll never know. It’s not quite as egregious as The Outer Worlds and Outer Wilds, but still, as an outsider I didn’t know High on Life and Hi Fi Rush were two very different Xbox exclusives. 😄
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N.i.c.e. thats good to hear.hi fi rush does look amazing.more x box games is welcome.word up son
Played this on gamepass and loved it so much I considered buying it but held off...
When it was announced for ps5, the thought of the haptics with the rhythm was enough to get me to buy it. Can't wait til it unlocks later.
I tried this on Xbox and honestly don't get the hype wasn't for me at all.
Not for me. I'm sure I will be buying an Xbox game on PS5 at some point, but haven't be interested so far. The Outer Worlds 2 would be day one.
Played and beat the game on Steam last summer, absolutely loved it.
Didn’t think I’d get to play another Tango Gameworks gem. Can’t wait to give this a go!
Played it on Xbox and it is fantastic. Loved every minute of it and it deserves this score and the praise it gets IMO.
A shame it's going to get over shadowed by Rise of the Ronin and Dragons Dogma 2. Good week for releases in general though with Alone in the Dark and Princess Peach also releasing this week, surely it would of done better releasing next month.
Love this game. My GOTY last year. Excited to replay on PS5 and go for the practically impossible platinum.
@Skeletor85 I agree, I played an hour and half last year and I just felt underwhelmed by it and couldn't get into the rhythm based combat. I hope Tango move on from indie level games and make The Evil Within 3 next.
Best Xbox game this gen. By that I mean a decent 9/10 fun experience that does not take itself too seriously. Definitely enjoyed it while it lasted.
But yeah, not a GOTY material (not every game has to be though).
LOVED this game on PC. It's a breath of fresh air to games. Did a replay of it recently and it still had all the charm. Highly recommended.
@Hamst88 It's better video game.
Loved practically all aspects about this game. Characters, story, design all superb. Only negative was that fighting by the beat felt awkward and offbeat, despite having played things like pistol whip, beat saber, metal gunslinger, patapon and a whole lot of rock band back in the days.
@IslandLogic I was going to reply with the same comment
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@MrMagic a good in between pallet cleanser that you can finish in 1-2 sittings.
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Good for Tango! Must have been hard for them for their game to have such little fanfare in their own country
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I pre-ordered even though I won't play it until I'm done with Rebirth which means at least another couple weeks, maybe more.
I'm very confident I'll like it and it was 10% off for pre-orders though.
My jaw hit the floor when I heard Joy Formidable on the soundtrack during my first playthrough on XSX. Was so awesome to hear such a niche band in a relatively high-profile game.
Hi-Fi Rush rocks; just play it!
This game easily became an all time favorite. One of those games where its like the devs read my mind, saw a bunch of things I like and made a game out of those thoughts. Can't wait to see what else tango puts out
Anyone know if XBOX will release physical games on PlayStation (as they did with Minecraft)? Would love to have this game on disc.
@ThaBEN Limited Run Games is making the physical copies
It's a 10/10 for me, one of my favorite games last year.
@ThaBEN Limited Run Games is making a physical copy for PS5!
Played on PC and will get on PS5 asap, my plate is a bit full atm
Looking forward to this! Apparently this game was very hard to get all the GS on Xbox, one site had it rated 10/10 difficulty. So trophy hunters like myself best be on notice! That said, I plan to have a lot of fun with this, regardless of whether I get all the trophies or not.
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Absolutely loved this game on Steam Deck and looking forward to replaying on PS5. Will be a while though as I still have multiple games to finish
PS4 version available?
@tameshiyaku Yeah it probably is a decent pallet cleanser but I prefer not to move on to a different game until I finish the one I'm playing and unfortunately this one is just low priority for me due to personal taste.
The game looks fantastic and it's up my alley so I will be buying it tomorrow! keep bringing them great games over here Microsoft 👌
I'd like a demo as got no rhythm and need to see if can actually play it properly 😂. It looks good though. The only 1 of the 4 that are locked into come to playstation that I'm actually interested in
So I've obviously heard people praising this game and there was a lot of excitement about it going multiplatform but until I read this article I absolutely thought this was a racing game.
@rusty82 you dont really need to be bang on with the rhythms you can kinda just fight and not be punished for it. At least on normal difficulty. Rhythm games aren't my thing but gave it a shot on gamepass and enjoyed it although still need to complete it IV too many games lol 🤣 but it's decent and the rhythm aint too important 🙂
Now...need Sunset Overdrive! Please! With VR support, btw!
@MomsSpaghetti I finished it during my GP trial and I regretted it. I wanted to see if it ever got back to the highs of that first NIN boss fight, but it didn't.
This review was eye-opening to me, though, because I thought the writing was terrible and the characters were incredibly irritating. I've always been really confused by the high praise this game gets, and discovering that some people actually like the writing helps explain it!
Still very weird to see Xbox Games on PS Systems.
I honestly wanted to play this game so badly but don’t have an Xbox so it’s great that someway somehow it found its way to PLAYSTATION (:
I tried it on xbox gamepass back then, when I still have my xbox series console, it's a good game but I don't like it's a rhythm game.
I bought hi-fi rush on sale on the Xbox and was excited to play it. I beat the first boss, quit to the menu and never had the urge to play again. Just found it to be annoying with ok combat and bad platforming.
@Player_1_Ready you again? Xbox dust smoker
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Played this on GP but tbh didn't understand the fuzz about it. But to each his own
@Rangers420 It's OK. I know the internet seems like there are no opinions and only facts but you are allowed your own opinion. Just you though. No one else is allowed an opinion for the rest of March now.
Glad others get to play it, but I never went back after chapter 3 myself, I didnt find the writting or characters good at all.
Interesting to read elsewhere how much duelsense functionality adds to the game, as I always thought that level of feedback would suit this gameplay. I dont agree with the review score myself, but I dont come to push for reviews as I rarely agree with them and they are far too short and usually miss important information that their peers actually cover.
@kazuyamushima hey, games are games. i just wish sonys studios would make something .
Played this on Gamepass on PC last yar and had a great time with it though it took me a while to get into the flow of it. So happy to see it on Playstation now!
@kedireturns I didn't get chance to mention it in the review properly, but there's some good use of the haptic feedback on the controller.
This was my absolute favourite game of last year. I'm so glad it will now get a wider audience. It deserves to be played by everyone.
@MrMagic I paused Rebirth in chapter 4 and and currently on level 5 of 12 in Hi-Fi…hoping to finish it and turn FF7R prior to Stella Blade. Gonna pass on Ronin and Dogma at the moment.
Love this game, it is very addictive, I hope we get more Xbox games on PlayStation, and hopefully Sony will put some on Xbox as well, looking forward to playing pentiment next, and I'll probably get grounded when it's released, hoping for the gears of war games to come to PlayStation sometime as well.
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