I?ve been pacing back in forth in my mind on how to write this review, to make it good, readable, and, well, long. There is just no easy way to go about this, especially with my lack of experience writing reviews. Experience takes time and practice as I?ve been told.
So, let?s look at casual games; games that you can pick up in a few seconds and put down just as quickly. It is often known as the type of games for busy people that don?t have the time or desire to take the time to be immersed in the story and characters of regular games. It's usually fun and fights off boredom, like most music games, but not all are like RockBand which allows you to create a band with each band member having their different styles and unique names created by the player and being able to further set a career, which can eat your life away. Don?t get me wrong, casual games themselves can be extremely addicting and eat your life away slowly, but there is a difference between a ?real? game and a ?casual? game is like to a novel and a one-shot comic strip at the very end of the newspaper that are usually one frame of a single event making a political joke or a one-shot web comic (if those even exist). Novels require the audience to immerse themselves in the story like a ?real? game, while a one-shot comic strip is there for a single laugh, and if one likes it enough you can save, add, or cut out that comic strip to your collection of other shit you?ve liked in the past and most likely only went back to once every, I don?t know, millennia?
Beat Hazard, a music themed casual game developed by ShadowRage and published by ValuSoft, which was released on July 5, 2011, is that kind of game. I also hesitate calling this a rhythm game, which Wikipedia, but not Steam, has decided to categorize this game, because it?s nothing like DJ Max, Rhythm Heaven, Theatrhythm, or Rhythm Thief. It plays music yes, but what rhythm is it following if it is following any at all? The music plays in the background, the consistency and ?strength? of the fire power on your ship depends on the loudness of the music. The enemy ships come in by the beat per minute of the song. The louder the music, it seems the more consistent the firing, which volume increase power up in Beat Hazard is fairly important (I think, sometimes it doesn?t seem to do anything other than increase the volume of the music) . Power upgrades increase how much fire power the ship has, so you can start with only 2 guns on board then end at max power with 4 or 6 guns (I think). It is more like a bullet hell shooter game or just plain shooter games like Raiden or Space Invaders, except it doesn?t side scroll. The game starts with the ship right in the center, and the enemies aren?t in a straight army like line in front, but come at you from all sides. Not all of the enemies fire at you either, some are just asteroids or junk that glows as if it has a ticking bomb in the middle and will explode if it hits your ship. You hold the left mouse button to shoot, move the cursor to aim, and AWSD to move the ship.
I love Raiden and Space Invaders, they are classics like Tetris. I?m on a ship, never asking why I?m on a ship or who I am fighting while single-handedly destroying the enemy?s army/base while dodging bullets makes me feel so epic. Maybe music games are very different from rhythm games, which is a genre of games about timing that follows the beat of the music, in which case you can turn off the volume and play this game just fine by eye, but the point is (IN MY OPINION) to get the timing right by ear (at least that is how I play). Instead, Beat Hazard is attempting to take the mountain of money rhythm games make, or provide a music game for those who are inept at following rhythm, like the people who can?t dance because they can?t ?feel? the rhythm/beat. Maybe it?s just me being too picky about things, but I highly doubt I am the only Rhythm game loving gamer to be confused by Beat Hazard.
So, let?s look at casual games; games that you can pick up in a few seconds and put down just as quickly. It is often known as the type of games for busy people that don?t have the time or desire to take the time to be immersed in the story and characters of regular games. It's usually fun and fights off boredom, like most music games, but not all are like RockBand which allows you to create a band with each band member having their different styles and unique names created by the player and being able to further set a career, which can eat your life away. Don?t get me wrong, casual games themselves can be extremely addicting and eat your life away slowly, but there is a difference between a ?real? game and a ?casual? game is like to a novel and a one-shot comic strip at the very end of the newspaper that are usually one frame of a single event making a political joke or a one-shot web comic (if those even exist). Novels require the audience to immerse themselves in the story like a ?real? game, while a one-shot comic strip is there for a single laugh, and if one likes it enough you can save, add, or cut out that comic strip to your collection of other shit you?ve liked in the past and most likely only went back to once every, I don?t know, millennia?
Beat Hazard, a music themed casual game developed by ShadowRage and published by ValuSoft, which was released on July 5, 2011, is that kind of game. I also hesitate calling this a rhythm game, which Wikipedia, but not Steam, has decided to categorize this game, because it?s nothing like DJ Max, Rhythm Heaven, Theatrhythm, or Rhythm Thief. It plays music yes, but what rhythm is it following if it is following any at all? The music plays in the background, the consistency and ?strength? of the fire power on your ship depends on the loudness of the music. The enemy ships come in by the beat per minute of the song. The louder the music, it seems the more consistent the firing, which volume increase power up in Beat Hazard is fairly important (I think, sometimes it doesn?t seem to do anything other than increase the volume of the music) . Power upgrades increase how much fire power the ship has, so you can start with only 2 guns on board then end at max power with 4 or 6 guns (I think). It is more like a bullet hell shooter game or just plain shooter games like Raiden or Space Invaders, except it doesn?t side scroll. The game starts with the ship right in the center, and the enemies aren?t in a straight army like line in front, but come at you from all sides. Not all of the enemies fire at you either, some are just asteroids or junk that glows as if it has a ticking bomb in the middle and will explode if it hits your ship. You hold the left mouse button to shoot, move the cursor to aim, and AWSD to move the ship.
I love Raiden and Space Invaders, they are classics like Tetris. I?m on a ship, never asking why I?m on a ship or who I am fighting while single-handedly destroying the enemy?s army/base while dodging bullets makes me feel so epic. Maybe music games are very different from rhythm games, which is a genre of games about timing that follows the beat of the music, in which case you can turn off the volume and play this game just fine by eye, but the point is (IN MY OPINION) to get the timing right by ear (at least that is how I play). Instead, Beat Hazard is attempting to take the mountain of money rhythm games make, or provide a music game for those who are inept at following rhythm, like the people who can?t dance because they can?t ?feel? the rhythm/beat. Maybe it?s just me being too picky about things, but I highly doubt I am the only Rhythm game loving gamer to be confused by Beat Hazard.