The days of peripheral-based rhythm games and furious fret action on plastic guitars might be far behind us, but the rhythm and music game revival is in full swing. Hi-Fi Rush, the surprise rhythm game adventure from the same studio that brought you Evil Within, is one of the highest-rated releases on Xbox this year, and there’s an ever-growing list of titles such as the rhythm-based beat ‘em up God of Rock and jazz-inspired puzzler The Forest Quartet fusing rhythm elements with other genres or building music-focussed narrative experiences.
Things are particularly busy in the best VR games space, with the Quest’s motion controllers creating a new generation of virtual drummers, dancers, and beat slashers through Smash Drums, Dance Central VR, and Beat Saber. In 2020, Sega and Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Space Channel 5 series was revived after a 20-year slumber as a VR title, so it was perhaps inevitable that Sega would eventually invite its maracas-slinging monkeys to join the fun.
