“For me, rhythm games are also much more of a casual thing” “The blue note design is a pretty good example of trying to hit in that action, where the down and up is kind of like in Devil May Cry when you do a launcher and then juggle the enemy that’s thrown up in the air,” adds Chiao. While the team is aware of the feedback and aims to balance it, those elements are still very much intentional. Instead of just watching oncoming notes to hit on cue, you might also be avoiding others by hitting the opposite button, while more devious are blue notes that need a 1-2 combo follow-up. That approach has, incidentally, thrown some players for a loop. “I think what was the initial accepted draft that we built with was something along the lines of One Finger Death Punch, which is not actually a rhythm game.” “We wanted to draft a rhythm system that felt like playing an action combat game akin to a PlatinumGames title,” says Jeffrey Chiao, the game’s producer and level designer. But then because there’s only two buttons to pay attention to, we can throw a lot more at the player without them feeling overwhelmed, which means our songs can be mapped in a much more complex way.”Įven though Unbeatable’s songs are played to note charts typical of the genre, the team actually took their cue from action games, which can be seen with how the buttons correspond to the visuals as Beat attacks, dodges, or combos different notes.
“Cutting it to two buttons made it way more approachable if you have no idea what a rhythm game is or how rhythm games are supposed to play. “That version was four buttons, and what we actually found was, ironically, that made the game too easy for the people who were really into rhythm games but too hard for anyone who was coming in new,” explains RJ Lake, Unbeatable’s writer and music supervisor. The format, which had one fan dubbing it “street-style Taiko,” went through some iteration since the project first materialized with a public demo at 2019’s MAGFest, as the developer D-Cell Games explained to me over Discord. As pink-haired protagonist Beat, players use just two buttons to hit oncoming enemies and objects much like notes approaching on top and bottom lanes from either the left and right. Unbeatable may have aesthetics inspired by Japanese rhythm games, where in the arcades they are known either for peripherals or for demanding intimidating dextrous feats, but its inputs are much simpler. But as the trailer for its successful Kickstarter shows, it’s also part of a new wave of indie rhythm games, alongside early access title Rhythm Doctor, where accessibility is at the forefront.
Wrapped in turn-of-the-millennium influences in both its anime and rock aesthetic, it looks like a game from the Dreamcast era, with its tagline calling it “a game where music is illegal and you do crimes” recalling the youthful rebellious spirit of Jet Set Radio. From the trailer’s opening, with its striking, pastel-colored anime visuals, loud rock guitar riffs, and energetic vocals, Unbeatable looks and sounds incredible.
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