[VR Game Review] Beats Fever: Music/Rhythm Based Gameplay in VR

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I haven't been playing as much VR as I used to on account of how busy I've been with fixing this place up and finding roommates. But I got the chance recently to try out a rhythm game I bought on a whim ages ago, called "Beats Fever" by developer "Arrowiz".

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I was expecting something similar to DDR. It's more like those Japanese rhythm games you play on PC using your mouse, except in this case you use motion controllers. There's just a handful of stages but they're suitably impressive, such as London, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

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The music is thumping and awesome. There's an abundance of dubstep which lends itself well to this genre, but also country, classic rock and even polka. I would say it's pretty heavily unbalanced in favor of dubstep though and could use more musical variety than it has now.

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There's a faint grid of dots before you. This is a goal of sorts, which the colorful spheres representing musical notes fly towards. Your job is to not allow them to reach the goal, swatting them instead with one of your glowing...light sabers? Not quite. They resemble more the cone tipped flashlights used by airport workers to direct planes on the tarmac.

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The incoming notes are arranged such that they're more easily struck in succession if you make sweeping, stylish arm motions. Once you have a good idea of what movements you're intended to do, getting a high score on a given song becomes much easier.

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This is especially important for the long streams of pink spheres, the second type of "enemy" (obstacle?) in the game. These are like the continuous button presses in guitar hero, requiring you to trace along them with your Touch controller, following the path they indicate.

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It's somewhat basic, but no moreso than countless popular non-VR rhythm games. The meat of the gameplay is in mastering individual songs by memorization. It's currently on sale for $6, down from the normal $15. I'd actually still recommend it at full price, so buying it on sale is a no brainer. Grab it here for Oculus, and here for Vive.

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^{Stay Cozy!}