Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians
Overview -
From developer Threaks, comes 'Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians,' a side-scrolling action game that mixes a free-move water environment with soundtrack keyed-gameplay. The game was released on PC two years ago, and has been on iOS since last year.
Video Review
The art design is colorful, bright, and aquatic. The 2D seascape in the background has a classic hand-drawn look, while Beat and the other characters have a more modern, cel-shaded, cut-out feel. The video keeps up well with the audio, although there are occasionally framerate issues. The controls feel just fine after being adapted from point-and-click and touchpad schemes for the PC and iOS, respectively. The main visual issue is that draw-in tends to slow down after a restart, but the problem corrects itself after a few seconds.
Audio Review
Contributors to the soundtrack include electroswing icon Parov Stelar, chiptune pioneer Sabrepulse, and 'Journey' composer Austin Wintory, the first person to be nominated for a Grammy for a video game. Other tracks range from pure electronica to synth and new wave. The music has been integrated flawlessly into the game, and even when it's altered with percussion and horns via gameplay, still sounds amazing.
Final Thoughts
Like 'Chime' and 'Patapon', 'Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians' manages to establish a great rhythm game that still maintains engaging elements of other genres and refuses to be pigeonholed. The soundtrack is superb, the art and humor are endearing and welcoming, and the gameplay is familiar and fast-paced, though the experience as a whole is rather abbreviated. I’m glad that these little gems are making their way onto the Xbox One from other platforms, even if they are a few years old - better late than never.
