Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Superbeat: Xonic is a music rhythm game available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store exclusively for the PS Vita with compatibility for PlayStation TV. Superbeat: Xonic has an exceptional pedigree as a music rhythm game as it is developed by Nurijoy consisting of a team founded by former employees of the South Korean developer Pentavision who created and developed the DJ Max series. Superbeat: Xonic is considered as a spiritual successor to the DJ Max series with gameplay elements based upon an arcade game called Beatcraft Cyclon released in 2014.
Those who are involved in the creation of Superbeat: Xonic must firstly be praised for actually listening to gamers as the decision to release the game exclusively on Vita was taken from fan feedback, which is rare in the current gaming climate that in some quarters decides to ignore a platform that is said to not have a big enough market share of portable gaming rather than actually speculating to accumulate; despite over 12 million gamers owning a Vita and vocally requesting that their platform be supported in equal measure. Michael Yum the CEO of PM Studios and everyone else who took such a decision to listen to gamers need to be congratulated for having a pro-gamer stance that is truly for the players.
World Tour mode comprises 14 clubs with each club consisting of multiple songs, although initially only the first song of the first club is unlocked to provide a taste of the World Tour mode which can only be completed successfully by achieving mission based conditions usually consisting of reaching a specific combo within the duration of the song, although the second and third songs of the first club are only unlocked when levels 2 and 5 are attained respectively with the second club immediately having all 3 songs unlocked to be played in any order but only upon attaining level 10 as completing an entire club will not necessarily unlock the following club, while each song within each club increases in its tier of difficulty as does every club.
Stage mode provides four unique ways to play including four trax which is a beginner mode consisting of four types of notes; six trax is a moderate mode consisting of six types of notes; six trax FX is initially locked although upon unlocking it is an advanced mode consisting of six types of notes with extra FX notes and freestyle which allows any of the unlocked tracks to be played individually at any given moment.
The Backstage area consists of dozens of unlockable items including records of the player’s best scores to statistically analyse the jud, break, max combo, score and class ranking for each song in every mode which are unlocked as progression is made through each segment of the game which is a useful feature as it allows players to gain the knowledge of the statistics they need to improve upon in order to deliver a perfect performance. There are also 127 DJ icons and 41 key sounds to essentially hear as percussion in the mix of the song such as cowbell, futuristic snare, futuristic zap, mini dog, slap cap, snare rim shot, tambourine and wood block with 14 key sounds unlocked from the beginning with the remainder of the key sounds and all 127 of the DJ icons unlocked by progressing during gameplay.
The soundtrack consists of over 45 songs including a collaboration which sees the inclusion of songs from videogame soundtracks attributed to Arc System Works such as Heavy Day from Guilty Gear Xrd with downloadable content also adding Blue Desire from Blazblue Chronophantasma Extend and Tuntun Moonlight from Magical Beat, while there are super producers who have also contributed music to the soundtrack including 3rd Coast, ND Lee and Tsukasa which comprises of such a wide variety of genres as big beat, bright fusion, dance electro, dance pop, easy listening, electro house, epic trance, gypsy jazz tech, hardcore, indie pop, jazzy pop, k-pop, piano trance, R&B, R&B medium, rock, sludge metal, symphonic step and techno pop which will collectively increase as downloadable content is released.
XP is gained during every song when a score has been achieved which progressively builds up over a period of songs until a high enough XP has been earned to attempt the following level with the importance being that specific levels are required to be attained in order to unlock new content such as clubs in World Tour mode, modes, songs or equipment.
Equipment includes DJ icons which each have their own art design to visually set them apart even going as far as to add characters from such Arc System Works series as Blazblue and Guilty Gear with every DJ icon having its own ability which provides players with gameplay perks such as an increase in XP earned per song, an increase to HP within the power gauge, a break shield providing a shield against a break note judgement, recover which provides an increase in recovery of the groove meter gauge and a fever shield which prevents a decrease in the fever gauge.
Note judgement is based upon the precision of the timing in accordance to when the note arrives at the left or right gear with perfect timing resulting in a superbeat, normal timing providing a good note judgement and a miss resulting in a break with combos taking place when superbeat note judgement is obtained consistently with larger combos leading to a higher score.
Power gauge is effectively the amount of health the player possesses, therefore when a note is successfully played it provides an increase in HP, although a break will lead to a reduction in HP which ultimately means that if all HP is lost the game will end but the player will still have the opportunity to play until the end of the song; while fever mode is engaged when the fever gauge to the top right of the touch screen is filled which acts as a points multiplier for a consistent performance throughout songs.
An excellent design choice sees all of the core gameplay elements are perfectly balanced to the point in which they all work in harmony such as how superbeat note judgement creates combos which in turn increase the possibility of simultaneously keeping the power gauge and fever gauge as full as possible, while class ratings range from F for failed increasing progressively to S++ to showcase the absolute best performance on a song as everything adds to the overall score which also accumulates towards the XP in an effort revolving around levelling up to the next level in order to progress in the World Tour mode.
The controls are well mapped to the Vita as they appropriately utilise multiple facets of the Vita’s control functionality which is impressive for a Vita exclusive to have emphasised. The face button control scheme consists of pressing triangle to play a high note, pressing O to play a mid note or pressing X to play a low note on the right gear, pressing up on the d-pad to play a high note, pressing left on the d-pad to play a mid note or pressing down on the d-pad to play a low note on the left gear. By changing the direction of the left analogue stick to play a swipe note or scratch note on the left gear or changing the direction of the right analogue stick to play a swipe note or scratch note on the right gear, pressing L to play an FX note on the left gear or pressing R to play an FX note on the right gear and pressing start to display the pause menu. However, there is a traditional control scheme missing as previous rhythm focused games centring on music or otherwise would usually have a colour coordinated control scheme by way of associating blue with the X button, green with triangle, red with O and so on but as that is not included as a default or optional control scheme it may be something players have to become accustomed to, although if the actual control scheme is not familiar it should only take a few songs to learn.
The touch screen control scheme consists of tapping the touch screen on the upper, centre or lower area of the left or right gear to play a high, mid or low note; swiping across the swipe note in the appropriate direction the arrow is pointed in on the left or right gear to play a swipe note and swiping across the continuation of the scratch note on the left or right gear to play a scratch note. The rear touch pad and gyroscopic motion sensing functionality could have been utilised by having the rear touch pad mirroring the exact touch screen control scheme such as tapping the top right of the rear touch pad when a note was on the top of the right gear, while the gyroscopic motion sensing functionality could have been implemented for tracing a scratch note.
Graphically, there are sequences set to each of the songs with the standout sequences being collaborations with such games as Guilty Gear Xrd, while there are bright and colourful backgrounds when playing a song in the easy listening genre or a genre that is lighter in tone just as a hardcore, sludge metal or heavy genre will be the opposite end of the spectrum with darker colours in their background sequences, alongside every song including a variety of note colours approaching from a distance towards the screen.
The presentation of the game is solid with a great touch screen based user interface across various menus such as the main, backstage, stage, World Tour, options and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the touch screen, d-pad and face buttons with the right analogue stick utilised to select a key sound, although there is no support for navigation via the left analogue stick and the rear touch pad. The background of the title menu consists of the title logo taking centre stage with bright lights, equalizers and shapes filling the entire screen to set the scene for the show that is about to be experienced.
Given the premise of the game, music takes the priority of the audio with a rather varied selection of genres throughout the soundtrack, while voice-overs occur upon entering a song, clearing a stage and levelling up, alongside sound effects such as a key sound which overlays the song when the note is played correctly which can also be adjusted in the mix to have a softer, natural or harder edge to the key sound in comparison to the beat of the music and a sound effect when a DJ icon has been unlocked.
The trophy list includes 33 trophies with 16 bronze, 11 silver, 5 gold and 1 platinum trophy. Easier trophies include the Don’t Give Up and F Man bronze trophies for actually failing a mission in World Tour and Stage modes respectively which just requires players to miss lots of notes, the Need More DJ bronze trophy for changing your DJ icon 20 or more times by unlocking 2 DJ icons and switching back and forth until it has been changed enough times. The Hard Life bronze trophy is attained for completing any song on hard difficulty level regardless of score, ranking or success and The Beginner bronze trophy for achieving DJ level 2. Harder trophies include the Xonic Maestro gold trophy for achieving DJ level 99; the All Round Player gold trophy for clearing all patterns for all songs; the Master Combo silver trophy for achieving a 99,999 combo; and the Expert DJ, Superior DJ and Master DJ silver trophies for obtaining an S++ overall ranking in the 4 trax, 6 trax and 6 trax FX modes respectively. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 20 to 25 hours to platinum the trophy list.
There are a variety of customisable factors to the difficulty which is an excellent design choice as it caters to newcomers that want to find their way into the game with not too much challenge initially and players who have played music rhythm games for years that definitely want a challenge as there are 3 difficulty levels including easy, normal and hard with the major differences being the number of bonus points earned from the fever mode multiplier and the amount of time it takes the power gauge to recover. The hard difficulty level has a risk and reward factor as it massively increases the amount of XP earned as it simultaneously makes it more difficult as the power gauge recovers extremely slowly, although there is also a difficulty rating for each song within any mode and each club within World Tour mode which ranges between 1 and 12 as the songs gradually increase in their complexity. Speed options range from a minimum speed of 0.5 to a maximum speed of 5.0 including steady increases in speed of 0.5 in between with 0.5 resulting in notes approaching rather slowly which provide a greater window of opportunity to play each note, while 5.0 sees the notes approaching thick and fast, barely without a moment to spare, therefore 5.0 significantly increases the difficulty of even the easiest difficulty level and songs.
The online leaderboards focuses on the best scores for the 4 trax, 6 trax, 6 trax FX, freestyle and World Tour modes, whilst players can compare their positioning on the leaderboards with players locally and globally as well as showing an improvement in ranking upon the most recent attempt and immediately finding and displaying the position within any given leaderboard with each leaderboard containing each player’s nationality, rank, DJ icon, level, name (PSN ID) and best score with the leaderboard positioning determined by the best score set which is an appropriate filter, although it would have been better if there was an additional filter for the highest levels that had been attained by gaining the most overall XP.
There is no local or online competitive or co-operative multiplayer which is surprising as there could have been a pass the Vita local multiplayer component in which two to eight players would compete to set the best scores on an individual song or a collection of songs, while competitive multiplayer could have also extended to ad-hoc multiplayer and online multiplayer, although there could have also been a dedicated local co-operative multiplayer experience on the same Vita by presenting the background sequences and the approaching notes length ways as a player utilises one half of the touch screen and the d-pad to play notes on the left gear and the other player using the other half of the touch screen and the face buttons to play notes on the right gear in co-operation through a single song or a series of songs.
The only further improvement beyond the inclusion of multiplayer components would be the ability to effectively have custom tracks or some form of track editor by uploading songs to the player’s own Vita and experiencing the music rhythm gameplay with an infinite range of songs in any genre prefered to do so within any of the stage modes or perhaps even a customised World Tour mode which is certainly a major feature to be hopefully considered for a future game.
The replayability stems from a variety of areas including earning XP and levelling up, customisable difficulty including three difficulty levels, song difficulty levels and speed options, class ratings to gauge performances ranging from F to S++, online leaderboards to provide a competitive edge, plenty of unlockable content, multiple game modes and an extensive amount of songs which is complimented by a variety of percussion sound effects which collectively provides extensive replay value for dozens of hours.
Overall, Superbeat: Xonic will fulfil the wishes of music rhythm genre fans craving a new music rhythm game on Vita and as the songs are usually around two minutes each in length it has a great pick up and play style which can transcend into as long a gaming session as players want to enjoy which is a huge plus point given how Superbeat: Xonic provides exceptional quality throughout every feature as one of the best music rhythm games not just on the Vita but of all time.
Jason Bonnar
Analysis
- Title: Superbeat: Xonic
- Developer: Nurijoy
- Publisher: Rising Star Games (Europe)/PM Studios, Atlus and Acttil (America)/Arc System Works (Japan)
- System: PS Vita
- Format: PS Vita Card/PSN Download
- Cross-Buy: No
- Cross-Play: No
- Players: 1 (Online Leaderboards)
- Memory Card Space Required: 1MB (PS Vita Card)/2.8GB (PSN Download)