I will not lie to you, Rhythm Games pretty much died with Rock Band. At the time, Rock Band and Guitar Hero were dominating the music game market with the clever creation of game controllers turned musical instruments. However, just because the two powerhouses died a few years ago, this does not mean people try to keep the genre alive. Zen Studios has created a new take on the rhythm game genre with Kickbeat Steam Edition. The game was previously released on consoles but the release on Steam has additional content compared to the previous release. Having never played the console version I did play this game with a controller to see what it was like.

All of the world’s music is contained in a sphere. The one who controls the sphere, controls all the music that has been made, and will be made throughout all eternity. There are people in the world who wish to gain control of the sphere, that is why there is an ancient order of kung-fu masters protecting the orb from anyone who wishes to gain its power. Times are changing, and technology is growing, the temple where the Music Sphere is located is invaded by the most powerful man in all of media entertainment. Now his radio is the only one with music, it is up to a young man and woman to stop this greedy business man.

While the story is not great, it is not bad either. It reminds me of a Netflix movie, relatively charming, but not winning any awards. Besides, this is a kung-fu driven music game, the story is going to reflect that novelty, and that is possibly the best part about it. The game has two story modes, one with Lee and one with Mei. Mei is the romance character in the story and the game plays similar, just has different character models and some different songs etc.

Read the full review: http://brokenanalog.com/?p=44057