A 90s Anime Aesthetic Hits a Technical Snag
Sometimes you see a game that just looks interesting. Whether it’s because of the art style, the gameplay, or maybe even just the soundtrack that catches your attention, just one of those things can be enough to grip a new player.
With UNBEATABLE, all three of those things grabbed me. Of course, the visuals are the first thing anyone would notice, and UNBEATABLE rocks it with a 90s era anime aesthetic. There are strong inspirations from shows like FLCL and Kill la Kill, from the aesthetic to the character design. The entire game features strong and engaging visuals, from the dramatic chase sequences that fill each chapter, to the serene sequences that are set to lo-fi beats and pack an emotional punch.
And of course these sequences are made all the more impactful because of the music behind them. UNBEATABLE’s soundtrack uses alternative and punk rock as the set list to each stage. Which is fitting as the story follows a rag tag group that is rebelling against a government that has outlawed music and enforces that law with excessive force.
Now granted, music does bring forth creatures called “Silence” which do attack people on sight, but making something so fundamentally ingrained into the human experience, like music, illegal is bound to go over poorly.
Fighting the Silence
Which is why the gameplay focuses on rebelling against that rule. You play as Beat, a pink haired girl that wakes up in this strange world with seemingly no understanding of where she is, what the rules are, or who anyone is. She first meets a young girl named Quaver, who is equally surprised to find a person that seems oblivious to where she is. The story follows these two as they rebel against the military state, and they do this by playing music.
This results in a wide variety of rhythm action sequences. The most common of these involves Beat fighting off waves of Silence that appear, as well as officers that are trying to arrest her. During these sequences, Beat is typically positioned in the center of the screen, with four bars stretched across the top and bottom of the screen on each side of her. Enemies will approach along these bars, and Beat will need to literally beat them off as they approach. There are also combat sequences that use more traditional rhythm action markers.
During these sequences, the screen moves around a lot and will focus in, and pan out, based on where the enemies are approaching from and how the music is playing. At times this can be disorienting, and it can make it difficult to follow what is going on. I’m not sure if this was intentional or if there were just some lags going on with the screen transitions.
Audio Glitches and Momentum Killers
The reason I say this is that there are several instances throughout the game where things don’t work as they should. Which unfortunately brings the conversation to UNBEATABLE’s most glaring issues. The game, music, and art are all great, but the experience has technical issues scattered throughout. There are some minor complaints regarding collision and navigating, but those are easily overlooked and aren’t the crux of the issue.
The actual issues are the bugs where the audio completely cuts out during cutscenes, or the screen going completely black as the game continues in the background (which thankfully only happened once). But for a rhythm action game, which is fundamentally a game that relies on audio design, to have sequences where the audio just doesn’t start, is incredibly frustrating. Especially since there doesn’t seem to be a chapter select option to replay sections where the audio fails.
Missing Out on the Drama
The game autosaves frequently, which is great because I never worried about losing progress, but not being able to hear random cutscenes completely kills the momentum and drama of the story. And once the cutscene ends and the autosave kicks in, then there’s no way to watch it again without searching for a playthrough online or restarting the game.
Which is incredibly disappointing because the music is great, the story is fun if not a bit chaotic, and the art style brings in that 90s anime nostalgia that I can never get enough of. I would significantly increase the score if the bugs were patched out, and maybe you’ll be fortunate enough to get through the game without these issues plaguing your playthrough.
Heart, Humour, and Catchy Pitching Machines
It’s tough because I do want to recommend UNBEATABLE to players. If you like rhythm action games and enjoy the art and soundtracks that you see, then the actual content of the game lives up to those desires. There’s plenty of passion and heart that went into making this, and I want to support it. I just want it to work, too.
The story is chaotic in the best way and the gameplay sequences have a ton of variety. Beyond the standard combat sequences, there are sections where Beat glides around on rails as she escapes from enemies, it doesn’t make much sense if you think about it but it’s fun. And there are even mini-games set to a pitching machine – like the ones in baseball – and it’s actually oddly catchy. I’ve never once imagined I would find a pitching machine catchy and they did it with UNBEATABLE.
An Impossible Vibe Held Back by Technical Static
Again, there’s heart, there’s humour, and the overall aesthetic and vibe bring back a sense of nostalgia that is impossible to beat. I just wish UNBEATABLE was smoother. Some roughness is excusable, but audio and visual glitches just detract from the experience a bit too much. The game is playable in spite of those things, but it certainly removes some of the impact.
Important Links
UNBEATABLE Crashes Onto Xbox Series X|S With Rhythm, Rebellion And Style – https://www.thexboxhub.com/unbeatable-crashes-onto-xbox-series-xs-with-rhythm-rebellion-and-style/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/UNBEATABLE/9PGHT174FZLQ
There’s a Breakout edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/unbeatable-breakout-edition/9P3JLMV4K0WW/0010
