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Mastiff strikes again. After securing publishing rights for La Pucelle, the company has moved into the budget gaming scene with the super-cheap release of Gungrave: Overdose. It has followed that up with the release of Arika’s sub-$20 strangely unique rhythm game.
As with any decent rhythm game, Technic Beat includes a number of dance songs to get you in the mood but also over 30 classic game themes from past years including remixes of Namco’s Pacmania and Dig Dug, among many others. The videogame themes have been remixed in the “danceclub” flavor so they fit in with the rest of the game.
As beginning difficulty levels, the gameplay is quite simple. In a gist, what you’re trying to do is time two circles, which appear with the music, to hit each other at exactly the same time. The game allows your character to move around to set up a perfect location for this action. The game’s higher difficulty levels increase the complexity of aligning these circles, and forces you to make sure you form combos by forcing a number of consecutive collisions. They also force you to be pretty familiar with the songs since hesitating isn’t an option in this fast-paced game. Aside from simple moving around, the game also allows you trigger all of the circles in a certain area with a special move, for truly difficult situations.
The game includes a number of slight variations to the formula, but fundamentally the game doesn’t change much. There is a single player game included which is quite fun if the other party is interested in the game.
Visually, the game isn’t all that special. The environments are incredibly simple and don’t have the highest quality textures. The character models are equally undemanding to the PS2. Nonetheless, the game throws colors and effects at you in great numbers and the user interface is clean and it is always easy to tell exactly what is going on.
In terms of audio, the game’s soundtrack performs incredibly with the gameplay. The classic tunes are a nice touch, and strike up the old nostalgia factor. Everything else is pretty straightforward but fitting nonetheless.
Overall, Technic Beat is a cheap but solid rhythm title. The rather hectic action isn’t for everyone, and the game will have time with the mainstream audience, but fans of the genre will not be disappointed. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Nov 16, 2004
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