Developer: Duckbridge
Publisher: Duckbridge
Platform: PC, Mac
Tested on: PC
Boy Beats World – Review
After the success of their previous game Luckslinger, Duckbridge spent some time looking for a fresh concept to tackle. This is where the idea of making a top-down action-adventure game that doubles as a rhythm game comes from. In Boy Beats World, your drum is your weapon as you take it around a post-apocalyptic world and hit the beat to destroy enemies and beat bosses. And yes, it’s just as awesome as it sounds.
Story
The world has ended and robots are all that are left. They are living on the Earth divided into sections that look very different from each other. In the garbage heap, however, a test tube with a single human breaks open and Boy comes out. He is one of the only remaining seven humans on planet Earth and the only hope for saving the other six who are all in their own predicaments. Using the uniquely human power of having a soul and the inherent feeling humans have for vibing with music, Boy takes a drum and starts liberating the world!
The story is first set up in an opening cutscene. After that, you learn a lot by traveling through the different zones and talking to characters, some of the dialogue being optional.
Graphics
Boy Beats World has a charming look to it, even with its pretty simplistic pixel graphics. The game plays in a top-down view, with small areas loading at a time which are split by screen transitions (for a reason you can read below). Each of the world’s story-relevant sections has its own motif in terms of how it looks and you’ll notice that a lot of elements in the background bounce or jump in time with the music; which is a nice touch.
Sound
Music unsurprisingly plays a key part of the game, seeing as Boy Beats World doubles as a rhythm game on top of being an adventure. We’re happy to say Duckbridge rose to the challenge and delivered a stunning soundtrack. Almost every screen transition changes the track, so there’s a lot of variety and the game also tells you the name of each song. Special mention goes out to the boss music, which is really great as well. The game does not have voice acting or much in terms of sound effects, but this is most likely a deliberate choice to keep the focus on the music itself.
Gameplay
Boy Beats World is a rhythm action-adventure game that challenges you to stay on beat, though the game can be quite forgiving if you want it to. Playing as the titular Boy, you bring your portable speakers, Daisybell, and travel from zone to zone to save your fellow humans. Enemy robots won’t hesitate to try and stop you, but your drum doubles as a weapon since electronics are weak against music. By drumming on the beat of the game’s soundtrack, you damage your opponents. You can also dance to the beat, which allows you to pull any nearby loot towards you before it despawns.
This loot can be used in shops to buy new abilities, some of which are also unlocked simply by progressing in the game. It won’t be long before you’re expertly dodging or rolling out of the way of enemy attacks. When you’re hit the first time, you will simply drop Daisybell. The second hit is instant death, and you can’t pick her up right away but need to wait for at least four beats to pass. During this time you’re extra vulnerable. Daisybell also helps you stay in rhythm by pulsing in time with the beat.
The game is extremely lenient in the sense that you don’t need to hit every beat to be good at it. You can let beats pass without dancing or drumming with no consequences. Only when you mess up repeatedly you’ll be penalized by temporarily not doing any damage. Boy Beats World also has an optional gauge that helps you keep rhythm by showing exactly when to hit, as well as an outright freestyle mode where the rhythm doesn’t matter at all.
Conclusion
Boy Beats World is a unique take on the rhythm game genre, fluffing it out with an unexpectedly interesting story and proper world-building. Players can decide for themselves how hard they want the experience to be, allowing more people to enjoy it, even if they might not be good at hitting the beats. Nonetheless, as is to be expected, the selling point is this game’s lovely soundtrack that we can’t compliment enough.
No Comments