Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians (Wii U) Preview

Exploring underwater locations as a strange little blue blob creature was instantly gratifying, with smooth controls as the critter swished around the wonderfully colourful and highly detailed environments, collecting small gemstones along the way, dashing whenever user-prompted to avoid any hazards en route. Whilst a pleasurable enough experience alone, what made the time with Beatbuddy so memorable was the rhythm-based aspect included.

Scooting around the depths, suddenly it became apparent that various layers were being added to the backing track as progress was made, and even the surroundings started to come to life more, with objects and living creatures pulsating or dancing in time with the bass line. Unconscious foot tapping soon commenced.

Bounce from drum-like platforms to smash through barricades, dash in time with the soundtrack's beats to swiftly shoot through colour-changing barriers, and solve puzzles related to moving on to new areas (rotate elements to bounce off or temporarily stun deadly sea creatures, for example, or even retrieve missing parts of vital mechanisms). Although only a short time was spent with Beatbuddy, it turned out to be one of the best surprises of EGX. The prospect of working through more levels not just as Beat, but Beat sat within various pieces of special equipment (such as what looked like a spherical escape pod in the demo), adding new elements to the gameplay, is a very enticing one.