Superbeat: Xonic (PS Vita) Review

Superbeat: Xonic is a very stylistic game in terms of visual presentation. Every screen is filled with glowing, flashy lights, and a fluorescent blue theme is found consistently through the experience. In-game menu layouts will appear to be very familiar to any user that's played rhythm games. When selecting a song from a playlist, the song will have the album cover artwork, and a sample of the song will commence.

Each song has a unique level of difficulty, but what's interesting about Superbeat: Xonic is that, from the start, it is possible to increase any song's music note or "TRAX" speed from 0.5 to 3.0, making even the simplest of songs a challenge. Difficulty can be catered even further by increasing the amount of "TRAX" strings, and also adding difficult conditions that may be required in some worldwide missions, such as faded notes, where the music notes will appear very late, giving much less time to prepare.

Superbeat: Xonic is certainly a game with strong difficulty customisation, and, in addition, it manages to keep the same expectations in another feature: unlockables. This is possibly the rhythm game with the most unlockables ever conceived. Players will be kept busy exploring the different conditions unlocking different note sounds, and, more importantly, earning new DJs to play as.

Each DJ comes with unique passive skills that add a strategic depth to playing songs. Some will have a very important skill named "Break Shield," where, depending on its numeric value, for instance, if there were 20, the player is able to miss 20 music notes and not sustain damage or lose the current combo. Playing and completing songs also grant experience points, much like an RPG, but the only seeming purpose to levelling up is to attain more unlockables and bragging rights. The unique feature of DJs having these passive skills is very handy, but as more get unlocked, it becomes apparent that there is no variety, and, for the most part, the DJs that are more challenging to earn make the easily-earned ones flat-out obsolete.