RHYTHM STORM

Rebel against the beat in this pulsating arcade Roguelike

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As the Daft Punk-pastiching trailer for Luke Schneider’s top-down 2D shooter says, “this is not a rhythm game”. Rhythm Storm, in fact, seems almost a deliberate reaction to the recent trend for games whose action is set to a steady pulse, such as Crypt Of The Necrodancer, Pistol Whip and Metal: Hellsinger. Here, enemies arrive and move towards you in time with the soundtrack. You, however, are free to move around without being beholden to the beat – a good thing, since your craft fires automatically, albeit sensibly targeting the most pressing threat.

It’s a return to a familiar form for the prolific Schneider, after the vehicular demolition of Instruments Of Destruction. Indeed, it’s thanks to his Early Access hit that Rhythm Storm has this graphical style. “I learned to use GPU-accelerated particles and drawing for Instruments, and that meant around a hundred times more particles than any of my previous games,” he says. “I’d always wanted to have GPU-powered particles, but I thought they were too technically advanced for me to handle. Once I finally unlocked that capability with Instruments, I was kind of looking for an opportunity to use them in a 2D game.”