Genre: Music, Action
Developer: PeroPeroGames
Publisher: X.D. Network Inc.
Franchise: X.D. Network Inc.
Release Date: Jun 20, 2019
Price: $2.99
Those that have followed me long enough know about my issues with mobile ports coming to Steam. More often than not they are quick cash-grabs hoping consumers don’t know they are mobile games. Muse Dash is a mobile game, but it’s core gameplay is so solid that it doesn’t matter that it might have started as a mobile game. What we have is a video game that works pretty much anywhere on any platform .
The story is irrelevant. It has something to do about three cute anime girls fixing the world that got all messed up. What’s important is that Muse Dash is a rhythm game filled with some really great tracks that will have any weeb singing and bouncing along. Tack on some incredibly cute visuals and you have something that is pretty difficult to hate.
If you’ve played a scrolling music game before you get the idea. Your character moves across the screen and you hit one of two buttons to hit the corresponding notes; in the case of Muse Dash it’s enemies. It’s as simple as it gets, due to the mobile nature of the original, but it still works thanks to everything going on.
I played using the mouse with right and left click serving as the action buttons, but you can also use the keyboard just as well. Enemies will scroll at you along two tracks with each of your button press serving as your attack on each. Left click hands low enemies and right click taking the higher ones. Casual players will have fun and learn quickly on the easy modes, while musicians or rhythm game fans will find a sizable challenge on the hard difficulty.
Song choice really sets these sorts of games apart. From the rock styling of something like Guitar Hero, to the series pulled music from Theatrhythm Final Fantasy. Thankfully, Muse Dash nails the J-pop style perfectly with lots of fast and upbeat tracks, instead of resorting to slapping in a bunch of Western tunes like other games like this. This is great because for most people everything here is going to be brand new. I’d be lying if I didn’t track down a few of these artists looking for more after playing.
On top of the rhythm action there are also a fair bit of collectibles and characters to unlock. Repetition is the name of the game and Muse Dash teases you with enough new content to keep getting better and trying harder levels to unlock all sorts of stuff. Anime girls are the best and new costumes/characters offer great incentive to play again and again. And the leaderboard system isn’t bad for those that want to be the very best.
At it’s core Muse Dash is a solid rhythm game that is easy to pick up but hard to master. It’s super simple and all the better for it. What makes it special is the anime-styling and the amazing track list that will have smiling the entire time. But the best part is that Muse Dash is only $2.99 for everything that I talked about above. I’ve played games with far less content and enjoyment for twice that price.