070REVIEW
INFO
FORMAT PS4
ETA OUT NOW
PUB SOLD OUT
DEV METRONOMIKNO STRAIGHT ROADS
If music be the food of love, rock on!
W
e’ve all watched talent shows before,
right? And we’ve seen earnest
people trying their best to not get
humiliated by the judges? Imagine
that you’d been put in that situation yourself.
How would you react to having your dreams
crushed? You probably wouldn’t decide to
disassemble the structure of local governance.
That’s what our heroes Zuke and Mayday do,
though – with rawk!It’s more than a talent show, though. It’s a setup
to find new artists to provide power to Vinyl
City, which runs on music (like kids’ screams in
Monsters Inc, only less creepy). The duo quickly
discover that actually, they were producing
incredible power, and their rejection was due to
the determination of NSR – the rulers of the
city – to promote and protect electronic dance
music (EDM). Let the battle of the bands (or, at
least, the genres) begin!
Let’s get straight to the soundtrack, which is
fantastic. There’s a hint of J-pop to the upbeat
music that accompanies your exploration of the
city, and the tracks you make your way through
levels to are great. The true masterpieces are the
boss battle songs, each crafted to perfectly suit
the character that you’re fighting. Whether you’re
having a rap battle with an estranged brother,
fighting a child piano prodigy and her mother, ortrying to take down a digital
idol, there’s a thumping choon
to do it to.OH MY CHORD
Although there are special
abilities and moves to unlock,
and you occasionally get ammo
for a distance weapon, combat
mostly consists of standard
melee attacks. This means
whacking things with your
guitar (Mayday) or drumsticks
(Zuke), something that works
perfectly well, but remains
unremarkable throughout. That
doesn’t really matter, though, as
everything surrounding this is
so wonderful.
No Straight Roads isn’t an
interactive album like Sayonara
Wild Hearts – the city acts as
an explorable hub, and the bossThe city is an
explorable hub
area, and character
design is inspired
by Psychonauts.approaches feature traditional
platforming sections, and gates
unlocked by defeating nearby
enemies – but the music still
feeds directly into gameplay.
Enemies attack with the beat
(which isn’t always obvious
outside boss fights), and you
need to time parries with the
music perfectly. Parries are
optional, and only apply to a
small number of attacks, but
pulling them off is satisfying.
In an industry dominated by
Japanese, American, and British
companies, it’s great to see a
game powered by Malaysian
talent. This lends elements
such as the art, music, and
voice acting a freshness we
didn’t know we were missing
until we were given it. There’s
also the simple fact thatFUNK OFF @Jim_Crikey“THE ART, THE MUSIC, THE
SCRIPT, AND THE ACTING ARE
FULL OF JOY AND ENERGY.”
070
INFO
FORMATPS4
ETAOUTNOW
PUBSOLDOUT
DEVMETRONOMIKNO STRAIGHT ROADS
If music be the food of love, rock on!
W
e’ve all watched talent shows before,
right? And we’ve seen earnest
people trying their best to not get
humiliated by the judges? Imagine
that you’d been put in that situation yourself.
How would you react to having your dreams
crushed? You probably wouldn’t decide to
disassemble the structure of local governance.
That’s what our heroes Zuke and Mayday do,
though – with rawk!It’s more than a talent show, though. It’s a setup
to find new artists to provide power to Vinyl
City, which runs on music (like kids’ screams in
Monsters Inc, only less creepy). The duo quickly
discover that actually, they were producing
incredible power, and their rejection was due to
the determination of NSR – the rulers of the
city – to promote and protect electronic dance
music (EDM). Let the battle of the bands (or, at
least, the genres) begin!
Let’s get straight to the soundtrack, which is
fantastic. There’s a hint of J-pop to the upbeat
music that accompanies your exploration of the
city, and the tracks you make your way through
levels to are great. The true masterpieces are the
boss battle songs, each crafted to perfectly suit
the character that you’re fighting. Whether you’re
having a rap battle with an estranged brother,
fighting a child piano prodigy and her mother, ortrying to take down a digital
idol, there’s a thumping choon
to do it to.OH MY CHORD
Although there are special
abilities and moves to unlock,
and you occasionally get ammo
for a distance weapon, combat
mostly consists of standard
melee attacks. This means
whacking things with your
guitar (Mayday) or drumsticks
(Zuke), something that works
perfectly well, but remains
unremarkable throughout. That
doesn’t really matter, though, as
everything surrounding this is
so wonderful.
No Straight Roads isn’t an
interactive album like Sayonara
Wild Hearts – the city acts as
anexplorablehub,andthebossThe city is an
explorable hub
area, and character
design is inspired
by Psychonauts.approaches feature traditional
platforming sections, and gates
unlocked by defeating nearby
enemies – but the music still
feeds directly into gameplay.
Enemies attack with the beat
(which isn’t always obvious
outside boss fights), and you
need to time parries with the
music perfectly. Parries are
optional, and only apply to a
small number of attacks, but
pulling them off is satisfying.
In an industry dominated by
Japanese, American, and British
companies, it’s great to see a
game powered by Malaysian
talent. This lends elements
such as the art, music, and
voice acting a freshness we
didn’t know we were missing
until we were given it. There’s
alsothesimplefactthatFUNK OFF @Jim_Crikey“THE ART, THE MUSIC, THE
SCRIPT, AND THE ACTING ARE
FULL OF JOY AND ENERGY.”