What parents need to know
Hi-Fi Rush is a 3-dimensional action and combat game. You play Chai, a future rockstar, according to him, whose music player was integrated into his chest after cybernetic surgery… This allows him to feel the rhythm of the world. Labeled as defective and chased away by the company that transformed him, Chai will team up with new friends as his adventure progresses to fight each of the company’s managers.
This whole scenario is just an excuse to make an action game that depends on the music. The whole game is calibrated to the rhythm, constantly, even during cutscenes, and you will have to act in sync with it in order to triumph.
The game features phases of combat, jumping on platforms, sliding on rails and exploration. All this is punctuated by humorous cutscenes telling the story.
Details
Release date: 25 January 2023
Developed by: Tango Gameworks
Published by: Bethesda Softworks / Microsoft Game Studios
Available on: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store or Xbox app), Xbox Series (tested version).
Game Type: 3D action/combat game with platforming and exploration phases.
Themes: Music, robots, totalitarian state.
Average duration of a game: 30 minutes
Total game lifespan: 10 hours. 13 hours to complete everything.
Business model: Need to buy the game once.
Texts and voices available: French and English in particular
Number of players:
1 player locally
Available in digital format (download on console or computer)
| Age | Neophytes | Intermediate | Experienced |
| 3+ |  | | |
| 7+ | | | |
| 12+ | |  | |
| 16+ | | | |
| 18+ | | | |
Violence, fear, nudity?
The protagonist gives guitar blows against robots and humans. Enemies use swords, electric attacks, punches and kicks, and laser guns.
Minimum reading level required
Lots of reading.
Language level used
Presence of insults, provocations, threats. The words “sh*t” and “a*shole” appear in the game.
Positive message
Highlights the cooperation with friends that we “recover” as the adventure progresses.
Difficulty
There are several levels of possible difficulty as well as several accessibility options.
Minimum level of execution on the controller required
Requires a lot of execution to defeat some fights. A little difficult to handle for those who have never played. A good margin of progression as well as the sense of rhythm to improve.
Additional costs ?
There are some cosmetic additions that can be purchased separately, but they are completely useless.
Our opinion
With its very neat art direction worthy of a cartoon and its very well calculated action, Hi-Fi Rush is an excellent game that is a pleasure to browse. The game is punctuated by phases of fighting against robots, jumping on platforms and exploration. Unfortunately, jumps are poorly rendered in the game, and often inaccurate. The camera and level designs make jumps really not obvious. To compensate for this, the developers have added a double jump, but this should not be a solution. Fortunately when you miss your jump, you are brought back to the previous or even next platform without being penalized too much.
The exploration phases are sometimes laborious and sometimes there are so many colors and elements in the levels, that we do not know what to do or what are the destructible or pickable elements. After a few hours we get used to the codes of the game, and we have a lot of fun with the action phases of the game provided you make the effort to memorize the possible combinations of moves, to do several actions at the same time and to orient the camera so that the action remains possible.
Hi-Fi Rush is a very nice surprise and a very good game that is reserved for the most experienced and persevering players. A few accessibility options help make the experience enjoyable for more players.
Try it if possible, as long as it’s available on Xbox Game Pass.
Warning: do not stream this on the Cloud. The timings for the shots are very tight, and the deadlines related to streaming make some passages more difficult than they should.
More info about the game: Official website of the game
