Beatbuddy On Tour Review

Beatbuddy On Tour Community Page

Beatbuddy On Tour is a casual rhythm game developed by Threaks, you play as the disc jockey and tour Symphonia through several levels and different stages with Beatbuddy, the game targets casual gamers but will keep those who are hardcore gamers interested as the game really put my reflexes to the test. Beatbuddy On Tour is the next installment to Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians which plays completely different from this installment and it holds up well.

The story is quite minimal and is obviously not the main focus for the game, as the story from what I observed was you’re here to assist Beatbuddy across Sympohonia with musical instruments to create music. The game is overall very creative as it’s a unique idea and is even unique to other rhythm music games which are commonly similar.

The game is casual and has two game modes, the first being world tour mode which is essentially the campaign of the game. There are eight levels in each stage, and four stages. Each new stage offers a new environment, mechanic and music style to the game. Ruins being my favourite. The second mode is freestyle mode which requires the player to unlock instruments for each level through gaining points and stars. You then select a stage in freestyle mode and you have your instruments in front of you and you use your cursor to activate each one to create your own music.

Beatbuddy: On Tour has a mode which allows the player to create their own music.

The game paces well as loading screens are kept to short times and songs aren’t too long or short, so the player isn’t fatigue after playing a particular stage or several in a row. The game difficulty rises at a good pace, the first stage might feel easy to some however the next offers a good curve of difficulty, the game never felt too difficult for the stage I was at or too easy either. The game controls exceptionally well due to it just using your mouse and I felt that if I made a mistake it was due to my skill instead of feeling like the game was unfair.

Each level feels different which prevents it from being repetitive.

The different environments offer a new look to the stages as well as adding new mechanics, which prevents it from simply feeling like a new skin. But instead steadily introduces new mechanics for the player to experience, in addition while you move your cursor from instrument to instrument it often requires you to attempt them in a certain order which keeps the player on their toes. The game engages the player well through the tutorial which explains what to do to succeed and how mechanics work well. With the mechanics how they are on the game, I understand why it’s on the PC, however it would have been interesting to keep a beat with a press of a key on the keyboard as well as mouse movements as I felt like the game may have been better off on tablets and a new game be introduced on PC which is able to use all of the controls available.

I also appreciate that the game does a lot with what it’s given, while you might think doing levels one after another feels fatiguing, but it isn’t. Each stage offers a new mechanic and every level does something new with it, it keeps the player on their toes and prevents it from feeling repetitive.

What Beatbuddy: On Tour looks like in-game.

The game presents itself well, it can be played on a wide-range of machines and still run well. Despite this it looks great, it’s very stylised which I always think is great as the game won’t look aged in the future. The style of music is very basey, and it’s pleasant to watch you activate each instrument and hear the music go with it. Each stage has it’s own style of music, for example the jungle has a few lyrics at certain points while the first stage changes the beat. I’m not a musician so it’s difficult to explain, however no two stages felt or sounded the same.

One of the more unique music/rhythm games out there, which actually has good music.

The lifespan of this game depends on the player, I’m not quite a perfectionist but I’d attempt the harder difficulties. Which I would estimate at around 15 hours perhaps, counting my many failures. But on top of that there’s the option to achieve all the stars in each level which I’m certain will take a while as it requires quite a lot of skill. Then there’s the additional feature of freeplay mode, which allows you to use instruments in a stage how you wish and create your own music. After completion the world tour, you have access to a harder difficulty which makes it replayable as the levels are different from the first run through.

Beatbuddy On Tour is most certainly worth the money I’d find, it’s only £4.99 at the time of writing. The gameplay is fun and each stage is different and mechanics are introduced at a steady pace to prevent things getting stale. I do feel the game belongs more on a tablet as the keyboard isn’t used on this game, I couldn’t find the game on the Android market where I feel the game might have more success. For a time sink, or if you’re looking to play a decent music game I can recommend this.