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Muse Dash review
by NafaryusDestiny

Muse Dash does one thing really well: it's got style. It's not the best rhythm game by a longshot, and osu! outdoes it in just about every way, but for $3 (or less), you couldn't ask for more eye-candy and pure flow.

Muse Dash fuses hack-and-slash sidescrollers with Taiko no Tatsujin, with a healthy dose of Gurren Lagann animator Hiroyuki Imaishi's signature style (also Panty and Stocking and Kill la Kill). This is where Muse Dash excels, and the only reason one would choose to play it over osu! There's a variety of characters, each with a special ability inspired by osu! mods like Autoplay and No Fail, and they're all fully voiced (in Japanese). There's several stages, and many of the beatmaps are very well choreographed and put together, making for a pretty relaxing and satisfying play session at all skill levels.

It's not all good, though. The quality of beatmaps vary pretty wildly, with some notes completely offbeat and other songs completely unreadable. The song selection is entirely made up of Japanese and Chinese pop and techno. There's some actual bangers in there, but there's also a lot of awful songs made with Vocaloid. This is Muse Dash's biggest shortcoming: if you can't put up with Jpop and techno, you will not like Muse Dash. It also isn't the best game for hardcore players that are used to the level of feedback and precision games like osu! provide; there are very few tools in game to help you get better, and leaderboards and score tracking are severely lacking. Lastly, the theming of the game can be pretty sexual, with some creepy loading screen tips and costumes. 

Muse Dash makes $3 go a long way. There's 41 songs in the base game, and for $30 you can get ~200 more (with more being added every month). If the style and soundtrack don't bother you, then you can't spend better money.

Other reviews3

bought for horny, stayed for a good rhythm game
«Blew my mind»
«Just one more turn»
A cute rhythm game with kawaii anime girls. While the DLC seems expensive, it gives you access to all the songs packs and more will be added in the future for free. You also get an EXP Boost. The base game does have 30+ songs, so the price - CDN$ 3.39 for me - is fair. I had a blast playing it and I’ll go back for more. My favorite songs are Breaking Dawn, Disco Night, midstream jam, Bass Telekinesis, Cotton Candy Wonderland, Tsukuyomi, Glimmer, EXIST, Out of Sense, Thirty Million Persona, Irreplaceable and one song by ANK feat kumako (the title is in Chinese).