Thumper review

Meh

by JustCozzie

This is the first rhythm game I've played since demolishing Guitar Hero 3 back in the day so bear that in mind for context.

Some of the leitmotif sections of track are fun every time (left, beat beat, right, beat, hold...) and the difficulty curve is generally really good - adding both speed and complexity one world at a time - only being let down when the latter third of the worlds don't have a new gimmick to introduce or distinguish from the previous ones, although they have plenty of raw difficulty to make up for it. The artstyle is right up my alley for the most part but the second recurring boss design sticks out like a sore thumb compared to everything else's sleek geometric shapes, it's probably intentional but I still really don't like it. Feels cheap, like an old Rare/Nintendo boss, just minus the floating hands.

Getting hit and completing a combo have far too flashy effects - both visually and audibly - and are coupled with theatrical slowdown that throws off your rhythm, which is unnecessary when it's already been thrown off by making the mistake in the first place, the two combined meant I was often still trying to get back into the groove when the recovery period ran out. The game's biggest mistake though is that for something that relies almost entirely on a ranking system, there aren't that many rankings. By the third/fourth world I was getting C ranks in pretty much every stage, even when I was doing comparatively well, there's no difference between hitting 70%ish of beats and hitting maybe 10% of the beats, ignoring the optional ones that won't damage you entirely. I'm not saying make the rankings pretend I'm NOT bad at the game and give me higher than a C, I'm saying there should be a D and E rank too so there's some middle-ground between playing badly and not even trying.