Not really a spooky game demo this week but it is a game that I forgot was going to release. There are times when I like to play rhythm games, but I really have to be in the mood. I played Crypt of the Necrodancer before and liked it but I don’t think that I finished it. The game is hard and I had to go play other games or I would have been playing that game forever. Now that a new game is releasing I think that I will give the series another chance. This week is Rift of the Necrodancer.

Rift of the Necrodancer is a rhythm RPG(!?) from Brace Yourself Game, Tic Toc Games, and is being published by Klei Publishing.

There is some sort of story going on in the background, though it is not told to the player in the demo. Rift of the Necrodancer is essentially a standalone game that takes the protagonist of the first game, Cadence, and thrusts her into a rift that spits her out in the modern age. She goes through her day-to-day all the while trying to close rifts that have opened up before they get out of control.

This time, Rift of the Necrodancer takes on a whole new, Guitar Hero look. The player is first introduced to the beginner, intermediate, and harder tutorials to really get an understanding of how to take on the hoards of the rift. The Up, Left and Right directional keys on the keyboard are your tools for defeating the baddies. You are given the knowledge that enemies can take one, two, or even three hits on the beat before they are defeated. You are then introduced to the main mechanics of the enemy types, that many of them move upon being hit and can move all over the staff, sometimes even under to appear on the opposite side. At the end of the tutorials, you are introduced to a staggering amount of enemies and their variants to keep track of.

It may take some time to truly master the demo enemies but once you have it down, Rift of the Necrodancer becomes quite a joy to play.

You have a library of songs to choose from and once you confirm the song you enter an area where a rift has opened and a staff comes rolling out. Images of Cadence and whoever else appear on the side to be the metronome for the song and then the song starts playing. You are instructed The game then plays like any other rhythm game: Hit enough notes to pass, miss them to lose, and then get graded at the end.

Rift of the Necrodancer is shaping up to be a clean-looking video game. The music selection screen and UI are slick and colorful, allowing the player to find the music, difficulty, and album art easily for reference. The main area for the game, the rift, is colorful with an ominous feeling of dark color scheme protruding out from the rift, while the character portraits are cartoonish and are extremely well designed. I had an issue with the animations of the enemy “notes” but I had gotten used to them and I don’t really have any issue with them.

I’m a big fan of Danny Baranowsky and his work from Super Meat Boy and the original Crypt of the Necrodancer, and I am pumped to once again listen to his music in a video game. The remixed version of Disco Descent from the original game has all of the electrifying synthesizer and a melody that never lets up to make for an absolutely perfect rhythm game song, which I have come to know from him.

For Alex Moukala the two songs that he composed really got me bopping my head to the beat. Amalgamaniac’s song is three minutes long and everything is just shredding and it sounds great. The same can go for the second song featuring Aram Zero goes really hard for three whole god damned minutes.

The soundtrack so far is absolutely amazing and I cannot wait to see what else comes from the musicians they were announced that didn’t have a song in the demo.

Rift of the Necrodancer is everything that I want in a rhythm game demo: A great look and great songs. Rift of the Necrodancer has the look with everything being so damn colorful, it’s got the music from some of my favorite artists and the mechanics are tough but they are easy to get a hold of to then master them.