Releasing two rhythm action titles on the same day may not sound the best of ideas, but Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise and Theatrhythm Final Fantasy are two very different games.
Theatrhythm Final Fantasy has been designed with Final Fantasy fan service in mind – a collection of all things Final Fantasy, wrapped up in a musical package. There’s 39 tracks to choose from, with more available as DLC. Eurogamer has a list of these which will set you back around 90p each. Considering Square-Enix’s experience with rhythm action games is limited, positive review scores suggest it has turned out rather well. There’s a demo on the 3DS eShop to try and you should be able to find it for under £25 online. Amazon was offering a free stylus and sticker sheet with it, but that deal seems to have ended now.
Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise on Wii is a sequel to Rhythm Heaven – a DS game that can usually be found for less than a fiver nowadays as retailers greatly overstocked it. This one is based around mini-games. Barking mad mini-games, of which there are over 50. Review scores have been high including 9.0 from EGM, 5/5 from Giant Bomb and 4/5 from Games Radar. There hasn’t been a great deal of note out for Wii owners recently so it should make an appearance in the chart next week.
Then we have a budget re-release of Dead Island, which Deep Silver are calling ‘Game of the Year Edition’ despite reviews being incredibly mixed upon release. It was, however, apparently the second best selling new IP of last year after LA Noire. We finished it shortly after it was released – although it looks quite nice and is suitably violent, we found that the mission objectives were so ridiculous that they stopped us being immersed. Having to find a fully grown women’s teddy bear so she can sleep at night, even though there are zombies banging at the doors of her chalet, was far too nonsensical for our liking.
We suppose that if you are curious about playing it, then paying £15 to do so will hardly break the bank. It comes with the Ryder White mission and Bloodbath Area DLC, plus a new weapon blueprint. Amazon are selling the PlayStation 3 version with a headset for £21.97. Looks like they’ve sold out of the Xbox 360 bundle though.
Next week: Inversion (PS3, 360), adidas miCoach (360, PS3) and Mahjong Mysteries: Ancient Athena (3DS).