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Unfortunately, right out of the gate the game’s almost comically crushing difficulty makes this a rhythm game to avoid
Rhythm games can certainly vary quite a bit in their style and difficulty, there’s no doubt about that. From the more approachable play of LOUD to the fast-paced and tense play of Thumper, the Switch has had quite a bit of variety. The key to success, regardless, is in providing an experience with accessible controls and a pretty smart progression from the point you ease into getting started to when the difficulty really kicks in. Unfortunately, Sonar Beat pretty well falls apart on both counts. First, the control scheme seems like it should be simple, but it quickly gets pretty confusing as you begin to have held beats mixed with shorter ones, with it actually feeling like the controls don’t really work out in specific scenarios at all, or at least are in no way intuitive. That could perhaps be a disappointment you’d hit a bit further in, but nope, after an all-too-brief tutorial that does a poor overall job of preparing you and a somewhat mild initial introduction in the first song it kicks into full-on rapid-fire mode with its music, challenging you to repeatedly mash the button on your controller as you desperately try (and generally fail) to keep up. This rapidly moving from 1 to roughly 8.5 challenge spike quickly leaves you a bit frustrated as until you’re able to score sufficiently well on that same first song that’ll all you’ll have access to… making even the meager asking price still feel too high when there are more balanced and approachable titles in the eShop.
Justin Nation, Score:Bad [4.5]