For one, the game is drenched in charm and heart - like Beatbuddy's head banging idle animation and the fact that all the characters talk in b-b-b-beatbox. This all sounds horribly negative but there is a lot to like about Beatbuddy. It jerks about all over the place, and there was a pop-up tutorial about how to get a boost but I forgot what it said. There's also a big submarine you ride in certain levels but I can't figure out how to drive it properly. All of which is a pain when trying to do very specific movements to the music. They're mushy and unresponsive, and sometimes lead to you getting stuck on scenery or fired in the wrong direction. Those snails that spit out red-hot goo and the strobing strings of orbs quickly become annoying barriers that serve only to slow you down as you must stop, retune your brain, and then strike when the beat is right. Guitar soloĪlso, the rhythmic hazards start to grate.

The more inventive puzzles, such as a clever conundrum where you have to turn the game's soundtrack on and off to keep a bubble of energy alive, reveal that Beatbuddy can offer some great puzzles. New ideas - like a big white jellyfish you have to punch four times to the beat - are doled out slowly, and then become repetitive long before the next toy is delivered. These same concepts are reintroduced over and over again. But aside from that clever aural feedback, it's hardly a musical puzzle. You can hear it in the muffled instruments of the soundtrack. I like how you don't need to see some spikes to know they've retracted. Many of the mechanics ignore the musical cues entirely: the most popular idea, which involves bouncing off trampolines to break coral barriers, has almost nothing to do with music.Īnother has you bashing on a limpet to monetarily retract some spikes.

To get through these atmospheric underwater caves you need to get in sync with the soundtrack and exploit the tightly choreographed moves of the game's hazards and enemies.īut Beatbuddy rarely builds on the idea, and more often squanders it. Not a terrible game by any stretch of the word, but a disappointment - especially considering the fact that the concept behind the game is fabulously clever.Įach level pulsates to the tune of its unique song, so on every beat barriers strobe between blue and red, jellyfish march one step forward, and sea-snails spit out hot goo. They're the ones that actually sound great on paper, but completely fail to capitalise on those ambitious promises.īeatbuddy is one such game. The worst games aren't the ones with rubbish ideas and boring concepts.

Jellyfish roblox exploit