Thumper

 PC
Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Metro GameCentral
    May 29, 2019
    90
    On a flat screen Thumper already seems like a near perfect video game experience but in VR it becomes its own reality, one that’s thrilling and unnerving in equal measure.
  2. PC PowerPlay
    Dec 18, 2016
    90
    An all but perfect condensation of what makes rhythm action good. [Issue#257, p.56]
  3. Hardcore Gamer
    Oct 12, 2016
    90
    Thumper is a beautifully dark, unforgiving and utterly fantastic rhythm game, and its sense of menace is only matched by its wonderful playability.
  5. IGN
    Oct 11, 2016
    90
    Thumper’s brutal, breakneck speed and precision-based musical action kept me entranced for all nine of its bizarre, nightmarish stages, which contained enough nuanced high score-chasing tricks to demand several replays already.
  6. PLAY! Zine
    Nov 8, 2016
    85
    A rhythm game that’s closer to the survival horror genre than other music games, Thumper is an incredibly mesmerizing, oppressive, dark and often scary descent into hell.
  7. SpazioGames
    Oct 21, 2016
    85
    Thumper is a nonconformist rhythm game made by Drool where you are a space beetle, thrown through a breakneck race, build by nightmares.
  8. Gaming Age
    Oct 29, 2016
    83
    There's nothing else quite like it, however, and for fans of music games or cool indie projects, this one's worth taking for a spin.
  9. PC Gamer
    Oct 13, 2016
    82
    A total assault on your ears, eyes and reflexes. Thumper will beat you up, but you’ll enjoy it.
  10. Games Master UK
    Dec 4, 2016
    78
    Scarily fast (and sometimes just scary) Thumper is rhythm gaming at its most uncompromising. [Dec 2016, p.79]
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  1. Rock, Paper, Shotgun
    Oct 11, 2016
    THUMPER, with its minimum of menus and explanation and guidance is absolutely pure, to the point that those who do not enjoy its light-from-darkness aesthetic will think it too small, to samey, too one-note, too much about the same sound playing forever. Perhaps it really can offer nothing to those people, or perhaps accepting that is it very fucking sincerely intended to be the same state of mind held for an eternity will let it seep into their veins after all. For the rest of us, let it take its place alongside Devil Daggers, reigning in hell.

Awards & Rankings

24
#24 Best PC Game of 2016

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 55 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 55
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 55
  3. Negative: 8 out of 55
  1. SuperkenGaming
    Oct 15, 2016
    8
    Thumper
    A mix of frustrating and fun
    Thumper is a rhythm based game compatible with console, pc, as well as vr.. It starts out fairly    Thumper
    A mix of frustrating and fun
    Thumper is a rhythm based game compatible with console, pc, as well as vr..
    It starts out fairly simple.. tap x when a shiny part shows up.. and slowly the game adds more to the basics like sides to slide against and walls to crash through..
    And thumper won’t let you leave an area until you get it down…
    Thumper consists of 9 levels with 15 – 30 sections in each level…
    You have to be able to pass through each section with an obstacle to move on, and you have to do it for real as the game allows 1 mess up per section…
    At first the game is thrilling.. It’s a blast dodging obstacles and adding beats to the music playing in the background…
    But every level adds a new gimmick and it ends up getting completely out of hand at times…
    Each level progressively gets harder as you go... and again youre allowed 1 mess up per section…
    So its not too much to ask of the player to get used to patterns and figure things out in each checkpoint…
    The issue comes down to the bosses…
    There are 2 bosses in each level that of course bring that levels gimmick to the table…
    The only problem is each boss has around 4 stages….
    This doesn’t sound too bad, but unlike the rest of the game... the actual fun part of the game… the bosses have no checkpoints…
    In a game about rhythm….
    This is a problem for numerous reasons…
    To beat the boss you literally have to complete each of the stages with complete perfection in terms of hitting each beat…
    with only 1 mess up allowed, with sometimes getting the opportunity to get that mess up back if you clear 1 stage sufficiently…
    But no checkpoints in each of these 4 stages is an issue because again.. This is a rhythm based game…
    Forcing me to go back to clear 3 stages perfectly after I’ve proven myself time after time only to get to the 4th stage and die to do it again kills the rhythm…
    You’re trying to figure out a pattern, and just as you’re about to get it, you have to deal with 3 other patterns that jumble the rhythm you had going on the stage of the boss you died at…
    Usually the stage that slams you with its gimmick, which some of them like the slam to break objects are complete garbage where timing feels more luck based
    This leads to the bosses feelings frustrating and not even the least bit fun….
    I appreciate the fact that the limited lives teach you the game in the obstacle portion of the game... but boss battles should either have check points or work off of a collection meter rather than force perfection 4 times in a row… or perhaps be a score challenge impossible to fail with penalties rather than the punishment of a restart loop…
    Thumper is an intensely challenging game..
    So much so that at the time of this review, only about 1 in every 200 people that play it, beat it
    if you’re a rhythm based master, this is the perfect game to test yourself with…
    As while yes the boss battles unfortunately left a sour taste in my mouth... The game play here and fast paced obstacle dodging is addicting and will definitely give you that one more try moment as your thumb begs for mercy…
    I give thumper
    an 8.0/10    … Full Review »
  2. maluigario
    Dec 5, 2022
    6
    Listen. It takes a lot for me to review a game. And it is very, VERY difficult to get me to DISLIKE a music-based combat game. So when youListen. It takes a lot for me to review a game. And it is very, VERY difficult to get me to DISLIKE a music-based combat game. So when you mess up #2 enough to make me #1, we have a problem.

    The game is SO CLOSE to awesome. The beats are bumpin', the premise is lost in the acid trip, and your little space beetle beats up voodoo faces to the thumpin' sounds of the cosmos.

    There's only one problem: there is one master volume control and that's it. So this super fast-paced reflex-heavy DDR for your fingers has no way to tune the sound effects, music, and specific sound queues that alert you to what's coming up. Like, the music is supposed to be like call-and-response: you hear *thump thump clap clap* and you know that you've got two jumps and two turns coming up. But the sounds effects of your jumping and smacking your hull off the walls mixed with the little DING you get for doing it perfectly in sync with the beat PLUS the sounds of you racking up points drowns out the NEXT set of queues. Before you know it, you've got nothing but a maddening cacophony in your ears and your beetle is moving far too fast for you to play by sight alone.

    Obviously plenty of other people played this game and can hear just fine. Maybe I'm in the minority of those whose auditory senses get overwhelmed to the point where all the noise just blends together. But this would have been easy enough to remedy if I could have turned the music and sound effects down while turning the sound queues up. Instead I just have tinnitus and a blood pressure problem.    … Full Review »
  3. edxtan
    Jun 19, 2023
    3
    The exhilaration of speeding through Thumper is obstructed by the explosive visuals and the soundtrack is repetitive, especially for a rhythm game.
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