No Straight Roads

 Switch
User Score
5.4

Mixed or average reviews- based on 48 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 48
  3. Negative: 20 out of 48

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  1. Cerark
    Sep 1, 2020
    4
    At the time of writing, the main thing I have to say is: DON'T GET THIS GAME ON THE SWITCH.

    The negative score I leave here mainly reflects that version. Although the Switch port does have an exclusive Assist Mode, it is missing a lot of the polish that the other versions of the game have. This extends beyond visual effects like having worse lighting and textures. There are several    At the time of writing, the main thing I have to say is: DON'T GET THIS GAME ON THE SWITCH.

    The negative score I leave here mainly reflects that version.

    Although the Switch port does have an exclusive Assist Mode, it is missing a lot of the polish that the other versions of the game have. This extends beyond visual effects like having worse lighting and textures. There are several animations and voice lines that are just absent, the control doesn't feel as good, the 2nd boss has a completely different camera angle in certain sections, etc. The Switch version feels like an incomplete build of the game in every way.

    As for the game itself, the concept, music, and style is simply amazing. However, the game is very short (4 to get to the end, maybe 10-15 if you go for everything else) and I don't fell that it truly reaches the peak of what it could have been. Which is a shame because there is enough in the concept and mechanics to provide for a more complete experience. Maybe if they had more levels and boss it could have been different. That said though, I did really enjoy all the bosses in the game.

    The game is going for around $40 at the moment. Honestly, that is a steep price to pay given the short play time. Wait for a sale if you are on the fence about getting it. If you are already interested get it on PC or PS4, cause if you're gonna to spend $40 on it, you should at least get a version that is not subpar to the rest.    … Expand
  2. RaigaPhantomX70
    Aug 29, 2020
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game is pretty good, but for the Switch version, there are A LOT of problems here. Before I want to get to the negatives, I want to mention some positives here. First off, the music is AMAZING and there is no denying that. They put a lot of effort into that. The characters and their development are pretty fine as we explore and see who they are. Some of the gameplay is alright, especially going after various bosses and seems pretty fun. Especially doing things like hard/crazy/parry modes. So far, those are the only positives that I can see.

    Now for the negatives. First off, the graphics are not that good in the Switch version. Yes, I can understand they downgraded it to match the specs for it which I don't mind that much. Some of the character models and certain places were alright. However, it's very buggy and missing a lot of things and other features that the PS4 and PC versions have. One of them would be the missing healing items for DK West rap battles for the second and third part. I barely made it through the second part after around 30 or so attempts, but still can't get pass through the third part. The PS4 and PC versions have that, but not the Switch and from what I've heard the Xbox One versions. Also, with the graphics downgrade and again with the bugs that occurred, some of the colors. textures and other things were out of place. One example is in DJSS parry mode, the parry colors in his third phase where he traps and attacks you with the planets are red, not pink for parrying. Other examples include things like in the final boss against Tatiana where the camera sometimes keep going out of place at a certain phase where I can't tell if I'm attacking here or the pendulum thing or not.

    Another is that the performance is, at very places and other things in the game, tend to freeze up sometimes and goes really slow. One of them is when starting the game and when selecting Continue, it takes 15 seconds just to get to the next part of the screen. Another is that in the final part of the game, with Kliff and all the NSR robots as well as the part where you stop the satellite, the fps went down a lot. Plus, the characters' lips are not syncing from time to time.

    Overall, again, the music is really great and if anyone is interested in getting the soundtrack, I would highly recommend getting it if interested. Some of the bosses and gameplay were kind of alright even though some parts might have some bugs. Now in terms of graphics and performance as well as what I've mentioned above, they are not good. Along with that, and sorry if I'm repeating this again, there are a lot of missing things in the Switch version that the PS4 and PC doesn't have. There is no excuse for that and it seems that they were in a rush in releasing this game for the Switch. Aside from that, this was a good effort and definitely this game had a lot of potentials, especially being developed by former devs leads from Square Enix and Capcom, but this was not good enough. Especially when seeing the PS4 version that there are some things that are missing and that they should've released this game in all of the platforms at a later time in order to polish up and fix these major issues. If anyone is interested in playing NSR, don't get this for the Switch or Xbox One. If you have a PS4 or at least a PC that has the recommended specs for your own, I would suggest getting either one of those instead. Aside from that, hopefully, the devs can learn from this in the future and as far as I can see, the community seems pretty friendly and the devs are pretty transparent as they released a recent video admitting the bugs and issues in the Switch and are patching that up.    … Expand
  3. oklin
    Aug 27, 2020
    7
    Its easy to feel the experience dampened by combat system that feels mostly lackluster, a myriad of bugs and a general lack of polish, particularly in the Switch port. But once you get into the groove of its action infused larger-than-life boss battles and the journey of our two leads you'll be sure to walk away feeling as if you just experienced a cult classic with a soundtrack that won'tIts easy to feel the experience dampened by combat system that feels mostly lackluster, a myriad of bugs and a general lack of polish, particularly in the Switch port. But once you get into the groove of its action infused larger-than-life boss battles and the journey of our two leads you'll be sure to walk away feeling as if you just experienced a cult classic with a soundtrack that won't leave your head very easily.… Expand
  4. SuperkenGaming
    Sep 12, 2020
    8
    No Straight Roads
    No Straight Roads is a 5 hour long beat em up game that can be played either solor or local coop where you play as Zuke and Mayday who set out to bring rock back to vinyl city
    and to do this you have to take on NSRs top EDM musicians and gather new fans and a following. There are 5 main artists here, all with their own unique feel to them which is no straight road’s    No Straight Roads
    No Straight Roads is a 5 hour long beat em up game that can be played either solor or local coop where you play as Zuke and Mayday who set out to bring rock back to vinyl city
    and to do this you have to take on NSRs top EDM musicians and gather new fans and a following.
    There are 5 main artists here, all with their own unique feel to them which is no straight road’s best accomplishment.. its world building, its character building, its story… this is such a fun world to exist in.. I couldn’t wait to take down the next boss in this game after beating one… and in between these boss battles is a little hub world full of collectables you can use to boost your weapons or upgrade the town a bit to gather new fans.. which in turn helps you unlock game boosts and abilities in your skill tree, making it that much more important to do your best in these boss battles… as primarily this is a score chasing game, unfortunately though the gameplay isn’t nearly as great as the rest of the game and its presentation is…
    on your way to each boss is a series of security levels, here youll take on robots that attack to the beat of the song, but it really is just an unengaging button mashing fest from each floor until you eventually get to the boss, and this is no straight roads biggest flaw, the gameplay, the combat, the platofmring.. it’s all a dud.. youre bashing square, occasionally shooting enemies in the distance and collecting power cells to upgrade the hubworld which is these sections saving grace… I enjoy the collecting more than I do every other aspect outside of the boss battles, and even the platforming is annoying thanks to a lack of any camera control… thankfully though these lackluster levels are worth getting to for the grand finale, the boss battles…
    As a score chasing game, its all about score.. so this isn’t really a game that sets out to give you a challenging boss to beat, but rather beat this boss in the fastest time taking the least amount of damage as possible, a even if you fail youre given the option to continue from that spot but forfitting any chance of a great score, which means lower amount of fans earned by the end.. but I feel this sortve defeates the purpose.. the only point of getting a good score is to get more fans so that you can be more powerful, but whats the point of being powerful if you have infinite continues to get through the games story…
    really making all of the skill tree and rpg systems in this game pretty pointless…
    Overall though no straight roads is a plesent surprise, it’s a unique experience with a great world worth visting, and some of the best characters this generation of games has to offer,
    I give no straight roads
    a 7.5/10    … Expand
  5. ApexRex
    Sep 9, 2020
    7
    This game is packed with charm and style, but it's not perfect. The characters were interesting enough to keep things moving, and the boss fights and their accompanying music are the highlights of the game. However, at least on switch, there are glaring bugs and glitches that sour the experience. The graphics quality wasn't the best either. They said a patch was coming, so I'd recommendThis game is packed with charm and style, but it's not perfect. The characters were interesting enough to keep things moving, and the boss fights and their accompanying music are the highlights of the game. However, at least on switch, there are glaring bugs and glitches that sour the experience. The graphics quality wasn't the best either. They said a patch was coming, so I'd recommend waiting for that before buying. Or get it on another platform that you can play on with headphones.… Expand
  6. Insecttrainer
    Sep 24, 2020
    5
    I wish I could speak for the whole game but after a month of playing, I cant get past the first boss. I appreciate a good challenge in games, but this one feels more like failed level design than fun challenge. It's not all bad..... The game gets a few things right:
    Fun soundtrack
    Good voice acting
    Has Co'op mode All in all the game just feels incomplete

    I regret buying this one
  7. Citrusrobot
    Aug 28, 2020
    6
    You will spend this game doing three things:
    - Exploring a boring pointless hub world.
    - Fighting three repetitive enemies over and over again in boring levels. - And fighting really cool, interesting, but poorly built boss levels. I really want to finish this game because I love the style, the music, and all the VA work, it really has this fresh charm! But it's not fun gameplay,    You will spend this game doing three things:
    - Exploring a boring pointless hub world.

    - Fighting three repetitive enemies over and over again in boring levels.

    - And fighting really cool, interesting, but poorly built boss levels.

    I really want to finish this game because I love the style, the music, and all the VA work, it really has this fresh charm! But it's not fun gameplay, I spent the whole game hoping the next boss would be cooler then the last but it peaks really early.

    The camera is so poor I have to squint to see anything when docked, and there is so much happening on screen that I can't help but get hit by attacks. I feel like the games trying to enforce that you can dodge to the rhythm but it quickly stops feeling like it lines up at all. Over all the gameplay just really drags everything else down.

    All this said, I can't get Sayu's theme out my head.    … Expand
  8. Rhaeleden
    Sep 4, 2020
    0
    I really hope the developers take the time to fix all these gameplay issues because they are hard to justify given the $40 price point of this game. Even without all these bugs, the price for the game is still questionable given the relatively short and unpolished gameplay.

    Some people are saying that this game is made by a small team but if you pay attention to the credits, there is at    I really hope the developers take the time to fix all these gameplay issues because they are hard to justify given the $40 price point of this game. Even without all these bugs, the price for the game is still questionable given the relatively short and unpolished gameplay.

    Some people are saying that this game is made by a small team but if you pay attention to the credits, there is at least 100 people and several studios involved in the making of this game. It's certainly not AAA but that is a MASSIVE budget for an indie game. Additionally, the Metronomik team has assistance from a big publisher and has also received the Epic Games exclusivity grant.

    With the amount of people involved as well as the pricing of the game, I feel that this game needs be compared with other action games of similar price points especially if games like Psychonauts ($20) and Child of Light ($15) are considered non-indie. I wouldn't mind paying $40 for this kind of game if the gameplay actually is good. But as it is right now, the lack of content and quality in NSR's gameplay makes it difficult to give this one a pass.    … Expand
  9. Twist92
    Aug 26, 2020
    4
    great game with poor execution, the graphics are bad that I can not read the briefing and the visuals are pixelated. The only other bad thing is that the controls are not tight, I played the pc version as well and that one works better in controlling or the visuals, I want to love this game but on the switch it is a nightmare to play since it is hard to see and control.
  10. Mental-Bug
    Aug 31, 2020
    9
    So much love has went into this game and it shows. The story, characters, and music are all excellent. The boss battles are the best part - both cinematic and unique. Being made by such a small studio, the bugs are not too surprising - and it is a shame that the Switch's hardware limitations don't show the gorgeous graphics in their full glory. Note that a patch is in the works as ofSo much love has went into this game and it shows. The story, characters, and music are all excellent. The boss battles are the best part - both cinematic and unique. Being made by such a small studio, the bugs are not too surprising - and it is a shame that the Switch's hardware limitations don't show the gorgeous graphics in their full glory. Note that a patch is in the works as of writing this. After beating the game, I look forward to going back and getting what I missed. Overall the game shines through the rough edges, leaving a game that made me laugh, cry, and definitely think. 9/10… Expand
  11. Cryslyn
    Sep 7, 2020
    10
    fun, vibrant, and unique. the game is has very charming characters and seeing them interact makes me happy
  12. JuanIV
    Aug 28, 2020
    10
    I had a lot of fun with it. Way more challenging than I though it was going to be. Killer soundtrack, along with the really fun look of the whole game in terms of charachter design's. It might be short but it's well worth your time.
  13. Ar2RdevilPiNKy
    Oct 11, 2020
    8
    A true masterpiece, if you tune in to the wave of this game. Nice gameplay, amazing music, story, characters that are very interesting to watch and follow. And also really good jokes.

    Switch version suffers from all sorts of problems, from simplified lighting to simplifying many details (both on the levels and in the interface). And there are just more bugs in this version than in the    A true masterpiece, if you tune in to the wave of this game. Nice gameplay, amazing music, story, characters that are very interesting to watch and follow. And also really good jokes.

    Switch version suffers from all sorts of problems, from simplified lighting to simplifying many details (both on the levels and in the interface). And there are just more bugs in this version than in the PC version. It would be great to see patches that fix problems in the game, as well as the ability to switch between graphic settings, as in the Witcher 3 on Switch.

    This is still a great game, and I hope that the developers will not abandon it without bringing it to a perfect status. The game deserves it.    … Expand
  14. Savleye
    Feb 23, 2021
    4
    I've wanted to play this game since launch and I was excited that I was able to get it recently because of the physical copy being on sale at Gamestop for $17. I was aware for a while how glitchy the game was because of other players, but I mostly ignored it. However, I am now dealing with game breaking glitches myself to the point that I am about to attempt the Sayu boss fight for the 3rdI've wanted to play this game since launch and I was excited that I was able to get it recently because of the physical copy being on sale at Gamestop for $17. I was aware for a while how glitchy the game was because of other players, but I mostly ignored it. However, I am now dealing with game breaking glitches myself to the point that I am about to attempt the Sayu boss fight for the 3rd time because I encountered game-breaking bugs on my first two attempts. Glitches aside the in-game UI's are poorly formatted to play docked because the text is very small with no option to change it, and the graphics re dramatically worse in handheld mode, so you really have to make a compromise when playing. It's a shame because the characters and music alone are a 10/10, but with the issues I've experienced so far I cannot bring myself to give that high a score.… Expand
  15. OldMcBrother
    Jan 21, 2022
    7
    This is an...alright game I suppose. My favorite part is the whole bit with 1010, because it was just hilarious and has good music. Kliff is honestly one of not the worst twist villian in any media I've experienced. If they put more time and effort into this it could've been something truly special, but as it stands it's a good game with a buttload of flaws.

Awards & Rankings

82
#82 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 23
  3. Negative: 1 out of 23
  1. KeenGamer
    Nov 17, 2022
    95
    Part rhythm game, part platformer, part boss rush, No Straight Roads takes the best parts of these genres and forms a fun, groovy whole that'll have your ears tingling, heart pumping, fingers twitching, and feet tapping. For Metronomik’s first game, you wouldn’t think it given how much of a blast No Straight Roads is. In fact, in this author’s opinion, the only major downside to it is that it feels too short. But even if that’s the case, the game doesn’t drag on to the point of fatigue, each little collectible or side mission or story beat sitting comfortably where it needs to be. I picked this game up for the premise alone, but the bosses and music definitely helped me stay.
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  2. Ninty Fresh Magazine
    Dec 21, 2020
    50
    They’ve sold all the tickets but forgot to wake the lead singer up. No Straight Roads is only for those that enjoy half a performance. [Issue #2, p.63]
  3. Hey Poor Player
    Oct 29, 2020
    70
    In some ways, No Straight Roads felt like the second coming of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. It had all the right ingredients to be the perfect blend of rhythm and action into one phenomenal package. And while it does plenty right, it’s a little too off-key where it counts. Some fine-tuning on the combat would certainly help sync the boss battles with the aesthetics and exploration aspects, as that mechanic carries way too much weight to ignore. Still, I can’t lie — I’ve absolutely fallen in love with No Straight Roads for what it does offer, which is an explosively intense experience that will punch your teeth right out of your face. If you favor adventure over rhythm, there’s no reason not to pick up No Straight Roads; if beats are more important than battles to you, perhaps wait for tickets to go on sale.
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