SUPERBEAT: XONiC

A fiercely difficult but engrossing experience, Superbeat: Xonic has a sense of musical euphoria that can only be experienced in a quality rhythm game. While it might take some time to acclimate to the gameplay, you’re in for a treat. Pick this up if you’re a rhythm game fan: you won’t regret it.

Yet another music game lands on Switch, with tons of content and very interesting gameplay.

With a club-ready soundtrack and brilliant rhythm gameplay, Superbeat: Xonic is an excellent addition to the Switch’s growing music game hit parade. It’s stylish, fun, and challenging in all the right ways, and does a great job easing players into its frenetic charts with forgiving timing and balanced progression. Some frustrating touch-control issues mean that VOEZ or Deemo are better bets for touchscreen tunes, but if you’re onboard with button-based beats, Xonic is a super choice.

Superbeat: Xonic is an intoxicating new entry for an ever-growing genre in the Switch library. A great track list and almost flawless game mechanics, unfortunately spoiled by some issues with the touch screen.

An extremely challenging rhythm game that fans of DJMax will adore. It is no fault of Superbeat: Xonic itself, but the asymmetrical design of the Switch controls means this can take some getting used to, particularly if having played extensively on PS Vita or elsewhere, but being able to play in tablet style with touch controls and the Joy-Con removed eradicates that entirely. The only problem at time of writing is that the touch controls seem bugged. A patch is on the way, which will hopefully mean Xonic will be an essential purchase for Switch rhythm fans.

SUPERBEAT: XONiC EX is a great musical game with cool challenges. Perfect for those who enjoy nowadays music and want to have fun playing.

The sheer precision that Superbeat offers, whether you’re using the touch screen or buttons to play, allows the developers to really ramp up the challenge, but do so fairly. The way each track is scored also perfectly fits with the music theme, and so each track feels different to play. And, consequently, each player is going to find tracks outside of their comfort zone difficult to get a feel for. I can nail that Latin American track, but damn I’m terrible at sludge metal. So, yes, Superbeat is superb, but as a result of my desire to avoid a number of tracks like the plague, there's not as much in there as I might have otherwise liked.