If you’re one of those gamers who is desperately looking forward to the approaching releases of Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live, then you might want to warm up your musicality with Inside My Radio; an addicting little platformer now available on Xbox One. Unlike those other music games, you won’t need to perform finger-twisting combos of multiple button presses, and thankfully no plastic instruments are required, but you will need to be able to tap to the beat of an awesome soundtrack that seamlessly blends music genres just like a professional DJ.
As the title hints, the game takes place in a TRON-like world inside a radio. You play as a green LED, exploring this crazy-cool electronic world that makes use of heavy black shadow foregrounds juxtaposed against some of the most colorful backgrounds of any platformer to date. For those with any electronics knowledge, you will appreciate the inclusions of objects like fuses, capacitors, diodes, etc. that litter the sidescrolling levels and really sell the fact that you are inside a radio…or maybe a Radio Shack.
What separates Inside My Radio from any other sidescrolling platformer is the simple fact that all button inputs must occur on the beat of whatever song is currently playing in the background. It’s a cool dynamic in theory, but it can also lead to quite a bit of frustration throughout the game; especially if you are like me and keep forgetting this one simple rule and try to play the game at you own pace. There is a nice tutorial that grinds the concept of rhythmic gameplay home, and if during the game you find yourself missing the beat you can always toggle a pop-up metronome to help you find your groove.
So, whether you are jumping, dashing, ground pounding, or tapping to activate something in the world, it all must be done to the beat. It sounds simple enough until you start having to combine these actions, such as a double-jump wall climb, or a jump followed by a dash. Years of gaming have taught me my own internal rhythm and now I must conform my gameplay to the beat of the soundtrack. But for as frustrating as your missed inputs are, once you do find the beat the natural flow of the game can be extremely rewarding. What I found worked best for me was phantom-tapping the button to the beat the entire time but only actually pushing the button when needed.
There is a minimalistic story tossed into the action that gives the main game a bit of purpose – not that you need it really, but for those who are looking for the ultimate challenge, the Time Attack mode will hook you for days, if not weeks. Not only are you racing the clock you are also building up huge multipliers with successive beat hits, but it only takes one missed beat to lose all you have built up and get a time penalty. So much pressure!
Of course, any game built on the concept of music is only as good as the music itself and thankfully, Inside My Radio has an outstanding soundtrack that blends techno, trance, disco, and club beats to create your own personal rave. Speaking of personal, there are these cool sections in the game where you can freestyle-remix the music and compose your own track. As a club DJ for ten years, I really appreciated this virtual mixing board integrated right into the game.
Inside My Radio is a fun little platformer that will have you jamming to the beat by the end of the tutorial. The game could be longer. The story mode is over in less than two hours, which means the game relies heavily on its alternate game modes, which are admittedly a bit repetitive over time. But if you are looking for a fun foot/finger-tapping platformer with some awesome music, creative levels, and clever concepts, you only need look Inside My Radio.
