Sometimes you just want to turn on some music and feel the beat of the music and sometimes you want to be part of the experience. But what if the music embraces you to make you the center? Would you be able to keep up and drum to that beat? But does Developer Arrowiz allow you to become one with the beats and feel the fever? Let’s find out with Beats Fever for the PlayStation VR.
Beats Fever is a rhythm-based game where you must try and catch the notes that are represented by these orbs that synchronize with the music. As the notes start coming towards you, there will be circles that form and that is where you use the Move controllers that are represented by glowing wands, to try and catch the notes that will come at you from below, to the sides, above, across, diagonally and do it at multiple times in any direction. After the level, you are awarded a letter grade based on how well you did.
When I first played Beats Fever, I was trying to treat it as if it was a big drum set. It worked for the most part, but then I was starting to miss the notes that I am just sure I had hit. Of course, that was probably me just missing the beat as I was trying to drum my way to greatness, but then I realized that you don’t have to drum. In fact, when the circles start to open up to where the notes will be coming, you can actually touch the circles to be able to catch the notes.
I tried this for a few songs until I kind of had to separate myself from within myself. I know sounds weird, but hear me out. When you start out with level one, the songs have a difficulty rating of anything from easy to medium. I started out with the easy so I could just get a feel of how things were going to go. As the notes started to come one to two at a time on each side and then started to pick up, it was more of me being able to look forward and allowing the music to flow within me and it’s like my arms had this movement that seemed like I was not controlling.
Playing became less of trying to hit or catch the notes, but almost becoming this beautiful flow of movement that was becoming this dance of sorts like a performance. For some reason, I was able to just let the music flow and you know what, I was having fun. Each of the 40 curated and licensed songs had this familiarity to them, like something I have heard before, but at the same time, had this newness to it that made me be more open-minded and to start to really appreciate what I was experiencing and most importantly have a good time while doing it. Beats Fever has four different stages, Tokyo, London, Rio, and New York. Right before the level starts, this clear curtain of sorts will come in front of you that has dots which is where the circles will appear so that you can try to catch the notes.
When looking at the graphics, I really enjoyed my view of the four different stages that unfortunately cannot be selected since certain songs are tied to certain stages. The notes are what they are and that’s not a bad thing at all. When you have all these notes coming at you, sometimes at a quick speed, you are not really going to pay attention too much to the notes that are moving. This is more about trying to catch the notes and stay within the rhythm of the game
Sound-wise, depending on the song, the music is at the right levels. Hearing the “3, 2, 1 Beats Fever” before each song starts has this echoing effect that I kind of felt was there to get me prepared for what was about to come my way to an almost “get ready and are you sure you got this because of the level of the song you selected” type of questionable warning. So depending on your music taste is whether or not you may enjoy the song selections as everyone likes different things and there is nothing wrong with that.
There are a few things that I wish were added to Beats Fever. I would love to see more stages become available. There are so many places in the world to not have here. I can see something from Scotland or maybe Norway that would be pretty cool to see in the background. I would also love to see more songs from even more of different genres or the ability to add our own music that you own via USB drive. And I would love to see online leaderboards. Sure you may see your own scores from your previous attempts, but to be able to see who has the most fever, would be a welcomed addition.
Overall Beats Fever gives us an opportunity to feel the flow of the music and have some fun while doing it. It just goes to show that when you have a dream, don’t stop perusing it or it simply becomes a forgotten idea that got lost in the shuffle. And couldn’t we all do ourselves a favor and start chasing more of our dreams instead of letting them become a thing of the past?
Beats Fever is out now on PlayStation VR and is also available on the Oculus Store, and Steam. A review code was provided.
To learn more about Beats Fever, please visit the site. To learn more about Arrowiz, please visit their site, like them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, and subscribe to their YouTube channel.
In case you missed the trailer, please enjoy. Until next time, I am going to go have some more fun and play Beats Fever.
Mr. PSVR, December 30, 2018, theplaystationbrahs.com
