Hi Fi Rushthe new game from the creators of The Evil Within o Ghostwire Tokyo, Tango Gameworks, is very different from the previous games from this studio, known for its horror games. It is a colorful and carefree game of action and platforms mixed with a rhythm game.
It is match by Bethesda was released by surprise on Xbox Game Pass yesterday, for Xbox Series X | S, PC and Game Pass, so many were quick to try it out and enjoy its action to the rhythm of the music… that remember powerfully to another 2020 game: No Straight Roads.
In fact, many opinions compared No Straight Roads unfavorably: “Hi Fi Rush is what No Straight Roads should have been” seems to be the consensus…
… y Wan Hazmerdirector of No Straight Roads, has been quite hurt by that, which has generated a nice wave of solidarity.
“Hi-fi Rush is what No Straight Roads should’ve been.”
So many people are saying this. Yes it may be true but it doesn’t hurt any less to see this.
I love Hi-fi Rush though. Congrats to Tango Gameworks for a magnificient game.
— Wan Hazmer Hus – NSR Encore Edition on Steam! (@WanHazmer) January 26, 2023
“A lot of people are saying it. It might be true, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less,” Hazmer, formerly lead designer on Final Fantasy XV, says of the praise for Hi-Fi Rush that menosprecian No Straight Roads.
Many of his followers and No Straight Roads fans have responded warmly to Hazmer. He has also received support from other people in the industry, such as a Bungie designer who points out that, as much as we want to praise a game, no need to hurt other people who has put his whole soul into similar games, even if we consider them worse.
I know you may like these games but don’t make people who invested so much of their heart and soul into similar projects feel like shit because of it. Making games is really hard and we should celebrate anyone who can successfully do that. I consider this man a pioneer. pic.twitter.com/XdBmRAtuv8
— Macabre Monster (@MacabreMonster) January 26, 2023
Comparisons of Hi-Fi Rush to No Straight Roads could hurt them in more ways than one
Hazmer then qualifies his words, saying that this attitude not only hurts his feelings, but also it can take a toll at work: if they wanted to do No Straight Roads 2 and they had to convince a publisher or investor, those seemingly innocuous but tactless tweets would do them a disservice.
After all, Tango Gameworks is a big studio inside an even bigger publisher, Bethesda, inside a giant publisher, Microsoft. No Straight Roads is the work of Metronomik, an indie studio that has yet to release any other game since NSR in 2020.
VIDEO
No Straight Roads – Spanish Trailer
And if you wonder, yes Hi-Fi Rush is conspicuously parecido a No Straight Roadsboth artistically and mechanically: both are third-person jumping and action games based on attack and dodge following musical patterns.
No Straight Roads It came out on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC in 2020, and it had average reviews: between 69-72 on Metacritic. In our review we gave it a 74, criticizing precisely that the great idea of mixing action and rhythm was not getting much use out of it, something that does seem to work in Hi-Fi Rush… although they weren’t the first to have that idea .
