Hyper Crazy Music Shooter - My Opinion of Beat Hazard

It's a bit like a cross between Super Stardust and Beats. Either way, it's bloody fun! So here goes, my opinion of Beat Hazard.

It seems that Cold Beam Games really have created a game that will sure enough have a cult following with this game that can easily be summed up by it's tag-line, "gameplay powered by your music". The game is a top-down duel stick arcade shooter, similar to Super Stardust, Geometry Wars and the famous XBLIG I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1. I personally would compare the game most closely to Super Stardust as it follows the theme of outer space and focuses more heavily on destroying asteroids as well as spaceships, in comparison to just ships.

                             Beat Hazard Ultra - Official Trailer (Copyright Cold Beam Games)

As, I have already mentioned, the game is a duel stick shooter so rather conveniently only requires the analog sticks as controls. Beyond that, the contents of the levels themselves, as well as the visuals are dictated by whatever song you use as a backing track for your gameplay. The game can use any sound file you have transferred to your console on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions and I believe the PC version can detect MP3. files. The game then configures the level depending on certain aspects of the chosen song, such as beats per minute and the chosen difficulty which is either easy, normal, hard or hardcore.

After each level is complete the player is shown their stats, while rather interestingly includes their completion of the song as well as the album it belongs to (providing it is part of an album or folder).

Moving onto my opinion and this is a game that I believe I will become addicting to. Many people now want various levels of customizability within video-games and I think that the use of personal music allows for that greatly within Beat Hazard. This gives the game a lot of playability, as the player will always be able to experience something slightly different as their music library expands over time.

I personally think that Beat Hazard has applied the use of music within a game in an interesting and engaging way. Something that I feel even titles such as Guitar Hero and Rockband have not even achieved. The aesthetic and graphical style is also another strong factor, with the crazy flashing lights and spectacular colours adding to the experience that is provided.

Overall I feel that the game is one that could potentially remain popular for some time and can appeal to both core and casual games as it could even conveniently be played in a short space of time, such as a lunch break or for a far longer period of time, such as for the length of an album.

Beat Hazard is available from the Xbox Live Indie Games Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points. The game is also available on Steam for £1.74 (which is 75% it's original price as part of today's Steam deals) as well as the newer version, Beat Hazard Ultra, which contains various additional features, which is priced at £0.87 (also 75% off). Finally from Steam, the complete Beat Hazard pack is 75% off for today only too. The pack includes the original game, Ultra and iTunes and m4a file support. The game is also available directly from Cold Beam's website for $9.99 (~£6.21).

Beat Hazard Ultra is also soon to be available on PlayStation via the PlayStation Store.

Here is a few links relevant to the game:
Cold Beam Games - Official Website
Beat Hazard - Xbox Marketplace Online
Beat Hazard - Steam







Also, Microsoft have recently rejected Beat Hazard Ultra for being published at an XBLA. Cold Beam Games are hoping to take the game and have it published by a developer later in the year though, but in the meantime you can show your support in the form of a Facebook 'Like', which can be found on Cold Beam's homepage.

So, now I guess it's that time for me to once again say that I've been randomthings and thank you very much for reading. I'll be posting again very good. Bye for now.