Boy Beats World

Boy Beats World was reviewed on a PC (Steam)

Boy Beats World is developed by Duckbridge, the team behind Luckslinger, the hip-hop inspired retro spaghetti western. Luckslinger, despite having me tear my hair out at each turn, was an absolute blast when I reviewed it back in April.

Boy Beats World is a lot like Luckslinger, it’s charming, challenging and has quite a few truly head bobbing tunes. Ultimately though, it’s only entertaining if the answer to the following question is a resounding YES: Do you have any rhythm? Because if you don’t, you’re going to have a bad time.

What is Boy Beats World?

In Boy Beats World, you play as the only human in a world overrun with robots. Some of them will help you out, while others will mess up your rhythm. You’re a little boy who, after years of supposed isolation, busts out of a containment tube and finds Daisybell, a sentient boom box waiting for him. The boy joins forces with Daisybell by beating his drum to her old school chiptune beats. Any action you take in the game needs to be done to the boom box’s beat. You can beat your drum, clap and roll as you fight the incoming waves of enemy robots that are out to get you.

That’s no easy feat though, as staying true to the rhythm during the game’s hectic fights can be a nightmare. Thankfully, there’s a beat indicator to turn on in case you’re feeling overwhelmed, and there’s no shame in using it, god knows I’ve used it more than once. Even with the beat indicator, the game can still be a bit tough.

Each of the game’s districts features a hub area that’s filled with cleverly written characters that flesh out the world. It’s a shame though that this cleverness and charm is nowhere to be found during the fights with the countless lifeless and derivative enemy bots.

The level design is too linear, as each hallway, corridor and pathway you walk through looks a bit too similar to the one before it. This repetitiveness cheapens the overall experience. Coupled with the uninspired enemy designs, this lack of variety in its visuals detract from the game’s overall presentation. The greyish color palette was also a bit too bland for my taste, even though I understand that as a design choice it’s meant to represent an industrial world ruled by robots.

Speaking of presentation, when it comes to music and sound design, Boy Beats World is pure perfection. Every chiptune track in the game is masterfully crafted and the music goes pretty well with the various sound effects of each of the boy’s attacks. Going into a new level and listening to a new music track is an absolute treat.

Unforgiving Difficulty

The game offers you both the option of toggling either a beat indicator or a freestyle mode. The beat indicator adds a visual indicator for your attacks, and freestyle mode lets you ignore the beat’s rhythm altogether and makes all of your attacks fully effective. These options are a much-needed addition to the game as playing it without them can be brutal at times, especially during the early levels. Whenever you’re hit, you drop Daisybell; this causes you to be vulnerable to an instant death if you’re hit before picking her up again.

This might seem simple and easy but the game also forces you to wait a few seconds before being able to pick her up. This means you’ll be frantically going around the level trying to avoid any incoming enemy attacks. If an enemy happens to be near her, then you’re done for, since you won’t be able to reach her without risking getting hit. On the other hand, the stages aren’t too long, so you’re always a few steps away from the next checkpoint or the next level.

Overall,

Boy Beats World is worth a playthrough simply for the wonderful soundtrack alone. It’s also sure to please any fans of rhythm games, so you should definitely pick it up if you think you’re skilled enough. For those that are still interested in trying it out and aren’t the best at keeping a rhythm, then worry not as the beat indicator and the freestyle modes will make things easy for you.

Despite its difficulty, it does more than a few things right to balance it out. While it ultimately doesn’t quite reach the same heights as Luckslinger, it’s still a decent rhythm adventure game with some stellar writing, albeit with a repetitive level design and some bland visuals.

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Special thanks go to Duckbridge for providing us with a review code.

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You should play Boy Beats World if you

• Love a rhythm game
• Don’t mind the difficulty
• Love chiptunes and great tracks
• Don’t mind the repetitive and linear level design
• Love cleverly written characters

Boy Beats World’s Score

7/10