Tuesday, September 22, 2020

TapSonic World Champion VR

I was browsing VR games on Steam and no names seemed familiar except one game - TapSonic. That made me check if I really see search results for VR since I know this game as a mobile game. It was indeed a VR title so I decided to give this game a try. In worst case scenario I would just listen to some Korean tracks and flail my hands around.

The game is in Early Access so I expected an unfinished game (even though when DJ MAX was in Early Access on Steam the game was already finished more or less and pretty awesome). Unfortunately I didn't check the release date. I'd know then that the game is pretty much dead and we won't be seeing the game finished.

When I launched the game and was told to enter a very small play area I wasn't sure if I'd like the game. I looked around and saw a song list in front of me, leaderboard on the right side, options on the left and 'how to play' behind me. Apart from that we could see black transparent plane including the bright blue area I was standing in, black void and some particle smoke, white dots around me and some sound controlled 2d lines in front of me. It reminded me of one of my VRChat visits. I entered a world featuring a similar rhythm game. The VRChat world was actually more polished than this TapSonic game.

Game play is simple. From further away from you notes will be approaching you following lines. When the notes reach you you have to touch them. There are 4 different kinds, normal notes that you just have to touch, slides that you have to touch first and then follow them, mini notes that just need to hit your hand. There are also cymbals that you need to press corresponding trigger when the orange circle reaches the target. The game is combo based, the higher combo you have the higher score multiplier will be used.

There are three difficulties - Basic, Pro and Legend. There is not much interesting going on in the higher difficulty charts (just density) so the game doesn't incite you to learn.

Game play itself is ok even though the timing windows are huge. Like I have the feeling it's over 60ms for Perfect+. I hardly hit any Perfects or Goods while streaming the play through and that lagged considerably. The different kind of notes don't seem to make much difference because pretty much all you need to do is touch them. The cymbals add a little complexity to the game but they are not used that much in order to show the real potential.

Song list is good or rather I can't complain about it (I'd expect Tok! Tok! Tok! to be in there though). You get 11 songs which may not feel much. I completed them all on all difficulties in an hour and half (see video below). It is a free game after all. If you played other games from Neowiz you'll know the songs.

Is the game worth playing? There are many rhythm games that come and go and this unfortunately is one of them. The game probably ended its development very soon. It is playable though and if you like the songs you might have fun playing this game for a little while. Unfortunately you need to keep your head in a rather limited area which makes dancing around a bit difficult. When in VRChat I tried rhythm games using Touch controllers and I have to say that accuracy based games weren't that great and if someone wants to create a good VR rhythm game they should bring up a game mechanic that is good in VR environment and not one that's good for any kind of button mashing or finger tapping/swiping in real life. That might be the reason why the judgment windows are that big. The notes are difficult to hit because it's not clear where they actually are. This can get frustrating for the player. It saddens me but I have to give this game from Neowiz a thumbs down. I'll hapilly go play other of their games though because they certainly know how to create a good game in 2d. This game was a step in a wrong direction.

S'Tsung (stsungjp @ Twitter)

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