Blast Beat PC VR Review
Summary: VR Rhythm fitness with an old school arcade fighter aesthetic.
4.4
Fighting Fit
When I was a young man… so you know, a long time ago, I used to love going up to my local arcade for a lock in session. It was a great chance to play games that you might otherwise not want to chance a few coins on. For anyone who has ever been to an arcade I’m sure the grouping of games will be familiar with invariably a dedicated section for the fighting games. I mention this because Blast Beat gave me some serious arcade fighter vibes thanks to it’s bright colours and over the top characters… the aesthetic just took me right back to those lock in sessions.
But what is Blast Beat? Well it’s a new entry in the VR rhythm genre but like a number of other games have started doing, it focuses on the potential for fitness gains. That fitness focus sees you having options to set things the way you want (which I love), you can focus on squatting moves, punching, spinning… I mean you will be doing all sorts of moves anyway… but if you have a particular fitness goal… you can at least tailor somewhat more towards it here.
There’s also a pretty cool calorie counter/estimated calories burnt. It essentially asks you for your “vitals” and does some background number crunching to determine how many calories you are likely to be burning during your session (when you get to the speed punching you will certainly feel like you are burning some calories).
There are a number of different songs that don’t entirely stand out but they do feel like they are about the right length (and enjoyable enough) to give you a quick workout, if you are of a higher fitness level you will likely need to play a few songs to really start feeling exhausted, but I think it’s a good idea to have shorter songs so people can “ease” into the whole experience.
The main mechanics of the game are nothing particularly new, more variations on what are now fairly familiar elements… but they don’t need to be anything overly flashy or unique to get the job done. In a genre that is starting to get pretty crowded, a game has to have something to make it stand out and I think here it’s both the focus on fitness and the 90’s arcade game aesthetic.
If you are looking for a VR rhythm game but with a focus on fitness then I would certainly suggest Blast Beat as it checks basically all the boxes. If you want more flexibility over the musical content then you may be less impressed here (unless a future update allows personal music additions, though I don’t believe this is a planned addition at the moment).
Ultimately it’s a bit of fun VR exercise… if that’s what you are after then grab a copy and don’t forget a sweat towel too!
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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