Ophelia Payne

Who says I got no rhythm? Well, likely a lot of people, but that won’t keep me from dancing just about anywhere. My love of music is what really captured me when I received a wonderful message from the developer of Tied to the Beat, Javier Lianes Garcia.

Right off the start, let me tell you, I really had no idea what I was doing when I started this demo, and to be honest, I’m not sure if I ever truly figured it out, but I got better the more I played it. And I really enjoyed my time playing the game.

Tied to the Beat is an unusual blend of rhythm game, arena survivor, and roguelike action game. Each new song is a battlefield on your screen. The lyrics directly affect the events on the screen. Certain words will trigger special effects like fire, lightning, rain, etc. Choose your instrument, fight against waves of enemies, and survive the chaos.

Just look at this cuteness.

Tied to the Beat is a Survivor’s like game where cute instruments will be your avatar as you defeat enemies. You will zap and destroy them with the lyrics on the screen, killing them to a beat. There is a lot of levelling, and the music will pause when you level up, I recommend choosing auto level up to avoid the pauses. Then you can just keep on killing and vibing.

There are a handful of music selections to choose from in the beginning, but you can unlock more and even download your own MP3 files to use your music of choice in the game.

Like any good rogue-like, there are upgrades and gains. Permanent stat increases like range, damage, health, etc. and then the additional ‘class’ stats that apply just to the character you’re playing. While I spent a lot of time being confused with the upgrades, it’s important to do the upgrades to get better runs.

If you enjoy games like Vampire Survivors or Brotato, you should check out Tied to the Beat for something similar in feeling, yet completely unique.

Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.

**Special Thanks to Javier Lianes García for the review code**