Game Review: Just Shapes & Beats

I thought Seb would like this because it reminded me of Geometry Dash when I saw it, and he does.  The trouble with these games is he starts playing them in the real world, moving objects around and 'singing' the songs.  Ah well, at least he's happy...

Just Shapes & Beats (PEGI-7) is a game about, er, shapes and beats.  We bought it on the Switch, and it's an ideal Switch game.  Good fun if you're playing on the small screen, or step it up and turn up the bass on the big screen.  Plus you can have up to 4 players in local co-op, or play online, if you want to.  Basically, it's one of the fun 'play anywhere with your mates' games that Nintendo likes to talk about when advertising the Switch.

It's a 'bullet hell' game, defined by Wikipedia as:
A relatively recent subgenre that features overwhelming numbers of enemy projectiles, often in visually impressive formations.

It certainly fulfils those criteria!  You are a small shape and you have to dodge all the pink things on the screen.  There are some really intense levels with crazy pink stuff everywhere.  Some are hard!  (Though probably not as hard as Geometry Dash, which is impossible for most people, after all.)  All you can do to dodge the pink shapes is move and dash.  

There is a story mode (with bosses), score attacks, challenges, and also a party mode, which is easier and goes on forever.  It's a way to enjoy the music, which is one of the main draws of the game.  It's chiptune stuff by artists like Danimal Cannon, Nitro Fun, Sabrepulse, Bossfight, Chipzel and Big Giant Circles. Seb loves this stuff.  He memorises the music to games like this....

If you're playing co-op you can 'help' your friends when they've taken too many hits, which helps prolong more difficult levels. (Some of the bosses are insane compared to the difficulty of most of the game.)

The visuals are kinda hypnotic and fit brilliantly with the music. I was going to say it's almost a work of art. But then I felt that was a bit pretentious...

The game is £15.09 on Switch and is also available on PC (£15.49 on Steam).