NO STRAIGHT ROADS

If music be the food of love, rock on!

- Luke Kemp

We’ve all watched talent shows before, right? And we’ve seen earnest people trying their best to not get humiliated by the judges? Imagine that you’d been put in that situation yourself. How would you react to having your dreams crushed? You probably wouldn’t decide to disassemble the structure of local governance. That’s what our heroes Zuke and Mayday do, though – with rawk!

It’s more than a talent show, though. It’s a setup to find new artists to provide power to Vinyl City, which runs on music (like kids’ screams in Monsters Inc, only less creepy). The duo quickly discover that actually, they were producing incredible power, and their rejection was due to the determination of NSR – the rulers of the city – to promote and protect electronic dance music (EDM). Let the battle of the bands (or, at least, the genres) begin!

Let’s get straight to the soundtrack, which is fantastic. There’s a hint of J-pop to the upbeat music that accompanies your exploration of the city, and the tracks you make your way through levels to are great. The true masterpieces are the boss battle songs, each crafted to perfectly suit the character that you’re fighting. Whether you’re having a rap battle with an estranged brother, fighting a child piano prodigy and her mother, or trying to take down a digital idol, there’s a thumping choon to do it to.