// Rift of the NecroDancer Review

I grew up on Guitar Hero.

I give significant credit to Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock for informing my taste in music. For a time I was pretty darned good at it as well. I played a rock band here and there as well, but never as intensely as I had during the “golden age” of my rhythm game playing.

Changing gears into NecroDancer talk, I could never get into Crypt of the NecroDancer. In all honesty, it’s because I sucked at it. I loved everything about the game, but it never clicked.

You can probably see where this is going.

When Rift of the NecroDancer grooved into my sights, I was pleased to see a more traditional note-slappin’ lane-based rhythm game, something a la Guitar Hero flavour

Rift of the NecroDancer is very polished, very addictive, very hard, and very, very fun.

// The Gameplay

Rift of the NecroDancer pivots from the previous entries in the series. It ditches the top-down roguelike gameplay for a more pure rhythm experience.

The majority of the game is played in a guitar-hero style where you hit notes as they slide down three lanes in time to a song. The catch with NecroDancer is that the notes are all monsters.

Each monster behaves differently as it moves down the lanes, as well as when you hit it. Some die in one hit, you simply time the button press. Others move across the lanes in different patterns, requiring multiple hits on the same monster. Others skip and jump at different time intervals. These are just a few examples of the variety. They have got all kinds of weird little guys in this one, so I recommend you play it for yourself and check them out.

Most also come in different colours, which indicate the number of hits required to kill them.

When mid-song, you’ll need to not only keep track of the beat, but what kinds of monsters are coming your way and anticipate their movement.

It’s a lot to monitor in the more difficult tracks. In time, you’ll learn the patterns and it starts to become second nature. When everything clicks and you melt away into that flow state, it’s so, so satisfying.

Rift of the NecroDancer goes much beyond a simple guitar hero clone.

You can play with either a keyboard or controller. Keyboard requires simply using the arrow keys that align with the directions in game. On controller, you can use either the D-pad or face buttons, treating them like directional buttons. For example, up notes can either be up on the d-pad or triangle on a Dualsense. The game recommends using a keyboard, but I went with a controller and found it more comfortable.

It’s also worth noting that I played the whole thing on a docked Steam Deck and it ran perfectly.

Playing songs in game mode will make up the majority of the gameplay. But there’s some variety once you’re in the story mode.

// The Story

The story is not much to write home about. The familiar cast of NecroDancer folks will show up and work with Cadence to try and close the rifts that are opening up all over the place. Each time one does, you have to play a song to beat back the monsters. 

It’s simply serving as a way to get you into more songs.

Along the way, however, you’ll find fun minigames and interesting boss battles. They all consist of hitting the four directional buttons, but the activities and ways they get you hitting them keep it fresh. One minigame you’ll be doing yoga, the next you’ll be making burgers. 

The boss fights see you in a 1v1 battle against your foe. You’ll need to time your button presses to block their attacks, then switch gears into offence. Watching how the bosses move will foreshadow their attacks and their timing. 

You’ll likely learn more about each fight each time you do it.

I enjoy all these elements. They were a nice change of pace and offered some fun variety when going through the story. I didn’t find myself wanting to go back to them after, however.

// The Tunes

The soundtrack is composed by multiple artists. Danny Baranowsky and Jules Conroy return having worked on NecroDancer games before, while Josie Brechner, Sam Webster, Nick Nausbaum, Alex Moukala bring their musical talents to the series for the first time.

As you can probably imagine, it sounds great. There’s a good variety of electronic, rock, metal, and even some jazz.

The song designs – meaning the types of monsters and where they fall – reflect the genres well. Metal songs will flood you with an army of skeletons to the beat of the thrashing guitar. Jazz songs will hit you with sporadic and offbeat monsters you’ll need to pay careful attention to.

There are a good amount of tracks in the game already, and the library will only grow. The game has Steam Workshop integration, so players will be able to create and upload their own songs for you to play.

At the time of review, the public hasn’t got their hands on it yet, but there were still a handful of songs available for download. Miraculously, this included the instant classic: Megalovania.

You know I downloaded that ASAP and fired it up. For a brief moment, after I beat the song, I was number one on the global leaderboard for Meglovania in Rift of the NecroDancer. Sure, only three people had played it, but I will cling to this accolade for as long as I live.

I was dethroned by the next morning.

I expect the community will keep this game going for quite some time.

// The Visuals

The visuals for this game really pop. The characters have taken on a bold, graphic style. The linework on the character portraits is bold and dynamic, and they have fantastic shape language.

The animation on the characters and monsters is slick and snappy.

The whole thing shines with explosively fun personality. I love the way everything moves with the beat of the music, even menu items.

// Replayability

This game is hard as butts.

Even on medium difficulty (the default option) I found some songs to be quite challenging. Just to chase high scores or get a full combo (completing a whole song without missing a note) on medium difficulty will keep you going for quite a while.

All the while I was playing, I could see the Hard and Impossible tabs hovering at the top of my screen. They were taunting me.

Of course, I tried, and almost immediately failed out of the song. The game ratchets up the difficulty quite a lot on hard, and impossible… well, it’s in the name.

I managed to complete the first song of the game on hard and called that a victory.

There’s a lot of game you can sink your teeth into here. It will likely take you quite a while to master playing this game on the hardest difficulties, even if you are a seasoned rhythm game player.

On top of that, you have modifiers you can turn on to add additional challenge. Things like “every note must be Perfect to count,” referring to how accurate you timed your attack to the beat.

Rift also offers a remix mode, which plays the same songs with a whole new arrangement of monsters. It ALSO also offers challenges to play. Things like “play without seeing the area where the monsters line up with the hit zones,” or, “play this whole segment without missing a beat.”

Tie this in with all the future fan-made content, and you’ll be rocking for a while to come.

// Outro

Rift of the NecroDancer is a departure from the series, but a fantastic one. This game takes the genre in creative new directions.

I had an absolute blast playing through all the songs, and testing my mettle against the game’s challenges and harder difficulties. I plan on returning frequently to chase high scores and see what new tunes the community has conjured up.

Rift of the NecroDancer is a must-play for rhythm game fans.