Riff: Everyday Shooter review (PlayStation 3)

Maybe it’s just musical games that are delayed over here; Everyday Shooter was released last year in the US, and we’re still waiting on Rock Band to even be announced in the UK (yes I’m still on that). The game has added the word ‘Riff’ to the title, perhaps to help us silly Brits realise that the focus of the game is music, but not long after booting it up, you’ll see there’s not a lot else it could be centred around. The title screen seems excitingly retro and simplistic, which you may expect after a short 38mb download, but perhaps more so considering the entire game was essentially a one man project devised and created by Jonathan Mak.

Admittedly hardly stretching the innovation of the industry, Riff: Everyday Shooter is another duel stick shooter where the left stick controls movement and the right stick controls firing although you are limited to eight directions of shooting that make the precision of using the buttons instead of the right stick a favourable option. This is referenced in Mak’s ‘notes’ that are lovingly presented in text format from the title menu.

Struck a chord?

The unique aspects to the game relate to the ever-present indie guitar riff (aha, the new title?) backing. Each of the eight levels has a different music track playing, and a completely different look and play style, making it difficult to argue with the ‘album’ feel to the project. Each level involves blasting away at your enemies (pretty much everything is an enemy to your poor innocent little high definition block) while collecting the bonus points left behind by some. It seems unusual to only get points if you manage to collect them following an enemy’s destruction, but if the retro high score standing isn’t enough to draw you in, the fact that the points can later be traded in for other aspects of the game makes pretty sure you’ll play it properly.

The first level serves as a fun tutorial style, with text explaining what everything is and how to make the best of the level floating around following the various items. Since the levels are timed around the music track, it is possible (though extremely tricky) to get through levels without shooting anything, just waiting until the song is over. Naturally this removes a lot of the point of the game, but it shows how you don’t have to go out and obsessively destroying everything to continue.

Beat this…

Now the clever bit… much like in Rez, your actions have an influence on the music, adding tuneful riffs and notes of varying types over the top of the background music when you destroy enemies or collect points. It serves to make the entire experience seem more interactive, helped along by things like the background of the first level changing depending on where you are on the screen.

While it all comes down to what are essentially twitch controls as you avoid the projectiles coming towards you from all around, if you stop firing, your craft will move faster, making it a little easier to speed out of the tricky situation, though perhaps shooting your way out is equally as good a tactic. Each level sets up a different ‘chain’ system too to quickly dispatch multiple enemies and rake in the points. The first gives you certain things to shoot that explode and take out anything in their explosion with them, which takes out anything in their explosion with them ad infinitum. The second merely gives you a series of interlinked posts that when destroyed blow up the ones linked to them, and the chain systems keep changing between levels adding variety that could easily have turned it into a series of separate games rather than separate levels in a single one.

Point and shoot

The unlock points are thankfully added to your total that grows with every play of the standard progressive normal mode or the single mode that lets you play individual levels that you like. When you have enough, you can exchange them for bonuses such as a larger number of starting lives to begin the game with, or more levels for single mode. They will even let you change the appearance of the levels and put them in a shuffled order. It all adds to the replayability of the game, and makes the whole experience much more stress free, knowing that even if you can’t defeat the game with 3 lives, just earning some more points will give you more and allow you to see the rest of the levels.

It is a gameplay decision that seems to take the retro difficulty and length of games and give it a modern twist to allow you to persist and overcome the challenges. Meanwhile, when you play levels again, the locations of where the enemies spawn will change, and give you a fresh experience, while the incoming waves and number of foes remain constant and well timed to the music.

Chill to a tune

Riff: Everyday Shooter seems a lot more addictive than comparably tricky games, mainly because it remains such a positive experience if you enjoy the music, and it is evident that a lot of work has gone into the sound design. If you’ve got a great sound system, you’ll want to listen out to all of the intricacies, and even if not it’s worth trying with headphones on to immerse yourself in the crazy simplistic, but definitely HD (in its vector style graphics) experience.

It’s a word I keep repeating through the review, but much like flOw gave us something resembling a game but that was definitely an experience, this remains a game that is artistically painted into an audio-visual experience that can be both challenging and rewarding. Price always becomes a factor in PSN games to excuse any limitation in the length or variety of a purchase, but in this case Riff: Everyday Shooter would come strongly recommended at twice the price (currently a modest £4.99).