Superbeat: Xonic

While lacking the portable aspects of the original, the ability to plug in some expensive headphones or utilise a home theater system is a mandatory experience if you've only played the Vita version, as the astonishingly high quality of the music and visuals deserve to be played in the biggest way possible.

With a club-ready soundtrack and brilliant rhythm gameplay, Superbeat: Xonic is an excellent addition to the Switch's growing music game hit parade. It's stylish, fun, and challenging in all the right ways, and does a great job easing players into its frenetic charts with forgiving timing and balanced progression. Some frustrating touch-control issues mean that VOEZ or Deemo are better bets for touchscreen tunes, but if you're onboard with button-based beats, Xonic is a super choice.

If you're looking for a solid arcade action rhythm game, you could certainly do worse than SUPERBEAT: XONiC. Not only can you manage the difficulty to your personal play style, it's sensory overload will get your heart pumping like you were on your feet. This is a compliment: It's like Bop It on acid.

From the unergonomic and inconsistent controls to glitches and a lack of content, I feel massively let down by what SUPERBEAT offers. Unless you're already a hardcore fan of this game that got rid of their Vita or want a portable version, I don't see why a rhythm gamer would fork out for this game when something like Deemo already exists on the Switch, giving a quality experience with a lot more bang for your buck.

An extremely challenging rhythm game that fans of DJMax will adore. It is no fault of Superbeat: Xonic itself, but the asymmetrical design of the Switch controls means this can take some getting used to, particularly if having played extensively on PS Vita or elsewhere, but being able to play in tablet style with touch controls and the Joy-Con removed eradicates that entirely. The only problem at time of writing is that the touch controls seem bugged. A patch is on the way, which will hopefully mean Xonic will be an essential purchase for Switch rhythm fans.

SUPERBEAT: XONiC on Nintendo Switch is a solid rhythm game that fans of the genre should check out. The over 65 songs included with the main release, as well as the many more that will see a release as DLC, will keep you busy for a while with its varied mix and match of genres that, when taken as a whole, feel right for this release you can dance to as you play at home or on the go.

For the last few years Rhythm games have been all the rage especially in social gatherings with the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Before all of that however, Harmonix made two incredible, yet cult classic, entries to the PS2. Those were Frequency and Amplitude which catered to lovers of Techno and Trace. Superbeat: Xonic for me brings that love back again to today (Nick’s review of the PSV version) with a slew of tracks that I had never heard yet were enjoyable to go through with controls that will over time really test your manual dexterity.

SUPERBEAT: XONiC EX is a great musical game with cool challenges. Perfect for those who enjoy nowadays music and want to have fun playing.

Aside from small complaints here and there, Superbeat: XONiC does a very good job of being a portable game. With just three songs per TRAX session, it becomes a game that’s perfect for short pockets of time. The barrier to entry is not that high either, making this game accessible to a lot of players. If you like rhythm games or just want to jam with great tunes in general, you owe it to yourself to add this game to your library.

It’s very easy to lose yourself in SUPERBEAT XONiC EX, its satisfying gameplay and soundtrack melding together in perfect harmony. While the initial learning curve is a tough one, once you’ve come to grips with all the rapid tapping, sliding and button pressing, you’ll discover a great rhythm game unlike anything on the Nintendo Switch right now.