XBLA: 0D Beat Drop

Seemingly out of nowhere, Arc System Works has shifted from “That Guilty Gear company,” broadening its horizons with a handful of rhythm gaming installments, a good many of them actually hitting the United States courtesy of Aksys Games. While some of those titles seemed more like attempts to jump on the Rock Band/Guitar Hero bandwagon (Drum King, Rockin’ Pretty), last week 0D Beat Drop fell into our laps giving us something outside of the ordinary. If you can imagine a smashing of Puyo Puyo and Every Extend Extra Extreme with splashes of the face button timing-based rhythm genre, you have a very good idea of what to expect. In that regard, it could be said that 0D Beat Drop borrows from such influences a little too much for its own good, but, still, the end result is a satisfying and engrossing experience.

The formula I laid out above can explain the title in a nutshell: You take puzzle piece connection mechanics of Puyo Puyo, implement the graphical presentation and BPM analyzer of a Q! Entertainment game (E4, Lumines) and prominently feature music which dictates the overall gameplay. At face value, 0D Beat Drop might seem a like a confusing and intimidating game, but once a player dives in and gets a grasp of the mechanics, that is actually pretty far from the truth. To clear pieces from the playfield, players have to line up at least three of the same icon, however, actually removing the pieces from the game can only be done by performing a beat drop, which is done by pressing the X button in time to the beat of the music. When you see that the other face buttons rotate the active piece and the analog stick or d-pad maneuver the pieces, anyone who has played a puzzle game will know exactly what to do. In fact, the simplicity of the title could potentially be one of the game’s biggest hooks.

To create value for your $10, this simplistic gameplay can be enjoyed in a span of modes that pit single players against one-on-one gauntlets of CPU players, teaming up with a CPU to take on two other computer-controlled players or tackling a series of four-player battle royales. The single-player modes also allow players to attempt a series of trails (clear “x” blocks simultaneously, obtain a “x” chain, etc.), tackle a target score as fast as they can in time trial or load up a song of their own via the hard drive or Xbox 360 compatible music device to jam to. Obviously, though, the real meat of the gameplay is in facing off against human opponents (or in the case of co-op, teaming up with a friend) in the same one-on-one and battle royale formats. While, unfortunately, players can’t share their streaming mp3s analyzed into the game, multiplayer modes do encompass both offline and online features, rounding out a very robust range of options for a downloadable puzzler. You could view these modes as standards for the genre and state that little changes between the modes aside from the number of players involved and where attack pieces are sent, however, as it stands, 0D Beat Drop offers more features than some full-priced retail discs.

No matter what mode the player is in, though, the premise is the same - players launch gameplay with an accompanying piece of music, with the BPM analyzed and displayed in the form of an equalizer that pulses from the bottom to top in time with the current tune. At first, music game purists may scoff at the lenient timing window to active a beat drop, which, at the beginning encompasses roughly half of the equalizer. However, as players beat drop, successive drops accumulate a combo meter that awards more points to the player and sends more attack pieces to the opponent in the appropriate modes. As the combo meter builds up, the beat drop timing window gets smaller and smaller until it is nothing more than a tiny sliver at the top of the equalizer, really testing the player to flawlessly hammer out drops in time to the beat. Thankfully, the combo doesn’t reset if players opt to not beat drop and place pieces down on the field manually, allowing players to set up some nasty chains and links that will send the maximum amount of garbage over to the opponent. While the system sounds like a gimmick at first, the mechanic is implemented quite well and in tandem with beat dropping offers some sound risk and reward strategy – you can save your combo and build up a great attack, but, at that same time, opponents can send over garbage and ruin your plan.

0D Beat Drop controls naturally and operates just as well as any other popular puzzle game, which is a godsend when your opponent has your playfield filled with garbage pieces. When you toss in the fact that only a few buttons are used to play the title, the game is a great pick-up-and-play title that should appeal to anyone who has enjoyed a title such as Tetris or Puyo Puyo in the past. The span of modes can keep anywhere from one to four players occupied for some time and while the gameplay is extremely fast-paced and versus games can end in a flash, this does make for a great party feel where players can pass the controller around without having to wait forever for another go. That being said, with the frantic gameplay, some of the attacks can feel extremely unfair, with garbage piece totals easily reaching a total of hundreds. This is sort of remedied by allowing for a fever drop that depletes your combo meter if you beat drop after allowing more than 40 garbage pieces to fall on your playfield. The fever drop changes the colors of some of the pieces on the playfield and results in a mass clearing of your field. However, these attack pieces easily allow the opponent to immediately activate a fever drop in return, effectively creating a wacky balance in the gameplay. In the long run, however, skilled players will still be able to go back and forth and the simple nature of activating the fever drop gives less skilled players an easy means to stay competitive.

Surrounding all of the action is a rather impressive presentation, from which the appeal of the title draws heavily. Obviously, music is a huge portion of the game and on this front, 0D Beat Drop doesn’t disappoint with a small collection of varied electronic tunes that range in BPM values, along with featured material from the Japanese act Sweet Vacation. In reality, the song collection explodes when players use the BPM analyzer feature, so not enjoying the content provided by Arc System Works isn’t an excuse for players. Of course, these songs ring through in great quality and do not get drowned out by the gameplay, which features the now-common sound effects of shifting and rotating the puzzle pieces and the booms of pieces clearing off the playfield. It’s all easy on the ears, yet, somehow, it remains prominent and noticeable even amidst the most feverish puzzle session. The graphics seem like they were pulled straight out of Every Extend Extra Extreme, with the brightly-colored digital overlays and equalizer-influenced meters. Also taking a page from Lumines, there are a number of background and puzzle piece skins to choose from to mix up the scenery. While the visuals do appear to be heavily borrowed in concept, there are a variety of interesting skins to see and the use of color really make the visuals pop from the screen. Huge chains and fever drops litter the screen with explosions of light and are extremely pleasing to the eyes. Integrating with the Xbox 360, 0D Beat Drop does allow for players to use their Microsoft Avatars as in-game characters and while they may look a little out of place among the vivid visuals, their animations add to the victories and defeat encountered in gameplay.

Overall, 0D Beat Drop may not be the greatest puzzle game on the market, but it definitely hits toward the top of the list of offerings on Xbox LIVE Arcade. The rhythm aspect gives the title a hook to separate itself from the “match three” and other general puzzle games flooding the market and with the breadth of options available in-game, 0D Beat Drop is a very worthwhile purchase given its price of admission. There are a lot of obviously-borrowed elements, some odd balance issues and overly-difficult CPU characters in some cases, but with a few friends, it’s very easy to look past the title’s minor issues and put some quality multiplayer time into it. When you factor in the ability to load your own songs into the game, the replayability is amped up considerably and leaves players with a mean to expand their song selections and find tunes that they enjoy the most. While this release was easy to miss in the shuffle of a couple of big weeks at retail, we definitely recommend going back to this puzzle-rhythm fusion.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5