Mevo & The Grooveriders

Something about the tutorial of this rhythm-action platformer nagged at us. It was busy teaching us to press one of two buttons as we ran past icons. Music played in the background, to which our button-pressing added the percussion. Eventually we realized what was wrong: we needed to hit on the off-beat.

It’s the flaw in what might otherwise have been a cute, lightweight game. The simple two-button approach should make it easier to find the beat and then perform more intricate rhythms within. Instead, you’ll often do far better to ignore the music altogether. Your tapping can create drums, melodies, or even ambient sound, but rarely is this meaningful to the background tune.

As you progress you gain points that let you unlock costumes, alternative heads, and new special moves. These include approximations of the four Left 4 Dead characters, but such affectations prove to have almost no effect. Each level has three challenges to complete, but if you achieve the Gold requirements while still aiming for Silver, they aren’t recognized, forcing you to play through again. And then a third time for Diamond. And midway through the 15 levels the difficulty curve smacks you in the forehead. It’s at a throwaway price, and for a few of the early levels it’s passably challenging, but Mevo fails at its most fundamental task: to include rhythm with its action.

Jun 17, 2009