No Straight Roads

No Straight Roads is a music-based boss rush basher with a fun cast and great soundtrack. Despite a few control issues and a rather small base game, there's obviously a lot of heart present.

No Straight Roads is a moderately short experience, but upon finishing the game, I asked myself one question: Did you enjoy your time with No Straight Roads? For me, that answer was a loud yes.

Turn up the volume for this one.

I love when developers switch up the norms of typical rhythm games and combine them with elements of a different genre, like The Metronomicon or Crypt of the NecroDancer. So you can imagine I was excited to hear about a new action-oriented title that would take the idea of beat matching and pair it with a satisfying ‘smash everything’ gameplay loop. And I’m happy to say, with Metronomik’s release of No Straight Roads, I experienced the zany adventure of Mayday and Zuke all the while listening to some great music and taking in the visually gorgeous art style. Though, it did come with some minor...

You really need to play No Straight Roads. While the gameplay isn't amazing, the presentation is, and it's flawed in some truly interesting ways.

There’s a lot to like about No Straight Roads, there really is. But ultimately, its gameplay is disappointing. It’s essentially a boss rush game that’s been stretched thin by repetitive platforming sections and a hub that’s just a mindless collectathon. The boss battles themselves are of varying quality too, and are laden with frustration. With a patch or two No Straight Roads could be a decent game, but as it stands it’s impossible to recommend to even those who are really into music-infused adventures.

No Straight roads would be a fun enough music-snob rhythm-action game if it was just the cool bosses, but the wonky platforming sections let it down.

No Straight Roads asks you to fight back against inequality with the power of rock in an evocative musical experience.

No Straight Roads looks great, sounds great, and has great characters- but it has major gameplay issues that bring down the whole experience.

No Straight Roads drew me in with its high octane trailer and the promise of a fun rhythm game I could play solo or with a co-op partner. In a town literally powered by EDM, Mayday and Zuke want to bring back rock and roll. But the board governing Vinyl City stands in the way of their band Bunk Bed Junction’s fame. Taking it one gig at a time, this duo plans to climb the charts and set music free.

No Straight Roads is a videogame first and foremost; and by videogame standards, this was a poor effort for such wasted potential.

It doesn't give me any pleasure to pen this review and air my grievances with the game, but I can't help but feel it's an amalgam of missed potential mixed with an ambitious designer's love for a genre and the games it spawned. I wish it had lived up to my expectations, and I can't say I understand the decisions the developers made between the vertical slice I played and the game's official debut. But I do know one thing: No Straight Roads needs to retire from touring, rest its vocal cords, and make a comeback tour when it's found itself as an artist. Right now, it can't carry a tune.