Why is this game so much… fun? Well, let me tell you. You can make any game with Shapes and Beats, yes. But what makes this amazing game by Berzerk Studios so fun is that all of the movements of the objects, the pulsing, the explosions, the checkpoints are all just so… synchronized to the fun, electronic beats playing in the background. The soundtrack also grows on you, from the menu music to the waiting-for-other-players music to the levels and boss fights and everything in between.
In this game, it’s best to keep the volume UP.
Playing alone, you will be a blue square. But playing with other people, you may be one of the following (based on your player number):
P1: blue square
P2: yellow triangle
P3: green pentagon
P4: orange circle
To survive the game, you must avoid the pink. If you hit the pink, there will be a timer around your icon. Then, some of your icon will become dotted. That shows that you have lost a life. You get three hits in normal levels, with checkpoints. In boss levels, you have six hits, but with NO checkpoints.
Controls
If you are playing on the computer, here are the keyboard controls:
up arrow/W — move up
down arrow/S — move down
left arrow/A — move left
right arrow/D — move right
space — dash
Dashing is important. If there is a huge wall of pink, press space while holding down in the direction you are in, and you can go through it, unscathed. Cool, right?
On the PS4 and Nintendo Switch? I dunno. Don’t have either.
Here’s one of the level gameplays:
There are a lot of different things in Just Shapes and Beats that you can enjoy.
1: Story
Just shapes and beats has a great storyline. I don’t want to spoil it for you, so… here’s a video.
The story is pretty dramatic, with great background music for the UI and the levels.
Here are some of the artists that helped with the music production:
- Destroid
- Big Giant Circles
- Chipzel
- Zef
- Danimal Cannon
- Kubbi
- Sabrepulse
- Nitro Fun
- Bossfight
- Avenza
- Plesco
- Sylva Hound
- Omnitica
In story mode, there is also casual mode — for less experienced players, like me. It doubles the amount of hits you can take in a track — so regular tracks would give you six hits, and boss fights would give you 12 hits.
After finishing Story Mode, you can reset your progress and start all over again, or you can select certain parts of the story and replay those — without having to do it over again.
2: Challenge mode
In Challenge mode, you are playing with other players — friends or not. There are 4 challenge modes:
- Local couch — play with friends sitting with you, on a couch or not.
- Public — join any random game (you might end up alone in this one.)
- Friends — invite your friends on steam to play with you!
- Community Room — enter a code for a room, and play with others.
There are also 2 challenge difficulties: normal or hardcore. Hardcore is a harder version of the normal version. Here’s a side-by-side comparison:
At the start of each challenge, there are 2 regular tracks, followed by 1 boss fight. Survive each track, and you complete the challenge. No casual mode in challenge mode — it’s always the regular amount of hits.
If you are playing with other people, you can save them by tagging them with your icon. But if everyone dies and there is no one left to save others, then it goes back to the last checkpoint crossed. If that happens 3 times, the track is skipped.
When you choose each of the regular tracks, there are 3 options, and the choice with the most options is picked as the track. They come from the story mode or the extra tracks. The boss fight is chosen randomly from one of the 5 boss fights in story mode.
By finishing each track or challenge, you earn BeatPoints, points that are given based on your performance for a track. You get points for playing online with others and completing challenges. You also get points for your ranking: S gives you 20, A gives you 10, B gives you 5, and C gives you 1.
Each symbol goes by powers of 5.
3: Playlist
The playlist is, to put it simply… a playlist of levels. Some levels will say “Complete in story mode,” while other levels will say “Earn [x] BeatPoints,” meaning that you have to earn those BeatPoints in order to get that track. Some require a challenge to be beaten, such as “Complete 10 challenges.”
You can build a custom playlist by pressing enter for each track, then pressing space. Choose from the songs you have unlocked, and have fun racking up BeatPoints on your own. There’s even an award for having 10 or more tracks in your playlist. Choose from party mode, normal mode, or hardcore mode.
4: Party
In this mode, all of the tracks are chosen randomly and it’s super easy, but there are no breaks in between— so yeah, let the party begin!
In conclusion, Just shapes and beats lives up to more than it’s name — it’s a fast-paced, story-lined, multiplayer, heart-pounding, challenge-breaking game. Berzerk Studios, you have outdone yourself. This game gives you the best combo of Just Shapes and Beats.
Check out their twitter here.
