Beat Hazard Ultra Review
Beat Hazard Ultra's strongest separation from most space shooters is the visual effects and ability to play your own music while the intensity builds with the song, plus its only $9.99 and $5.99 to upgrade if you have the original game. This is what makes the game so appealing to the eyes and attractive to the ears. Music drives our emotion and the visuals add to that amplifying our adrenaline. The more you play the more you want.
The Good:
Custom Music – Whatever music you have on your game system or pc, you can play with this game. If it is only 30 seconds or 30 minutes, you can play it on here. The standard music on the game isn't bad either, it has its up and downs with some weird rock songs that you will probably only play once then never hear it again. I experimented with different genres of music such as; Rock, Metal, Techno, House Music, Soundtracks, Rap, Hip-Hop, and Oldies. All sounded great with the game and attitude besides Rap, Hip-Hop, and Oldies. It just doesn't fit with feel and attitude of the game. My favorite is Techno, Rock, and Metal.
Visuals – The visuals are just stunning and eye catching. It really adds to your favorite music playing with all the explosions and stars becoming brighter with every strong hit. You really don't realize how much influence the songs have on the game till it reaches a quiet point or pauses. Everything in the game slows down and no explosions happen. Even your weapons lose all their power and become little white dots until the music picks back up and all the craziness happens again. You can even change how much visual effects are present in the game from 50% to 200%. If your eyes are sensitive to light and give you a headache, 50% is right for you. If your eyes are not so sensitive but love the visuals, you will want to play around 100% to 150%. If you just want to go nuts and only last for a short amount of time, 200% is right for you because you will not know what is going on and where you are.
Gameplay – This is a pick up and play kind of game, there isn't that much to it rather than using the left joy stick to move and the right to fire in the direction you want. The shoulder buttons give you a shield, missiles, atomic bomb, and other perks. There are tons of upgrades and unlock-able content in this game to keep you leveling up and wanting more. Player modes include Single, Local multiplayer, Online multiplayer up to two players.
The Bad:
The only complaint I have about this game is the online feature with the music. YOU CAN ONLY PLAY MUSIC THAT IS ON YOUR SYSTEM AND YOUR FRIENDS!!!! Are you kidding me? So in order to play with your friend across America you both have to download the same songs in order just to play them. That was a huge let down for me. When I read about his game I thought to myself, "What a great way to learn new music with players and expand my music genres. Nope not happening here, just hope you get lucky with some random player or get used to playing the same songs over and over.
Other than the one complaint I have with online multiplayer, this is a solid game with hours of fun either by yourself or with a friend in the same room. It can be played for hours in one sitting or for ten minutes if you like. The replay value with this game is very high and especially at the cost of only $9.99. I recommended this game to any casual or hardcore gamer.
Read the full review with photos and gameplay video at http://aaronalldaffer.wordpress.com/2011/10/22/beat-hazard-ultra-review/