Gal Metal – Nintendo Switch review

Gal metal is a rhythm game with a twist and a story and is very different to most rhythm games you have seen so far, or it is for me at least. It has been developed by DMMgames and produced by Marvelous (xseed) it’s been a bit of a bold undertaking for the switch as you can imagine as it’s not really set up for the standard system of plugging in drums etc like most other consoles at the moment.

The game starts off with a boy walking back from school one night and gets abducted by a race known as the Octoids, they proceed to tell you that they are here to destroy earth due to the weapon we sent to there planet. You’re with a high school girl as all this is being explained and after they are done they transfer you into the girl’s body and you must share the body and work with her school band to stop the aliens using only the power of metal.

When you do start the game it is worth noting that you need to choose your play style for the game in the options settings as it is automatically set to use the joy cons as drumsticks but you can choose to use buttons or touch screen instead if it is more to your preference.

You can see from the art style and the look of the characters that the game has a heavy Japanese style to it, the story unfolds like a comic which is read from right to left with some animations taking place as each square loads and you click it from one to the next meaning you don’t have to worry about missing story.

There is a lot of group chat style bits in the game where the band are all testing each other and you are given the occasional print to choose a reply but these are few and far between. In between gigs you get to visit different areas of the town to increase different stats which grant you different bonuses based on how you wish to play. You should level up the ones that apply, you can also use this time to practice either with the band or solo which will teach you new drum patterns ready for your gigs and aid you in defeating the aliens.

The gigs themselves are where this Gal Metal is very different to most rhythm games you will encounter as there is no sheet music it is all freestyle to jam your own way and play whatever beats or patterns you fancy, linking the patterns together will give you bonuses but you need to ensure you use a variety of them in order to get the score required to move onto the next level.

There are 13 tracks in the game which have all been made for Gal Metal so don’t expect to see any big hits on here sadly, the whole game is fairly short and you can complete it in around 5 hours which is handy as you can’t use free play until you unlock songs from the story mode which is a little disappointing. Another big downfall to this is the input for the touchscreen controls for this game is slow to respond and makes doing any fast pattern very very difficult which is a shame as I know the screen can keep up with fast response times from other games I have played.

All in all the Gal Metal was a bit disappointing but with heavily reading led locked story mode and the poor response time on the drum beats and also the lack of any known songs combined with a very short play time and the restrictions on free play. I feel it’s not really got much bang your money here. Sadly I give it a 4/10 as it’s a good concept that has been executed poorly and I hoped for more.

Overall Score 4/10

Badger

Life long gamer and Geek, Considered by most to be of doubtable sanity. never seen without my trusty Stetson

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