BeatBlasters III

So don't let the action platformery appearance fool you. This is a very slow sluggish rythm game that revolves around rock paper scissoring the enviroment. Levels consist of three elements. SHoot the badguys Shield the defense targets And boost around to do both of those. Its a neat concept, the visuals are nice. But honestly the controls felt way to sloppy and sluggish. I'd wait till this became part of a bundle before picking it up.

Nicely done soundtrack and art style... but there it stopped for me. Animations are done poorly, the character moves like a snail which doesn't help the poor and repetitive gameplay. It had a lot of promise, but it turned out to be just the same as one of those poorly done: 'get 3 stars every level' flash game. So nope wouldn't recommend it, let's hope they can improve on this and the next game will be better.

I love music. It's always been a huge part of my life, whether that's listening to a fresh track or making my own, and I couldn't imagine a world without it. The citizens of BeatBlasters III aren't as big fans of it, in fact they've gone so far as to outlaw any and all music being played or listened to in their quaint little suburbia. Obviously this simply won't do, and thus you must liberate the town from itself...by escorting monkeys to choppers and protecting panda bears from giant gumdrops? To try and make sense of BeatBlasters would be a foolish endeavor, as everything about it is as nonsensical and random as any game I've ever played. Putting you in the head bobbing, foot tapping shoes of the musically powered Gina and Joey, each level tasks you with a bizarre objective requiring you to utilize your three abilities: a shield, a plasma shot, and a hoverboot jump. Where the musical aspect comes into play is recharging said abilities by tapping to the beat of the song. Keeping a steady rhythm forms combos which let you charge them faster, making getting into the groove a necessity as levels quickly become more challenging. It's a moderately interesting idea, but in practice only serves to frustrate. Everything about BeatBlasters is slow and clunky, from your movements to character animations, to the awkward transitions between track layers which constantly skip and repeat themselves. It's frustrating to play even when it works, but during hectic moments requiring quick timing it's an abysmal mess of trying to charge your shots and complete your objective in time. The objectives themselves are of little consequence, as almost all fall into the same mold of protecting or escorting the dumbest NPCs to ever inhabit a game. You would be forgiven for mistaking them for being on deaths door for how sluggishly they move through levels, all but begging enemies to kill them and get it over with. The artwork itself hovers from moderately interesting, too simplistic and unimaginative. Characters especially suffer from awkward transitions and an extremely limited move-set. I can appreciate the variety in locals, but even then there is little character in the backgrounds and no consistency with whatever theme the developers themed to be going for. As a musically themed game, the loop heavy tracks are uninspired and aggravating to hear continually repeat themselves off time as they unsuccessfully attempt to sync with your actions. I'm not sure exactly what I expected from BeatBlasters III, but what I got was a dull, repetitive and unpolished experience that wouldn't cut it as a third-rate flash game. There's nothing I can recommend about it besides not being inherently broken from bugs, as the presentation, controls, and underlying mechanics all work against themselves to suck any fun that could have been had with the game. And if King Banana wants anymore bananas he can bloody well get them himself!

I don't know if it was the Ladybug Maid, the Terrorist Monkeys with Banana Bombs or the fact that the Goth/Punk/Alternative girl character was grooving to Electronic Dance Music...But this game had charm, and I liked it! I can now be mistaken for a pigeon due to the constant head bobbing along to the game's music, which mind you is quite groovy. If the sound of a music infused platformer sounds like fun to you, then I completely recommend giving BeatBlasters III a go. Due to turning me into a raving Pigeon I have to take points off, but because of the EDM loving Goth/Punk/Alternative girl, it gains points back, leaving [b]BeatBlasters III[/b] with a score of [b]7/10[/b]

Terrible game. You slog from one place to another trying to figure out what to do because the instructions are vague. In general you either shield something or destroy something. To "recharge" your powers you're supposed to hit the music to the beat but the noise you make while recharging is so loud you can't hear the music. Couldn't wait to get my trading cards, uninstall, and pretend this game never existed.

- Garbage controls! - Loud sounds and music that cannot be changed in any way! - Ugly animations! Avoid and play something that's fun!

What a mess.

Cards

Some other reviewers call the controls slow and sluggish, but that's because your walk speed is slow & jump is floaty. It intentionally forces you to use the boost to move around (which means you have to be good at the rhythm system to recharge your boost meter). If the controls were more responsive and enemies were faster to match (the enemies are slow as well), you'd never have a chance to recharge your meters. You should be recharging every chance you get anyways so that you have your special ready for when you need it. I used a Xbox 360 controller and found the controls fine. Keyboard controls probably don't feel as good. I 3-Star'd normal levels until the cats and then realized that you can just get the 3 stars from the easy difficulty as well (no punishment) and finished the rest of the levels at 3-stars easy. I found it to be a game I could learn the mechanics and coast through to the end. There is a bit of variety for each stage in terms of scenario and objectives and there aren't so many stages that it felt repetitive. Probably not worth it at full price but I'd recommend on a sale or bundle.

Sadly, I thought this game would be a lot more fun than it's turned out to be. I tried the demo first and since it was on sale, I bought it - big mistake. I have to agree with the people who didn't recommend this game. Not only does this game not work very well, the controls (WASD for powers, arrow keys for moving) are messed up, making protecting items and characters nearly impossible and recharging powers a constant inconvenience and the beat is a bit off. Recharging "quite often" is an understatement in this game since one's powers last for only seconds before having to recharge and since recharging depends on the beat, which is out of sync with the controls and seems to depend more on watching the recharge bar and ignoring the beat, it takes much longer than using powers. One might as well forget using the powers. It would work out better if the powers lasted longer or recharging them worked better. When the level requires one to use 2 powers simultaneously, ie. shielding and jumping, the combos rarely work and that throws the entire level off and makes one lose the level. What happens is that the character jumps off of or away from whatever one's protecting since using the shield doesn't move objects like the game claims it does, leaving items and characters unprotected. Also, when shielding an obfect and trying to move forward doesn't work either, it just moves your character and shield away from objects.