Well, before you start investing time in this game, you should ask yourself:
Do you like solving an unintended puzzle?
This game essentially is that. You as Vernonica (Goddess of Swing, blessed be thy name!) are supposed to convert back the evermarching paleness and sterilazation of the world through the golden splendor of Swing by literally swinging around the robotic hearts of your adversaries and then convert them through Swing. Easier said then done, cause the non-diegetic tutorial in no help whatsoever. It explains the simple controls and mechanics well enough, but you as a player do not know what the game wants from you gameplay-wise.
In that regard, games like these become either an unfun chore or, as in my case, an exciting half-an-hour-puzzle. For anyone who wants to know what they are supposed to do: You are trying to build up a combo by encircling an area, preferably with enemies within and as many tricks as possible like line intersections and wall bounces (which you do not need to trigger manually despite having a mapped button in the controls). This builds up a red meter at the bottom right of your character. Your combo can be chained with other combos within a timeframe as indicated by the meter on the top left of your character. While the combo meter is red, your progress will vanish once the timer is up. To circumvent that, press RB on the golden gramophones (the prompt is just too small to read while swinging around). The combo meter then becomes golden and is saved from the deletion by time. You have 5 total attempts to save your combo as indicated by the battery counter top right of the screen. However, your total time for a level is unlimited.
So now one could ask themself: Where is the difficulty? Answer: Only the impatient and ignorant ones will encounter it. The enemies are just there to reduce your combo timer, so you have potentially less points to submit to a gramophone. They will not break your combo or deduct points from your combo. You can basically only fail at a level if you try submit your combo 5 times and not achieve the total requirement of the level. Then, you are uncermoniously thrust to the beginning of the level.
The short synopsis of the plot at the start of this recommendation would be enough for a story hook. However, I do not understand why the theme of modern capitalism was shoehorned into the motivation of the antagonist. Swing vs. Capitalism is not a mashup that clicks together. It feels jaring. The colour palettes do, however, which is a saving grace. It is especially baffling since Swing is a product of the Roaring Twenties, which could be considered the zenith of capitalism's popularity. Right now, the theme is also exchangable, as it has not become relevant to the overarching plot. Some example themes are: technology, machines, buisness, bureaucracy, EDM...
The artstyles (yes, multiple!) on their own are fine and in the case of the Swing side even gorgeous. Nevertheless, they really clash together like a wrecking ball with brick wall. I can only speculate the communication between the different visual artists were... off.
The audio design is lacking. I can set the master volume, but not the music or SFX volume. Additionally, for the life of me, I can not understand what Veronica is trying to articulate under the drowning Swing music. The Swing music is catchy, but it does not have to catch Veronica's voice in her throat.
Still, I recommend this game, as this was a fun experience for me, although not for the intended gameplay. Unfortunate to say though, I spend more time writing this review than beating the game. Also, somehow, the achievements don't work for me. Maybe this, along with a lot of other things, need to be fixed. Still, the concept is a diamond in the rough.
