Pulsen

From the viewpoint of someone who is hardcore into Rhythm gaming I just can't recommend Pulsen for its cost. If you're looking for a packaged standalone experience that requires no additional setup and is super casual friendly, then it might be the game for you. But for an advanced user, who is already accustomed to modifying a game like StepMania to fit my needs, I find the experience lacking. There is the promise of a song editor coming eventually and steam workshop integration, but nothing you can't already get in SM for free. No custom themes, noteskins appear to be limited to paid DLC, limited mod-ability. The chart gimmicks are cute, but I don't really feel the same depth in them as other packs. Look up WinDEU or charts made for D.O.W.N.S. for some examples. And as far as overall difficulty, even the most challenging of charts was relatively tame compared to the majority of what I commonly play on SM/FFR. If you're a pad player, you can expect a similar experience to picking up an old console copy of DDR or ITG in terms of content and customization options. And if you're OK with that, and you rather not deal with setting up everything yourself (if you haven't already) then you should probably get this game. Nothing but respect to the developers, they are trying, they do listen to feedback. Its simply not something I'm looking for as a veteran rhythm gamer.

I'm a really big fan of rythm games, having played DDR, ITG, PIU, osu etc.. Sadly pulsen feels like a gimped version of existing software out there.. Sure it's easy to install since it's on steam but overall it has been a negative experience..

- Dance game based on StepMania 5 - Unique theme - Steam integration - Nice developer who responds relatively quickly to feedback I've been playing OpenITG pretty casually for a little over two years now, but Pulsen seems like the game that will finally have me pushing to beat my scores and playing much more regularly! The charts are pretty fun, and the song choices are pretty good too. I also like the usage of the Lift note (I've seen very few custom songs for SM5 that have incorporated it).

I have been with Pulsen for quite a while, probably before it was even a thought to have it pushed to major platforms like Steam. So that is a forewarning that I have seen it develop and have helped it along in what little way I can over the years. Take that as you will. TL;DR: >Wide variety of difficulty and styles >Varied songs, some may even be familiar >Based on Stepmania 5, polished to a shine >Many features to come to enhance experience Details: It has calm charts for easing in new players, up to mind-bending charts to challenge the hardcore. It supports keyboard, dance pad, and controllers, with separated scores as well. And as with most dance games, you can modify scroll speed and change other effects. You can find your exact playstyle, and tweak it on the fly. The songs within are varied, with more to come as the game rolls through Early Access. VVVVVV even appears with familiar tunes, and veterans of Stepmania and the like might have other songs bring nostalgia. Speaking of; this is based on Stepmania 5, but is practically brand new. It has a sleek new paint job full of flashy colors smothered in purple. Those familiar with it will be right at home. There is still quite a bit of polish to be done, hence the Early Access. Many features are planned to come. The devs are quite active, so any details players can provide would be wonderful. This is highly recommended for anyone who needs to sate the urge to bring out dance pads to stamp on, or mash their keyboard pushing for high scores. As I have been with Pulsen for so long, I may be a tiny bit biased, again take that as you will. This game has delivered great fun for me for years now, always pushing myself to best my own scores, let alone the dev's scores. But the trailer shows I have at least beat him on one song, so muahahaha~

TL:DR: This game isn't worth $15. Free alternatives are Stepmania, FFR, and osu! mania (to an extent). Long answer: Out of curiosity I thought I would try this game to see how much it differs from other VSRGs. $15 is a bit steep for these types of games but I thought they might've done something interesting that would make it worth it. Here are some pros and cons I have with the game: *DISCLAIMER*: I will be comparing this game A LOT to Stepmania, another VSRG. The reason for this is that they are so similar to each other, it would be crazy not to compare the two. PROS: - The game seems to have a fairly professional feel and doesn't feel like it was made halfassed - The customizability in the settings for the game is extensive (feels VERY similar to stepmania) - Supports replays. This is especially good for this game because Stepmania, the game that is most similar to this game, does not have this feature at the moment - There is no prep work to get this game running with an assortment of maps CONS For rhythm game enthusiasts: - If you are halfway decent at Stepmania, this game will be way too easy. I've gotten platinum scoring (99%) on practically all of the hardest difficulties with only one or two tries - The timing is way too basic. At this point, there are only two timing windows: you hit the note, or you missed it. There is no other timing windows e.g. in stepmania there is Marvelous, Perfect, Great, Good, Bad, Boo and Miss - It's difficulty is based more on modifiers of the file rather than actual note density and patterns. Also a lot of the maps play like maps in Stepmania that are not supposed to be played with c-mod due to rapid bpm changes CONS for caual players: - It's just so expensive. 15 dollars for a game that could be played virtually the same and subjectively better for free is just not worth paying money for Conclusion: This game would have been pretty good if it were the only option for this type of game genre. It's well-put together and has a good assortment of songs. Since this not the case, however, I cannot recommend it. There are other games that do this concept, in my opinion, better AND for free.

[h1]Born to Beat[/h1] Neon lights and techno music engulf you in this fast paced music and rhythm game. Pulsen’s high BPM tracks will have you moving along to the beat as you scurry to match the corresponding controller prompts. With full support for keyboards, gamepads, dance pads, and Rock Band drums, be prepared to let the music flow and put your reflexes to the test. Local coop is supported. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] [u][b]Song Selection[/b][/u] There are approximately 80 songs that are fully playable to choose from at the moment, with more being added throughout the duration of Early Access. Most of these songs are techno/EDM with high BPM – beats per min (131+). Like with all music games, there will be some tracks that appeal to you, with others being a bit less attractive in an effort to satisfy wider audiences. The typical HUD includes the: notes, receptors, success meter, time remaining, and # of notes hit/remaining. Upon selecting a song, modifications can be activated and manually changed for personalization. These include: note skins, receptor effects, etc. A screenshot presenting all of these possible options are provided below. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=738912016 A score is provided at the end of each song. The score is boosted by maintaining a long multiplier (don’t miss a beat). Hitting the note “perfectly” does not affect the score, just whether you managed to hit it at all. Continually missing a note will cause a meter to degrade, and by missing enough notes, eventually leading to a fail. This meter can be replenished by consistently hitting more notes. [u][b]Difficulty Levels[/b][/u] There are 5 difficulty levels you can choose to play for each song: Beginner, Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert. The main difference in these levels include: note count, on what beat the notes are presented, long-press notes, simultaneous button prompts, mines (do not press), etc. The Beginner difficulty level is sufficiently easy enough for a child, or someone completely new to gaming, to understand and handle, whereas the Expert difficulty level will make rhythm game veterans sweat. In addition to the above, certain songs will add another layer of difficulty by adding effects to make the songs themselves seem alive (on higher difficulty levels). These effects manifest themselves to the beat by: scrunching and releasing multiple notes, swerving the note board, vibrating the receptors, drastically increasing or decreasing the note space/layout, etc. This feature makes it insanely fun to explore each song and find a favorite one to master. [u][b]Video Gameplay[/b][/u] https://youtu.be/NkM_emS_W14 [h1]Game Options[/h1] [u][b]Audio-visual Calibration[/b][/u] There are visual and audio sync calibrations to help if anything seems to be a little off on your setup. For those that have never tried playing a rhythm game on a TV with a non-standard gamepad before, syncing problems can arise and it is very great that Pulsen includes these options. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] [u][b]Current State of the Game[/b][/u] Pulsen is currently in Early Access. For those that are not aware of the Early Access concept, it is perfectly acceptable for bugs to be present (none observed) and game mechanics to be missing. Right now, there are 80 fully playable songs, with at least 100 included in the main game after the full release. Art is being updated and a tutorial will be added. Regarding the developers themselves, they seem to be very active and show a lot of care and concern needed to make Pulsen flourish, as seen on the Discussions board. Developer updates are transparent, troubleshooting threads have a direct response, and most important of all, suggestions and concerns of Early Access supporters seem to be acknowledged and accepted. [u][b]Verdict[/b][/u] Pulsen brings back the nostalgia of when I was a little kid playing DDR on my Playstation. Trying to stay as unbiased as possible, this DDR inspired music and rhythm game gets all of the important parts right in an effort to carry on the legacy of the legend in PC form on Steam. With seemingly no other competitor in this niche genre/playstyle (on Steam), Pulsen is recommended to any fan of DDR or rhythm games. [table][tr][td][url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/BeforeYouBuy]Before You Buy[/url] – analyses of newly released indie games[/td][/tr][/table]

As a StepMania and osu!mania player, my opinion may be a little biased here and there. [h1] Things I enjoyed [/h1] [list] [*][u]Graphics[/u] The game is probably the best looking VSRG around. [*][u] The Music [/u] While not the kind of music I enjoy most of the time, it works. I would personally love more high-bpm songs, hardstyle, eurobeat, etc. though. [/list] [h1] Things I did not enjoy [/h1] [list] [*][u] The difficulty [/u] The difficult part about these maps is that it isn't the actual note mapping that makes the songs hard, it's the scroll speed changes and various effects. Coming from SM and o!m where such effects are unusual, the scroll speed changes annoy me. Yes, such effects should have a place in maps, though I feel they are majorly disruptive to the general flow of how a map goes (see CTRL ALT BELIEVE @ approx 0:45). [*][u] Lack of Variety with Note Patterns [/u] (Going to use some SM-terminology) In Pulsen, most of the maps I played (admittedly not many of them though) had rather simple patterns. They mostly consisted of rolls, trills and a few jumps. What I would like to see are maps that challenge you with note patterns, and not Scroll Speed changes. An example for a somewhat challenging map from StepMania would be [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryEj6xuQekI] Everytime I Hear Your Name [/url] consisting of mostly jumpstreams, rolls (1:10~) and eventually a handstream (at around 1:17). [u]This[/u] is the kind of mapping I want to see. [*][u] Difficulty finding fixed speed in modifications [/u] I had to fool around with the Note Scroll Speed Multiplier before I realised the option for "fixed" scroll speed even existed. I would also like more options for fixed scroll speed, increments of 50 are okay, but I would like to be able to choose even more. [*][u] Few songs and lack of difficult songs [/u] I realise this is something that most likely would be fixed when the editor is released, but as it stands at the moment I feel there are relatively few maps. [*][u]Lack of leaderboards[/u] Incredibly important for me as I like to play "competitively", be it world wide or with others in my country. All in all, I would recommend the game [b][u]IF[/u][/b] you aren't looking for the hardest maps, with quadstreams, jumptrills and songs with other patterns like these. The game is more aimed towards the casual VSRG player, so it failed to cater to me as it stands right now.

よくある4Keyの音ゲー、DDRクローン 正確にはStepmaniaのゲームエンジンを利用したフォーク（派生）です Stepmaniaでいいじゃんと最初は思ったんですが、優良なゲームだけあって曲の権利関係も含め一定のクオリティが担保されています。 いまのところDLC楽曲を含めず全85（＋10）曲、どの曲も難易度は5種類以上あり、楽曲や譜面自体も有志制作（コミュニティ製）ではなく、音ゲーのために作られたもの（とはいってもLapFox Trax楽曲）なので、ほぼダンス/クラブミュージックで固まっています。 ロックやユーロビート、アニソンっぽい曲などガッツリ歌詞入りの曲は今の所ないです。難易度指標も均一で、基準は足譜面となってます。 LapFox楽曲でDDRクローンがプレイできるので、VULPvibe時代のMungyodanceっぽい懐かしさを感じます。 PulsenはSM5系がベースなので、ここぞとばかりに譜面がグリグリ動きます（ [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugum_E8Ata0]こういうの[/url]）毎曲毎曲動きまくるのは新鮮ですが、動きまくるのがウザいならMOD画面からOFFにしましょう。 2016年以降しばらくアップデートはないですが、Steamコミュニティハブで開発者の発言を見る限り、既にDLC曲も用意があるし、進捗やロードマップについて記事をまとめるとのこと、どうなるやら。ちなみに オプション＞Gameplay＞テストデータベースを使う [オン] にすれば追加で10曲入るので、全95曲となります。 カスタム曲の取り込み方については、いろいろ試してるのですが上手くいかない。開発者はSteamフォーラムで実装したって書いてるけど多分ないですね・・・ いつアーリー抜けるのかわからないですが、いまの段階でもゲームとしてはほぼ完成形なのでシレッと小さいアプデしてアーリー抜けするかもわからん。 LapFox Trax楽曲の追加と、Monstercatのような大手でフットワークの軽いレーベルから楽曲提供があれば盛り上がるかもしれませんが、もう動きが見えないので一生このままの作品な気がします。

It's StepMania.. You can get that for free..

Nothing that really makes it stand out over it's competitors, and it appears to be have been abandoned. No workshop support, little aesthetic customisation, no options that other games dont already have, flipping the playfield invalidates scores, no editor, and the bundled maps are good, but not good enough to warrant the price tag. Not a bad game, but there just isn't any reason to get this over stepmania.