To review UNBEATABLE, all caps or no caps, I think I need to start by positing a hypothetical.
Have you ever turned on the radio, or been in a store where they've got music on, and heard some absolute schlock? Just, vapid, nothing pop music. Or maybe heard some corporate-ass stock music, that works too. And on a technical level, it's fine, maybe even quality, the notes are in key and it has the structure down right and maybe there's a little flourish in the background of the chorus if you're lucky, but you probably aren't. And it's fine, but you just feel nothing listening to it, because like. Who gives a ♥♥♥♥?
Like, seriously. Who gives a ♥♥♥♥ about this stuff? The listeners? Does it have fans or people who've stockholmed themselves into subjecting themselves to this out of habit? Did the singers, the composers? It all feels written by committee, like a bunch of guys in suits got together to pay a band that's lost their drive to make a song that's tolerable to as many people as possible.
And nobody gives a ♥♥♥♥.
And that's, fine, I guess? Not giving a ♥♥♥♥ is something society really likes. Kids, kids give a ♥♥♥♥. They've got a lot of ♥♥♥♥♥ to give, it's a big scary world and they feel everything about it. But growing up, a lot of people say that growing up means you gotta stop giving a ♥♥♥♥. That you gotta settle for okay. Find a job that doesn't make you too miserable. Get married. Have kids. Retire. Die. Live the life you're supposed to, just don't give too much of a ♥♥♥♥ about it. Don't be upset when your dreams don't come to pass. Be realistic.
To review UNBEATABLE, all caps or no caps, I need to continue with a second hypothetical.
Have you ever gone and listened to a local band? They almost certainly give a ♥♥♥♥. They play and sing with a drive and passion you've NEVER heard from Grocery Store Pop Music, they play with crappy amps and their voice cracks and there's like four choruses even if that pisses you off because ♥♥♥♥ you they wanted that. They give a ♥♥♥♥!
And on a technical level, it's not perfect. Sometimes it might even be bad.
But ♥♥♥♥, you feel alive! Because they care, they care so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much, it makes YOU care!
You give a ♥♥♥♥ about this music!
In a world where everything is training you to not give a ♥♥♥♥, giving a ♥♥♥♥ means something. They don't want you to give a ♥♥♥♥ about your clothes, about your job, about how you're treated, about the government, about anything you actually believe in. Giving a ♥♥♥♥ means caring, about all of this.
And giving a ♥♥♥♥ means being loud.
I have played a lot of good games, a lot of deep games, a lot of games so full of love and care that it bleeds out from every little metaphorical pore, but UNBEATABLE is one of very few games I've experienced that feels the need to go out and scream that it GIVES A ♥♥♥♥.
It has to give a ♥♥♥♥ LOUD. Everyone's gotta know it.
And in ways, it falters. It has more flaws than games I care less about. Assets clipping, some wonky writing, that one chart that's an insane difficulty spike that pissed me off REALLY bad, that one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ platforming side-challenge where the camera and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ collision make it just abhorrent but I wanted to commit, point is there are flaws. A lot of them.
But, much like a local band, that's okay. Because Unbeatable GIVES A ♥♥♥♥.
Even if that giving a ♥♥♥♥ kind of speaks to a teenage and young adult self-righteous directionless rage, it CARES on a level that's so lost in so many places.
It is a game that does not compromise its vision just to be more broadly appealing, because that would mean not giving a ♥♥♥♥, and they REALLY give a ♥♥♥♥.
You know, when you explain an idea, the idea fundamentally changes.
I've spent my life not really giving a ♥♥♥♥. About how I dress, how I live, how much time I spend exhausted in bed, about what I eat, about what I do with my time, about how living like this is slowly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ killing me.
But UNBEATABLE is inspiring, in just how loud and brash it is. How much it gives a ♥♥♥♥. It makes me want to give a ♥♥♥♥.
It makes me want to write a long and dumb review that makes the phrase "give a ♥♥♥♥" stop sounding like words, for one, but it also makes me want to try.
To wear bright and cool clothes because ♥♥♥♥ anyone who thinks I should just blend in. It makes me want to make music again, make weirder music, louder music. It makes me want to go see local bands, go make more friends, UNBEATABLE makes me want to CARE. Because it cares just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ much that it's infectious, that it makes me want to live.
I think once you've played UNBEATABLE, you'll either really like it or you really won't. But either way, you'll give a ♥♥♥♥, and I think that's all it really wants.
And the idea changes you in return.
