‘Unbeatable’ Review: An Electrifying Rhythm Adventure Set in a World Where Music Is Illegal

There’s no surefire way to produce a hit song, but it sure as hell helps to have a killer hook, like the one the new rhythm adventure Unbeatable has been blasting in its marketing: “In a world where music is illegal and you do crimes.” The game gets away with a lot based on that premise, sometimes literally skating by (via rocket shoes made of snapped headphones and pure rhythm) on a thin, disjointed plot that pits four rebel musicians—Beat, Quaver, Trebel, and Clef—against a fascist police force and a mysterious musical energy known as the Silence.

Unbeatable wears its heart and punk ethos on its sleeve, telling you up front that “this is a story about losing your way.” Which is to say, you’re meant to be confused about the nature of the Silence, how the government military force known as HARM (Harmony and Resonance Management) operates to keep its citizens in line, and even when exactly parts of the game are taking place. Or to put it another way, the game is so effortlessly cool that even when it digresses, it always finds its way back to a compelling central rhythm.

The game’s musical combat amplifies that: Beat stands in the middle of a rectangle, with note-shaped monsters flying at her from a top and bottom track from the left and right, and a health bar counting down to Heartbreak (Game Over). Occasionally, Beat will also face off with the police (“ACAB” is one of the game’s most persistent messages), and the notes needed to block and attack them trickle in from the top and bottom of the screen.

It can feel overwhelming, especially with a dynamic camera that responds to your two-button inputs, and zooms in from side to side. But that’s the point. The game’s chapters are meant to make you feel as if it’s you against the world—a round shape trying to fit into a square-ish hole.

Given how much happens in Unbeatable, it’s disappointing that there’s no chapter select. You can’t even clear your save file until you beat the story mode’s encore. It also makes little sense to treat the story like a concept album, given that you can already tackle any of the songs, including those that don’t make nearly as much sense out of context, as singles in the separate Arcade Mode. Thankfully, even if some of the emotional bits, philosophical musings, or political parallels don’t land in the midst of all that chaos, the overall vibes never miss.

This game was reviewed with a code provided by Playstack.