izigame.me

Without a doubt the best Rhythm game I've ever played.
Disclaimer:I am a professional musician and music educator and so this my niche also these are my subjective opinions and not factual in any way.
Most rhythm games fall into one of three traps.
1. Either the game play is too simplified to allow it to sync with the music or the sync is rather poor. You can see this in many first person rhythm games. Starts fun and gets old fast due to a lack of crisp snappy interplay between the music and the players actions. Sekiro is hilariously enough a much better rhythm game than most proper rhythm games due to how precise and crisp the feedback in chains of actions function.

2. The game is rife with micro-transactions making buying the various peices of content a bad monetary value overall.(for example DJMAX complete is like 500 USD or something insane.)
3. The music leaves something to be desired. Either its not enough variety, or the quality is lacking, or it just doesn't suit your tastes.
Thumper has none of these issues.(At least in my subjective opinion.)
This game absolutely slaps. and is very well designed.
Playing this video game is one of the easiest ways for people to drift into the flow state I have ever encountered, its so engrossing that a point youll realize you aren't even blinking.
Firstly the story design, you are a space beetle and you need to kill.. uh that space head thing.... and then.....?
The game has zero dialogue or text relating to any kind of story. All you are given is the gameplay, which in this case totally works! Its a really cool ride into psychedelic hell and you and satan gonna throw hands. No complaints there. Some games need a story and some don't need anything. This game is the latter and shines by being very scant on details and letting us get into the action.
The gameplay itself is pretty simple, you are rocketing forward very fast and you cannot stop. Ever.
The controls are so simple they can be played on an atari controller. Four directions, one action button. With these few commands the game starts you nice and easy before slowly ramping things up in one of the most brilliant difficulty curves I've ever encountered. The Beetle can fly, slam down on to the track, move left and right, grind on walls, duck beneath obstacles and blast enemies all with these commands.
Because of the simplicity of the controls the developers felt free to really push the limits of the players skill. At certain points the track is rocketing by so fast that you no longer have time to think you can only respond to the stimuli and man its a crazy tense feeling that when you finally beat a section the release of that tension is as fine as wine.
Lastly the music, this games music is really flipping cool. Its a electronic psychedelic kinda heavy atmospheric type deal usually with steady ostinato patterns to give you tempo. But when you do actions you put a beat and rhythm to that atmosphere and it becomes energized. The sound design does lots of heavy lifting to make the beetle feel weighty and crisp. Your avatar slams into walls and sparks fly as he grinds into it and rides it thru a break neck turn and the sound of that action is... i mean its perfect, its just the right effect to give that feeling of speed but still add to the soundscape. As the tempo ratchets up so does the speed of the track making the pulse of the beat itself as central a game mechanic as it can be. The beetle slams into the ground shatters barriers and blasts enemies each with a unique but definitely complementary sounds. The work on this aspect achieves every great rhythm game developers white whale in terms of design goals; making the player feel like they are playing a musical instrument and not a controller.
In short, completely insane world and lore, fantastic crisp simple gameplay. and some really fantastic music and sound design all come together to give this game full marks across the board. Absolutely stellar.
The only drawback is the visuals can be intense and very tiring on the eyes, i recommend taking breaks occasionally while playing because as someone who never gets eye strain playing games this one is rough on me and I can only play it in short bursts before i need a minute or two to rest my eyes. But its honestly worth it because of the energy this game gets across.(at least for me personally) And lets be honest getting up once an hour to walk around and take a break is probably healthy no matter what game you playing.

10/10 Probably the best rhythm game on steam and worth every penny. Make another one.