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Hands-on with SineWave - a rhythm-based tunnel shooter with big bass drops

From ex-DJ Hero devs

Hands-on with SineWave - a rhythm-based tunnel shooter with big bass drops
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| SineWave

With all its mechanical fibre and warbling bass drops, SineWave seems to simulate what it would be like to travel through the insides of Oculus Prime.

There are little drones that fly into my sights to the beat as if white blood cells come to eradicate me from these metallic arteries.

With a tap on time they become orange scars for me to fly past. Then I duck and dive around the half-walled tunnel as if controlled by SKisM's one-two bass swipe.

The whole time my head is bopping with both satisfaction and concentration.

SineWave is a rhythm-based tunnel shooter from a couple of ex-DJ Hero folks. It first prowled onto my radar under the name Salvage, which had to be changed due to a legal issue.

Having got my hands on it, I was a little disappointed at first due to the lack of attitude in the game.

Drum 'n' bass and dubstep has a lot of aggression and energy and that wasn't replicated in the timidity of occasional taps and orthogonal swiping.

However, once I had beaten a song on Normal I was able to notch the difficulty up to Hard. This is where SineWave comes alive.

The frequency of walls to dodge, drones to shoot, and doors to blast open was what I was hoping for. Now it felt like it had some heart.

SineWave

The biggest shame after that was the gloomy interior of the first tunnel. Songs aren't tied to different levels, you can mix and match, but you have to spend the gold you earn to unlock new tunnels.

This requires playing the first drab-looking tunnel over and over until you earn at least 400,000 gold, which will take a little while. At least the other tunnels you unlock seem to have more colour to them.

The other issue I had is in the control system. In praise of it, I'd say that it's really responsive - it keeps up with your swipes no problem.
However, on Hard, I found that some of my taps were read as swipes. This caused my ship to crash into a wall a number of times, and it wasn't because I was slow or made a wrong move.

I can imagine this being a bigger problem on the Extreme difficulty mode if your fingers are dancing across the screen to keep up.

SineWave

So I haven't been too enthused by what I've played of SineWave so far. That's not to say I don't like it; I enjoyed my time with it, and it's got an excellent selection of songs.

My problem is that the start of the game doesn't quite match the energy of the bass-driven music. It feels like the volume has been turned down too much in comparison with the big beats.

When Noisia hits off a spine-shattering lick I want to feel that in the game I'm playing.

There is evidence that the later game is where it really picks up with neon purple tunnels that almost look alien. But I think some more vigor is needed to get me really excited about the game in those opening minutes.

SineWave will be coming to iOS and Android after it is released on PC. You can find out more information about it on its website.

Chris Priestman
Chris Priestman
Anything eccentric, macabre, or just plain weird, is what Chris is all about. He turns the spotlight on the games that fly under the radar.