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MEVO & The Grooveriders: Galactic Tour

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MEVO & The Grooveriders: Galactic Tour

The Guitar Hero phenomenon seems to have suffocated the rhythm-action genre a bit lately, with new titles relying ever more heavily on poodle perms, devil horn signs and a predilection for using the word 'rock' as a verb.

Thankfully, MEVO & The Grooveriders: Galactic Tour sidesteps these cliches in favour of offering something fresh and endearing.

As the cycloptic red alien MEVO, you traverse the attractive 3D platforming stages in order to find your missing bandmates and restore a bit of mojo to a world that's had its vibe sucked out of it by an all-powerful, celestial party pooper

MEVO runs and jumps automatically, but unless you keep up with the game's rhythm, he stumbles, falls and generally has a hard time staying on his feet. To make his jaunt as smooth as possible, you need to press scrolling right and left arrows in time with the music.

The better your run, the more points you get. If you achieve enough points, you can unlock new avatars for MEVO, and these offer unique power-ups, such as autopilot, that you can use strategically throughout the game's varied levels.

The 3D visuals and cartoony presentation are easy on the eyes, but, more importantly, the game's audio hits all the high notes. The diverse tracks are always easy to follow, while still very challenging on the later levels, even if jazz/funk/calypso fusion isn't really your thing. The option to buy the soundtrack on iTunes, or download a free remixed version of the it via the Red Rocket Games website, is also a clever addition.

MEVO & The Grooveriders is a steal in its current price bracket (59p/99c) and with updates aplenty promised, including new levels and songs, it can only get better.

MEVO & The Grooveriders: Galactic Tour

A quirky, refreshing take on rhythm-action that's an absolute bargain, too
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