Technic Beat (2004) Review

Originally published Aug 28, 2023

When the name Arika is brought up I'm sure most people think of the Street Fighter EX series along with it's spiritual successor Fighting EX Layer, however the studio founded by ex-Capcom employees actually quite a diverse catalog of titles. From the most frustrating Mega Man game ever conceived to the extremely charming and unique Rhythm game 'Technix' and it's sequel 'Technic Beat'

Technic Beat follows standard Rhythm game conventions, markers appear on-screen to the beat of the music playing and the player must sequentially activate each one with more points being awarded for how on beat you are. The difference lies in that you control a character who must hover over circle markers to activate them in a small 3D stage. They appear on the ground and can be overlapped to rack up combos. I personally found the emphasis on moving and positioning of your character in addition to rhythm and timing made this game more approachable to me than some of it's contemporaries.

The characters each have their own unique abilities and are very um...diverse? There's a doll, a toy robot, a platypus and a bear in a teddy bear costume (unfortunately Skullomania from Street Fighter EX is exclusive to the previous game). Each of them have their own way of interacting with the circle markers, such as picking them up or kicking them.

The real star of the game is the music. Over 87 tracks are featured in a myriad of genres and subgenres. I'm not really a music person so I can't find the words to accurately describe how great this soundtrack is other than "I like how it sounds" but trust me the OST is amazing. In addition to original tracks there are also alot of remixed music from Namco arcade titles. Again not a music critic so all I can say is that they fucking rule. The difficulty increase is very gradual and restarting is instant so it's not a big deal if you mess up. The level increase from 1 to 6 is very manageable, just difficult enough to keep you on your toes but once you get to the level 7 tracks you really have to start bringing your A game. Level 8 tracks are definitely for hardcore maniacs, markers pop in so fast it feels impossible.

Technic Beat is a sadly underrated game, atleast outside Japan. The fact uploads of the OST on youtube can get less than 1k views is a crime in of itself. If you have any affinity for the genre I cannot recommend this game enough.