Vinyl

Music is something everyone enjoys in one form or another, which is why the industry based on it rakes in billions of dollars every year. On the other hand, even if it’s a lot simpler to record and release a song nowadays, people can be pretty pretentious in some cases, especially if you are not aiming for the pop genre. Even so, there’s always a staggering number of options at your disposal.

Vinyl is an arcade rhythm game that allows you to play music and take advantage of it in order to have some fun, much like in the classic Audiosurf game released a few years ago. The main idea is very similar to Audiosurf, but the gameplay is a tad different and, unfortunately, not as refined. There are too many mistakes and gameplay issues that make the experience feel inadequate and even frustrating.

You are allowed to pick a song at the beginning of each round, and it’s possible to choose from a list of already available tracks, or you can just add your own music. After that, you also have the option to pick from a few “genres”, which are actually just mild special effects applied on top of each song to change their sound. Unfortunately, this feature is a tad irrelevant, because it doesn’t really add to the experience.

After that, the track is randomly generated ahead of you and the goal is to avoid all obstacles as gracefully as possible, otherwise the song is interrupted, which is annoying. Dodging the colorful spheres can be pretty fun, but it gets repetitive after a few songs, especially when you consider the fact that nothing else really happens. Granted, you can at least unleash a special ability every once in awhile, which is kind of like a bass drop.

As for the graphics, there’s not much to see in the game, other than the obstacles and the track itself, which is obviously a crude representation of a vinyl groove. You can change the appearance of this groove every now and again by changing the genre, and the different color themes can help with the monotony, at least sometimes.

Vinyl has good chances to become a fan favorite, but it needs polishing and a few new ideas before it can dethrone the giants of the genre. The gameplay can be a tad chaotic and repetitive, not to mention the fact that the game does not seem to accurately detect the beat of a custom track.