One of the things that I have been a major proponent of when it comes to VR rhythm games has been in regards to the soundtrack selection. While titles like Beat Saber and Supernatural are a ton of fun, their song selections lean heavily on electronic, dance, and other similar musical genres. Fortunately, if you’re someone who specifically likes heavy metal, a new game is releasing later this summer that has you in mind.
God of Riffs is the name of the latest VR rhythm game that is slated to hit the market in the coming months. Unlike competitors, God of Riffs looks to utilize heavy metal music to get you up off of your couch and hitting certain symbols to the beat of the music.
What sets God of Riffs apart from other similar titles (other than just the music selection) comes with the entire game’s presentation. Rather than holding two random objects in your hands to hit symbols that are heading toward you, God of Riffs equips you with two axes that also serve as guitars. The world itself is also meant to resemble something that you might see straight off of a heavy metal album cover and is filled with lava, monsters, and dungeons. In addition, the items that you need to actually hit to the beat of the music take the form of skulls and skeletons.
You can get a look at some of the gameplay from God of Riffs in the trailer below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlIIBMDtc5k&w=560&h=315]
According to one of the developers at Boss Music Games, the company wanted to ensure that it created an experience that would really feel welcoming to existing metal fans. “With God of Riffs, we wanted to inject metal into the rhythm VR space in a way that feels authentically over-the-top and universally appealing,” explained Boss Music Games’ company director Mathew Palumbo in an accompanying press release. “Now that we’re coming to Early Access, we look forward to seeing the reaction from rhythm and metal fans around the world.”
It’s worth stressing that God of Riffs will be launching this summer as an early access title to start. If you’re not certain about what that means, essentially, developer Boss Music Games plans to add on to the title in the months after it arrives until it reaches its official 1.0 iteration. With that in mind, this won’t be a “finished” version of the game right away. In the lead up to the 1.0 launch, Boss Music Games plans to add more songs, game modes, and additional options for those that need God of Riffs to be more accessible. For now, a release date for the 1.0 version hasn’t been announced but it’s planned to drop later on this year.
When it comes to the fitness potential for God of Riffs, the game very much seems to contain the same benefits of other rhythm titles that we’ve come to see appear in this space over the past few years. While playing it, you’ll predominantly be swinging about your hands and arms to blast away skeletons in time with the music. Even though the fitness viability of God of Riffs isn’t anything all that different from other VR rhythm games, the change in music can surely lead to your workouts feeling a bit different than you might be used to.
God of Riffs is planned to release in a little over two months and will arrive on Steam in early access on July 27th. The game will be compatible with a number of headsets including Oculus Rift, Rift S, and Oculus Quest. Initially, God of Riffs will only retail for $4.99 during its early access phase. That price will be increasing when the full version comes out later on in 2021. To learn more about God of Riffs, you can head to the game’s official website right here.
