From time to time, I find myself watching various videos of content creators touring the various rhythm game cabinets that Japan has in the still rather popular arcade centers. It’s rare for us to ever see these machines come into the United States, and well, let’s not talk about how my home country, Brazil, probably hardly has any cabinets these days.
But from time to time, companies such as Bandai Namco and Taito have released console versions of these games, allowing you to experience these titles from the comfort of your own home. And that’s what Groove Coaster: Future Performers aims to be. While I can’t say I ever had the opportunity to play a Groove Coaster cabinet, let’s see if this first contact with the series will prove to be a good experience.
I’ll Be the Best At Groove Coaster
Right off the bat, what may surprise you is that Groove Coaster: Future Performers features a story mode, which the game immediately starts upon your first start-up. The story is centered around two protagonists, Sendou Kakeru and Himekawa Aria. In this world, Groove Coaster is depicted as a very popular sport where players perform while racing along the tracks, and it caused an official tournament where various schools compete against each other to see who comes out as the ultimate performer to be born.
The story has two arcs included in the base game. At first, you can only play through Sendou Kakeru’s arc, and after you’ve finished his part of the story, you will have to go through the story again, but this time through Aria’s point of view. You’ll watch various cutscenes, which are all fully voiced, incidentally!
Afterwards, you will be given a mission you must clear by playing a song from a selection the game tells you. These missions can range from getting as few Misses as possible to simply getting a high score. You’ll also encounter optional forks on the road, where the game will test your mettle by only letting you pick specific difficulties or higher. Story Mode even includes some originally composed songs that get added to the game once you’ve cleared those missions.
The story narrative itself is admittedly mediocre because it doesn’t really wow you with a harrowing twist. It’s instead a somewhat generic “I’ll do my best” trope, and while the character cast is charming, I am not a fan of how the cutscenes are split together. The cutscenes are short, and it sometimes feels like a mobile game. And the worst part of it? Well, for some bizarre reason I have yet to understand, the story is incomplete.
Yeah. You read that right. While Kakeru’s arc is complete with all chapters, Aria’s arc abruptly ends midway after Chapter 4, with an “Update pending” screen appearing whenever you select Chapter 5. Worse, the story ends on a cliffhanger. Honestly, this just puts a sour taste in my mouth. I don’t know about you, but if you spend $50 on a game that boasts having a Story Mode, then you should at the very least have it be a complete experience, in my opinion. If you need to add new chapters, then sure, I can see that being beneficial. But I feel it should be better to treat those as extras that expand on the story in a meaningful way.
And on that note, the tutorial of the game also has an entire section voiced by the navigator that is completely untranslated, so you might be left a bit confused if you don’t understand Japanese. I also noticed some rather awkward translations for the mission objectives and some typos in the story dialogue, where character names were inconsistent across the same line of dialogue. For example, one of the characters is called Linka in their name tag, but the dialogue calls her Rinka. Hopefully, the development team can fix some of these text issues in a future update.
Get Ready… Let’s Groove!
Now let’s get to the main attraction of Groove Coaster, which is…well, the rhythm game! You can pick from a playlist that currently contains over 60 songs, with new ones being added in free updates even now, after the game’s original release back in July of last year. I was initially very impressed with the list of songs. We got hit tracks such as Yoneshi Kenzu’s BOW AND ARROW, which was used as the opening theme for Medalist, God-ish from Vocaloid producer PinnochioP, and even YOASOBI’s Idol from the Oshi no Ko anime.
However, the more I played through the game, the more I realized just how few songs there are available for free, outside the various paid packs that are sold through Nintendo eShop. While I understand the reasoning behind such a small playlist may have to do with licensing, I still feel there should’ve been many more songs that could’ve been added, especially as its predecessor, Groove Coaster: Wai Wai Party, currently has over 100 songs available for free.
Upon starting a song, several types of notes will come at you. From simple notes that can be caught with any button press to square notes that require the shoulder buttons. What makes Groove Coaster challenging is how the notes are presented to you. As the song plays, your character will move through this line (described as a “roller coaster” by the narrator in the tutorial) throughout the field, and this line can twist and turn in all sorts of different ways, which can be easy to lose yourself.
Each song also features a background that perfectly matches the vibe of the lyrics, with some of them even featuring the lyric videos in the background. That said, while that looks cool, it can be a bit distracting. Thankfully, in the Options menu, you can change the size of the notes and dim the background as needed. However, if you’re particularly prone to motion sickness, then this game doesn’t offer an accessibility feature to reduce the motion, which, considering how some songs have the playing field twist and turn in all sorts of ways, that disclaimer that pops up when starting the game is definitely not joking around.
In addition to having four difficulty options (EASY, NORMAL, HARD, MASTER), pressing the Y button will swap between BASIC and ADVANCED modes. The former features four types of notes: press, long press, arrows, and square notes, allowing you to play even one-handed, should you prefer. The latter adds five new types of notes, called Dual Notes, to the mix, and those require that you have your fingers on both the D-Pad and the face buttons.
One thing I felt was kind of lacking was that none of the songs in the English version feature the romanized lyrics. It would’ve been nice, seeing as other rhythm games in the market feature that option. Another accessibility feature I thought was pretty strange to be absent was that when you pause and unpause a song, you are not given a countdown to continue, so if you suddenly had to pause, say goodbye to your combo, unless you can somehow return to that rhythm without a countdown.
Groove Coaster: Future Performers also features no online competition mode or even a leaderboard for players to submit scores to. This puts it a bit behind other rhythm games on Nintendo Switch, because I feel that playing against your friends adds replay value to the game, and a leaderboard feels like an addition that can really stoke everyone’s competitive spirit.
A Solid, Yet Incomplete-Feeling Rhythm Game
Groove Coaster Future Performers is a very interesting entry in the Groove Coaster franchise. It’s a very cool rhythm game with some rather good songs, but ultimately, it’s hard not to ignore just how incomplete and lacking this game feels at times.
While I had a great time learning each of the songs, the lack of online features was really disappointing. But what really bothers me is the fact that the hyped-up Story Mode feels like a mobile game that is still ongoing with its story. If you’re looking to get into the Groove Coaster franchise, then maybe it might be better to consider this game’s predecessor instead.
Disclaimer: Taito provided a Nintendo Switch copy of Groove Coaster: Future Performers for review purposes.
