Review: God of Rock – Competitive Rhythm Fighting Game?

Rhythm games can be a lot of fun to play, either alone or with a group of friends. A good chunk of the genre was kickstarted by the popularity of games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, only to recede back in the years since. But what happens when you take the precision and spectacle of a rhythm game like that and mix it with a competitive fighting game? The result is a wild combination like God of Rock. On paper this sounds like a unique and fun idea, but in execution, you have a game that is very limited by its flaws. One can safely say that you probably won’t find a lot of fighting game enthusiasts looking to take this to big tournaments over other fighters they know.

God of Rock as a package feels a bit shallow, especially if you’re not really big into playing rhythm games. But the appeal of being a fighting game as well should give you a basis to start from, right? The unfortunate truth is that God of Rock is more of a rhythm game than a fighting game at heart. It’s true that you face off against someone in a one-on-one fashion, but don’t expect to use traditional fighting game tactics here. You’ll mostly be concerned with hitting as many notes coming at you on a track over your opponent. There are moments where you’ll occasionally use an ability to throw off the opponent’s track and overwhelm them with notes, but your biggest enemy is the track you need to follow. Essentially, matches in God of Rock are a more glorified version of the Versus mode from games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

But does that mean the fighting game characteristics here are moot? Not entirely if you enjoy a game with a good presentation. The visuals and music in God of Rock are very good. You have a roster of a dozen eccentric fighters with around 48 music tracks that you can play through, along with a decent selection of backgrounds to battle in. As far as looks are concerned, the game delivers. But if you’re someone that cares more about the substance in the gameplay looks, you’ll more than likely struggle with God of Rock in a few ways.

The biggest issue that God of Rock runs into is how annoying it can be to follow notes on the track while at the same time executing special moves against an opponent. Every character has their own inputs for special moves and ultra-attacks, but doing them while in a match can be tedious and difficult to pull off at times. The track you follow is somewhat small on the screen, which is much smaller than most other rhythm games that have a larger area for you to see the notes you need to hit.

When the track gets filled up with incoming notes, it can be very difficult to tell what to hit next, let alone be precise with complicated button inputs to stay ahead of the other person. Pair this up with special attack inputs that sometimes don’t respond at the worst of times and you can end up with a real struggle mid-match. Ultra-attacks for some characters require a full-circle input that can sometimes get dropped when you’re trying to hit notes being thrown your way.

The majority of this wouldn’t be that bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the game is supposed to be a competitive fighting game at the same time. You’re not going to end up fighting for control of space or priority of attacks when you get into a match in God of Rock. The music track is what you’re mostly going to focus on, not the movements of your opponent. Looking for incoming special attacks from an opponent does help sometimes, but it’s not like you’re going to react often with a counterattack or movement in the same way as any other fighting game. The flow of the gameplay ends up feeling more like Guitar Hero than Street Fighter. For some people that’s totally fine, but the majority of others will be disappointed by that.

There aren’t many game modes in God of Rock to dive into. You have your standard Arcade mode, which rewards you with a brief character ending when you finish it, as well as local and online multiplayer. Matches between both are the same formula, just with either a CPU or human opponent. Going online with matchmaking will be annoying for some because you don’t get to choose the music you both get to play through. At the same time, there is definitely a wide range of skill levels that you’ll get paired with, so you can expect to run into players who are way more familiar with the tracks than you.

The only other part of God of Rock is the Track Editor, which allows you to customize the tracks you play on with each track. You more than likely won’t get a lot out of this unless you take a lot of time to edit tracks to your liking, but you also don’t get to use the custom tracks in online multiplayer, which is a bummer. What’s disappointing is that there are no other extras or gallery to view arcade endings or anything else, no unlockables or any bonus content whatsoever. This makes the package feel hollow and very slim overall.

Anyone that likes music and rhythm games will find some fun to be had in God of Rock. But fighting game fans won’t fair that much better here, especially if you were hoping to have more fighting game aspects be at the forefront. There is an element of competitiveness to be experienced with the head-to-head battles, but it’s more akin to rhythm games we’ve seen before, which won’t be for everyone. The meager package here only dampens what is a pretty neat idea. In execution, however, God of Rock comes up short and not fully realized.

What are your thoughts about God of Rock? Do you like the concept enough to try it out for yourself? Post a comment down below and let your voice be heard!