Recent reviews by Kitsune Zeta

From the beginning, Synth Riders was criticized by Beat Saber fans for being a poor imitation of Beat Saber. With the Spin Mode update, that criticism holds truer than ever.

Originally envisioned as a VR dancing game encouraging self-expression (which at the time of this review, is still in the store description for the game) rather than a technical rhythm game that dictates every move of your arms, Synth Riders didn’t see a need to have overly-complicated maps in its OST, leaving ample room for the player to create their own choreography in the maps. At the time, the devs even said they didn’t want to be a replacement for Beat Saber, and I held the opinion that Synth Riders was actually better than Beat Saber. Instead of having to flail your arms to score, all you had to do was ensure your hands were in the correct spot so that they touched the colored orbs as they passed by.

I was originally sold on the game by a video put out by omotea, showing the Expert chart for Lazer Pink. The chart was a very well-designed dance-style chart, with careful thought given to flow and possible choreography, which is very evident in omotea’s play of the chart. Was it perfect? No. There were a couple spots where the One-Hand Special orb chains would be awkward if you guessed incorrectly on which hand you needed to use, and there was a part where you could just sit down for a few seconds to cheese past some walls, but it was a good introduction to what Synth Riders wanted to be like.

All of that changed with the Spin Mode update. One step forward, a 540-degree spin, and then 5 steps in the direction it now faced.

The one step forward of the Spin Mode update is really two half-steps: a token “spin mode” that consists entirely of arbitrarily-chosen (but deterministic per map) changes to the point that the incoming orbs came from and a likely-overdue tightening of the orb hitboxes on the harder difficulties (at the trade-off of removing the ability to adjust those hitboxes via modifiers). The Spin Mode being entirely procedural and not authorable at all renders it mainly just a gimmick, albeit one that can help for replayability, compared to how Beat Saber handles its 180/360 maps (which have rotation specifically authored in). It also shows symptoms of this game turning into a rhythm game chasing Beat Saber’s shadow instead of trying to do its own thing.

That by itself wouldn’t be bad, but along with the Spin Mode update, some charts had their timings adjusted and some others were “refurbished”. The term “refurbished” is misleading here, as that implies that issues with the chart were fixed but that the chart is mostly left intact. One of the songs that got refurbished charts was Lazer Pink – the very same chart that sold me on the game in the first place.

Gone was any sense of flow, instead a barely-readable mess of orbs that require constantly going from left-over-right to right-over-left and back, spirals that reverse direction for no discernable reason, and hand switches that exist only to make the chart difficult and break flow. Your hand position at nearly every moment is dictated by the chart, leaving little-to-no room for self-expression. When I first saw the chart, I exited out of it and double-checked that I wasn’t on Master difficulty by mistake. I wasn’t, I was still on Expert.

The official reasons for the “Refurbishment” of Lazer Pink’s dance chart into the mess it now is are as follows: first, there were spacing issues in the old chart (I can probably guess where, but that’s a relatively easy fix if I’m even in the ballpark). Second, there was repetition in the chart. Let that sink in for a moment: there was repetition in the chart for a dancing game. Not just a rhythm game, a *DANCING* game. And having repetition in a dancing game is apparently a cardinal sin and must be avoided at all costs.

The complete replacement of Lazer Pink’s Expert chart (as well as the easier charts I looked at) wouldn’t be that bad if it weren’t for the fact that Lazer Pink is an OST song, which means the devs signed off on the changes to the chart. That means the devs don’t want maps that encourage or even allow for self-expression. It also means that they’re willing to gut out official maps that do just that in order to reinforce this change in direction for the game.

Those of you that have looked into the history of the arcade dancing game Pump It Up will likely know of the infamous CZ 15 chart for Pink’s Let’s Get The Party Started. That chart was so universally hated by the playerbase that Andamiro straight-up fired the person responsible for creating that chart. At this point, I don’t know who did a better job on creating a chart: the person behind that CZ 15 chart or the person behind the “refurbished” charts for Lazer Pink.

A week ago, I would’ve recommended this game over Beat Saber to everyone. With the release of the Spin Mode update, I can no longer make that recommendation because Synth Riders is going through an identity crisis and has apparently chosen to be the very thing it was being criticized in the past as.

With the complete failure that is RollerCoaster Tycoon World, this remains as one of the top two entries in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series (the other contender being RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, also available on steam). This Platinum Edition includes both the Soaked! Expansion (which allows for waterparks) and the Wild! Expansion (which allows for animal exhibits, ala Busch Gardens). The only issues are poor performance in high-population parks (a problem that rears itself in sandbox parks more than anything), occaisional issues with certain roller coaster types having inexplicable crashes (most notably the tilt coaster and its thrill lift), and the assumption of where your pictures are stored leading to many questions on how to get custom image billboards working (it's not hard, but you have to add a specific folder inside the folder that is being used as your Documents library)

It would be a disservice, though, to not mention the two new theme park games that have come out since this game's release, especially since both are on Steam. First, currently still in Early Access, is Parkitect, has a similar look-and-feel to this game but has more depth and, important for some people, actual modding support for custom rides. Second, recently released, is Planet Coaster, generally accepted as the true sequel from Frontier, the dev team behind this game. If you like this kind of game, do check those out as well.