Game review: B-Boy Beats - iPhone / iPod Touch

With its feet firmly in the 80s at the heyday of breakdance, this fun music rhythm game for iPhone and iPod Touch uses clever touch controls to replicate b-boy moves.

The screen suddenly becomes a dancefloor and your fingers become legs (later arms too) as you master a series of moves and battle your way to winning respect and turf in New York.

B-Boy Beats from Tag Games does a great job of evoking the spirit of the 80s with its style and language, which is fine by me as I spent most of my childhood in that golden decade.

In fact the game is quite child-like in its simplicity – yet devilishly difficult to master, at least for my clumsy and uncoordinated fingers.

The game is vastly different from other music rhythm titles.

In games such as Rock Band you are constantly tapping areas at the bottom of the screen to perform musical notes as coloured bars scroll down.

B-Boy Beats takes this formula, stamps on it, throws it against the wall a few times and then puts it together again in a completely fresh style.

Instead of tapping in time with the music you must place and hold two fingers on the screen. These are your legs.

When the music starts you then move one finger at a time when red and green circles appear anywhere on the screen, as if you are moving your legs to perform dance steps.

Later you’ll need a third finger on the screen to represent hand plants and you’ll even do some sliding moonwalk style. There are also some jump moves needing you to move two fingers at once.

The tricky part comes in timing it all right, very closely followed by remembering to move the correct finger to the correct circle while leaving your other finger or fingers on the screen. Time and again I’ve taken all my fingers off the screen, thinking I need to tap the circles and forgetting I’m supposed to be dancing.

If you’re good at playing the game Twister and you can summon the same sort of agility from your fingers then you stand a good chance of getting on in B-Boy Beats. It helps if you’ve got a quick mind with lightning fast reflexes too.

Quite often my fingers have been willing, only to be let down by my brain moving slightly too slowly to keep up with the moves!

Gameplay-wise, a fold-out map of New York acts as the hub or level selection screen. From here you can visit different parts of the city to do battle against local crews.

Winning involves performing an increasingly complex selection of moves successfully. If you keep hitting the mark your score and the power bar will increase, helped by some handy multipliers.

If you miss too many steps and the power bar gets too low you’ll get booed by the crowd and then lose. The aim is to get to the end of each song without messing up too bad.

There are 10 breakdance moves in the game (some of them very tricky to perform, at least in quick succession), and there are seven crews to take on.

The art style in B-Boy Beats is one of its strongest features. It has a really cool old-school urban look and feel to it.

While dancing the layout of the screen is very sparse but this works well as it lets you concentrate on the music and your steps.

Sixteen hip-hop tracks are featured in the game – no well-known names but all decent enough tunes, even though I’m not a fan of the genre.

One of the few negatives this game has is it’s not as accessible as it might be.

When I first played Rock Band Unplugged on PSP I found it really easy to get into. The controls and the other game mechanics were simple to pick up.

B-Boy Beats takes more getting used to and has a steeper learning curve. It’s a very challenging game, pretty much from the word go, even on easy setting.

The idea of using your fingers as legs will click with some people quickly while others will perhaps get frustrated with constantly being pulled up for taking the wrong finger off the screen. Concentration is required as well as perseverance.

Certainly, whenever you do get into the groove with this game it does become very enjoyable.

Another slight downside with B-Boy Beats is it could become quite samey. Each dance performance plays out the same as the last and the same as the next. The only things which change are the moves and the music, although with a limited number of moves and tracks you’ll eventually be doing and hearing things which are already familiar.

I haven’t suffered any burnout after my time with the game but I do wonder if there is a danger of monotony setting in without more variety in the gameplay.

One other minor complaint is that my fingers have occasionally obscured my view of the screen. Sometimes I’ve needed to tap a spot on the screen which my finger is already touching, as if maybe stamping my foot on the ground. A few times I’ve missed this because I’ve not seen the prompt under my finger.

Overall, with its unique concept and impressive presentation, B-Boy Beats is a very good game. If you’re looking for a new music rhythm experience on your iPhone/iPod this is well worth checking out.

Verdict: 8 out of 10 – An innovative idea well executed, breakdancing and the iPhone/iPod’s touch controls work in harmony together. This game deserves to be called unique because there isn’t anything else quite like it, but the tag is likely to be short-lived as I can see some copycat dance games using the same mechanics grooving into the App Store before long.

Watch a trailer of B-Boy Beats to see the game in action: