Spin Rhythm XD Early Access Review

I’m spinning around, move out of my way.

Rhythm games have typically relied on physical peripherals to engage the player, from dance mats and plastic guitars to the more esoteric maracas and bongo drums. Without these, the experience can feel a little one-note, particularly if gameplay follows simple four-directional inputs. Spin Rhythm XD is a new rhythm game with no landfill-clogging extra plastic accessories in sight – but if its Early Access is anything to go by, it doesn’t need them.

Spin Rhythm starts with a Guitar Hero-like framework: a board of notes comes towards you in time to the music, some that need tapping, others that need holding and keeping on-track as they snake from side to side. Where it mixes things up is with the deck, a rotating pink and yellow curve that you need to line up with the colour of the notes on the board. This simple addition gives Spin Rhythm a whole other level of fluidity and depth.

There are also spins, where you send the deck on a roulette-style rotation in either direction. Cleverly, the deck snaps to the correct orientation of the next note if you tap the button with the right timing – something that never stops being satisfying. Crank the game up to Hard mode, and Spin Rhythm also adds Rock Band drums-like beat lines to nail.  

Spin Rhythm is on the challenging side of rhythm games, with even Normal mode giving me a run for my money. ‘Easy to pick up, hard to master’ doesn’t quite apply here – the mechanics don’t come naturally at first, even to someone like me who’s played a bunch of rhythm games over the years. I felt a little frustrated to begin with and ragequit, but when I tried again later I was surprised how quickly I’d formed muscle memory, and it started to feel a lot more instinctive.

There are 18 songs at the time of writing, with a heavy EDM slant – a plus for me, but perhaps not for everyone. The soundtrack is composed of ‘real’ licensed music including some moderately big names like Pegboard Nerds and Tristam, though most are on the more obscure side. More songs are in the pipeline to be added for free, with the devs’ estimates ranging from 30 to 50 overall – not to be sniffed at, when everyone’s fave VR rhythm darling Beat Saber started with only ten and took a while to pad out its free offerings. 

What’s notable is that the hand-generated track layouts feel not only solid and accurate but also varied, with verses and choruses often mixing up their layouts later on rather than repeating themselves. Some other thoughtful touches include spider graphs detailing the intensity of levels and an actual physical health bar which takes the guesswork away from when you’re going to fail.

While I introduced Spin Rhythm as not needing additional peripherals, the option is there if you want it. As well as supporting mouse input and a range of gamepads, it also works with midi DJ controllers – but support isn’t fully fleshed-out at this stage. I found a standard Xbox controller to be significantly more intuitive than mouse control, which is a little cumbersome. 

Spin Rhythm XD is up there with the more interesting accessory-less rhythm games of recent years, earning a spot next to the likes of Thumper and the Amplitude reboot. If you’re eager to jump in, it’s very playable now despite only just releasing into Early Access. 

[Reviewed on PC]