If you’re an early adopter of the Nintendo Switch like me, you’re probably a little starved for some quality content. Sure, the new Zelda game is great (and I would even go so far as to say that if nothing else good is ever released for the Switch, I got my money’s worth with that Zelda game), but there’s only really been one major release aside from the launch titles. So if you’re like me you’ve been hungrily combing through the indie releases in the Nintendo eShop in search of something worthwhile. Well, search no more, because Thumper has arrived, with its unique style which the developers refer to as “rhythm violence.”
There’s little to no story in Thumper. You play as some sort of space beetle. You travel along a track through a vast, hellish void. Sometimes you have to battle/escape from a giant horrific face at the other end of the track. That’s really all there is to the story. This is not a story-oriented game.
Thumper is probably best described as trippy. Space pulses and convulses as the player travels along the track. Tentacles rise and fall. Space closes in on you. There are Things just off to the side of the track, always enough that you can see something there but can’t quite see what it is. The faces at the other end of the track are good and creepy too. Sometimes you’ll have something which has a recognizably human face but other times you’ll end up with something that is just a triangular mouth with tentacles coming out of its sides, not to mention all of the things in between.
At its core, Thumper is a sort of rhythm game. However, I’ve never seen another rhythm game quite like it. It’s an incredibly fast and difficult game right off the bat, there’s no early levels of just cruising along to the music. Then there’s the nature of the music itself. There are no melodies to be found anywhere in Thumper. Instead, there’s a whole lot of throbbing, pulsating, irregular industrial beats. All of the game’s sound effects are incorporated into the chaotic storm of its music, so there’s no real way to separate the two and talk about them individually. The audio design may be a big turn-off for a lot of people. It was not for me, since that is the kind of music that I like anyway. Your mileage may vary.
Okay, so we’ve established that Thumper is a game with a lot of style. How is it on substance, though? Is the gameplay, the real meat of the product, actually any good? In short, yes. In theory, Thumper is a very easy game. You just have to press the right buttons in time with the visual and musical cues. However, due to the aforementioned use of off-kilter rhythms and unusual time signatures, it is actually very challenging right from the get-go. It’s incredibly challenging, but also incredibly rewarding. The Switch version of this game offers one key difference from previous versions. While the PlayStation 4 and PC versions of Thumper relied on a VR gimmick, that is not present here (since the Switch does not offer VR support). Instead, this version has an integrated rumble feature (causing developers Drool to switch the tagline from “Rhythm Violence” to “Rumble Violence” for this version). I think that this is actually a vast improvement. The tactile feedback really adds to the very visceral feeling of the game. I honestly cannot imagine playing the Switch version and ever wanting to go back to the older editions of the game.
Thumper isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Its rhythm elements will turn off some horror fans, and its acid-trip horror elements will turn off some rhythm game fans. Even if you’ve played older horror-rhythm games like Rock of the Dead, this game is still a radical departure. However, if you’re in the market for something truly unique and truly great, look no further than Thumper.
