Awesome / Hi-Fi RUSH

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

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Artificial Intelligence VS. Natural Stupidity. Idiot wins.

It's a game about a defective cyborg taking on and dismantling a MegaCorp and its robot army with The Power of Rock. Hi-Fi RUSH is loaded with awesome moments.

General

• Tango Gameworks themselves went above and beyond to make sure that almost everything, from the actions of characters in and out of battle, to the sound effects, cutscenes and even the controller's rumble feature, is in-sync with the music; even the artists and animators of some of the 2d animated cutscenes had to work hard to accomplish this.
  • The game itself being shadow dropped (announced only a few hours before its release) and almost instantly rocketing into the top ten top sellers on Steam, and getting rave reviews right off the bat. Compared to other games that had huge marketing campaigns, only to fall far short of the hype on launch, this game ended up hitting the ground running and letting its merits speak for themselves.
• Chai himself. Yes, he's an Idiot Hero par excellence. He's also a One-Man Army carving his way through hordes of robots and the execs of the company that made him with nothing more than luck, teamwork, a robot arm, and a scrap metal guitar. And keep in mind: That arm of his is intended for garbage collecting.
  • As the game progresses, his poses start becoming less comedic fumbles and more genuinely badass.
  • Towards the final levels, a Vlog reveals that Chai's destructive antics and tearing through the Vandelay bosses one by one despite their own formidable technological enhancements have made him so notorious, the marketing team actually start selling merchandise for any survivors of his assaults.
    " [...], we've begun accepting preorders for the humorously themed 'I survived the Project Armstrong Defect Fiasco' hoodies. They will be available in white nimbus colorway with the text in a font called Tangolian Rail. They will be individually numbered for any surviving employees."
  • Another awesome part of Chai begins even before the game starts: how he deals with a Dream-Crushing Handicap. It's been confirmed that Chai was disabled prior to the start of the game, but he had never let it define him, even as the game progresses. He remains positive and never once had given up on his dream despite his arm, even after he finds out that his arm was meant for garbage collecting. Now that is an inspiration.

Story

Track 1: A Fresh Start

• Despite the fact that his arm is in a sling, Chai is able to push his way through the crowd waiting for Project Armstrong by leaping and running about athletically, even with his arm in a sling and unusable, it's no wonder he became such a competent fighter later on.
• Pictured above: Chai landing the killing blow on the first boss. He runs up to it, pulling a Sword Drag with his guitar, and as he leaps into the air, it turns into a real guitar, and he finishes it off with this:
  Chai: You've got a killer track. But every song's gotta end.
  • The rest of the fight is no slouch either. It's just you against Vandelay's Quality Assurance, a giant robot armed with big fists, missile racks, lasers, the works. And it's set to 1,000,000 by Nine Inch Nails.

Track 2: Power Up

• Peppermint is the star of this chapter, as her brains help Chai out at several moments. She also has a blaster that can overload barriers, which means she is useful in a fight as well.
• Rekka is the first executive Chai faces, and she proves to be the first serious threat to him, as her muscular appearance really is indicative of how well she can fight.. In the middle of the fight with Chai, she electrocutes the floor and turns invincible until Peppermint outsmarts her.
  • Should Rekka grab Chai with a telegraphed grapple, she will fling him skyward, use the brief window to fix her hairstyle, then leap up, grabbing Chai by the neck and leg before using her downward plummet to inflict a damaging spinebreaker on him that takes off a chunk of Chai's health, leaving him writhing in pain on the floor as a bell rings and Rekka triumphantly poses. Painful, but proof that Chai's not the only one who can use style in a fight. Chai himself deserves props for being able to recover from an attack that should have paralysed him and keep fighting anyway.
• Chai defeating Rekka and making her explode. Then, as Kale asks Rekka for the report, he finds Chai holding her belt as a trophy instead.

Track 3: Trail by (Volcanic) Fire

• After two Tracks of Chai being an idiot and Peppermint being smart enough to know everything she will face, this is the first time Chai thinks something smarter than she does on his own: learning how to parry, which defeats Zanzo's security droids.
• Zanzo himself. He might be an idiot who makes Jojo poses all the time and wastes the budget of the company, but he makes a robot invulnerable to everything both Chai and Peppermint, the latter of which has a blaster that breaks barriers, have, and hands the protagonists their first scripted defeat.

Track 4: Less Budget, More Problems

• Macaron is truly a Genius Bruiser. Not only can he plan and hack about as well as Peppermint, but he can punch through special armor as well, the armor that completely overhwelmed Chai and Peppermint in the previous stage.
• The genius way Zanzo is beaten. His creative vision allows him to make some brilliant inventions, but costs him a lot of his budget. So, the heroes defund him and are spared his greatest dream project until they are better prepared. Zanzo does try to beat up Chai, but Chai simply beats him in one strike.
• After defunding the R&D department, quickly defeating Zanzo, and then getting his password key for SPECTRA, the gang makes their escape after a brief encounter with Kale and Korsica. The rest of the Track is an exciting big chase and battle scene (set to Inazawa Chainsaw by Number Girl) where Korsica is ordered to go after Chai with robots and lasers. Korsica gets a moment for capturing Chai after he had just beaten Zanzo in a single hit, while Chai himself gets a moment because he ensured everyone but him escapes.

Track 5: Breakin’ Out

• Chai shows a surprising amount of competence after being captured by Korsica. After 808 arrives and returns Chai's garbage collector, Chai proceeds to trash his guards in a cutscene, and with the help of his friends he repairs the security systems, which also tricks the security worker droids into thinking he is on their side. Even afterwards, he still escapes, even though Korsica didn't completely let him off the hook for his hard work.

Track 6: L.I.F.T. Me Up

• When the security bots catch up to Chai, an action-packed three-minute cutscene has Peppermint and Macaron help him clear the L.I.F.T. area of them before starting it up. As usual, the action and attacks sync with the Track's music.
• Korsica sees the L.I.F.T. escaping and decides to just put the brakes on and catch Chai. Macaron just smashes them with his fists.
• The Track ends with Peppermint shoot down a construction ramp with a laser bazooka to derail the L.I.F.T. in an effort to slow it down.

Track 7: The Climb

• Korsica proves herself to be a No-Nonsense Nemesis, as she cuts off the access to the elevator immediately and uses the security lasers very skillfully.
• Although Korsica ended up a little worse for wear, there is the fact that Chai was able to defeat her without striking back, only parrying and dodging her attacks. Note that Korsica used two weapons against Chai's one and was the most skilled opponent he had yet.
• A subtle one after the battle with Korsica, from CNMN. He, in all of his brutal honesty, implies that Kale made a massive mech just to fight Chai, which means he might either fear, respect him, or both.
• Kale proves to be a competent villain, as the moment Korsica fails him in all aspects and Chai escapes with her, he personally chases them and comes close to ending them both.

Track 8: A History Lesson

• Korsica proves to be just as effective as a heroine as she was while with the villains, as she can stun enemies, put out fires and overheat generators with her wind.

Track 9: Take the Stage

• Chai dressing up as a shark for a disguise, which was something he made up on the spot. Looks like his smarter allies started changing him for the better. He actually catches Mimosa off-guard. But she is no fool and spins it to her advantage, feeding her narcissism by making Chai part of her show.
• Mimosa's fight is a performance spectacle, involving dance moves and performance gimmicks. How does she fight? The dress that she's been wearing this whole time turns into a pair of wings she can fly around with, as well as armor that can withstand brute force. She also can darken the surroundings and create barriers that have to be disabled by Peppermint and Macaron. If she grabs Chai, she can bitchslap him as well.
  • In one of the phases of her fight, she and Chai literally have a Dance-Off, with Chai on his makeshift guitar. The prize for winning? The favor of the audience!
• At the end of the level, the audience, who had been cheering for Mimosa in the beginning, starts cheering for Chai instead. For a guy who aspires to be a rockstar, this must be a dream come true for him. And once Chai wins, he turns Mimosa into a spectacular firework.

Track 10: A Masterplan

• While the rest of the gang has reservations for Chai's Human Cannonball plan, the lead up to it involves a Fight Unscene moment. We never know what happened, but it leaves Macaron and even Korsica impressed that Chai survived what amounted to "wild battle".
• While a random blimp only deviates Chai's aim a few floors below Roquefort's office, he has to face an entire army of robots in a cafeteria in order to get back up there. The fight itself is awesome enough as it is set to Invaders Must Die by The Prodigy, but a cutscene shows the rest of the gang helping him, showing how good they are working together at this point.
• Roquefort sends powerful robot after powerful robot at Chai, and a mechanical bird is smart enough to send Chai a long distance back twice. Chai still powers through all of them.
• Getting to decapitate that giant statue version of Kale is pretty cathartic, especially after finding out what he did to Peppermint.
• The fact that Roquefort, who is nowhere near as helpless as he looks, turns into a GIANT CYBORG WEREWOLF. And what a boss fight it is, with a stellar remix of Wolfgang's Symphony playing in the background, parrying feels epic in this battle.
  • The final phase of this fight literally takes place in a vault full of money, which Roquefort takes advantage of, diving in and out of the gold coins to attack Chai. Chai can outsmart him by having him bite iron, then wail on him. In the end, Roquefort doesn't run away like in the previous two phases, instead trying to blow Chai away. However, Korsica assists Chai and blows the winds back, then Chai finishes him off by setting him up to be toppled by his own greed.

Track 11: The Needle Drop

• The capture and escape. First, Kale shows why he is in charge by distracting everyone with his brainwashed mother and then capturing them in a seemingly inescapable wall. However, with moral support of his friends, Chai has a moment of brilliance as he discovers the nearly inescapable trap can be broken through if Chai follows the same rhythm as it. As he finally breaks through, he says this beautiful line.
  Chai: I don't need a guitar. I am a rockstar.
• After escaping from Kale's trap (which is already an awesome moment), Chai and the gang jump out of a window, dramatically power walk toward the camera, and set off to stop Kale, all while Whirring by The Joy Formidable plays in the background. As Kale and his minions block ways for Chai, his friends open up new ones constantly.
• The entire track is a crowning moment of awesome and heartwarming. The entire team bands together with one goal: Get Chai to Kale so he can kick his corporate ass. If there was any doubt that they aren't the misfits they were before, its been dropkicked off the curb now.
• Not to be outdone, Kale pulls out one more ace up his sleeve: Remember that giant robot Zanzo was going to sic on you before he was defunded? Yeah, it's back, fully finished, and it lives up to the hype. Chai and co. can only run.
• After a while running, Korsica knocks a bunch of construction stuff onto the robot's cannon arm, exposing a weak point. Chai eventually gets beneath it, uses a Jump Pad to rise up to the arm and hack it clean off!
• Macaron also shows his World's Strongest Man chops, stopping the gigantic robot from moving its arm back so Chai can hit the weakspot. This is a, admittedly large, man holding a building sized robot in place with his bare hands!
  • This retroactively shows exactly why defunding Zanzo, who already had proven before that his machines are brilliant in brute force, was absolutely necessary. It was al thanks to Korsica the heroes stood a chance at all, and she had not joined the team yet.
  • But wait, there's more! With one arm missing, the Zanzo-bot is still going strong. Then, of all people, CNMN rushes over to the arm cannon and integrates into the cannon, and you get to play as him while he does so. After spending the entire level trying his best to help, CNMN gets his time to shine. The entire team helps CNMN lift up the arm cannon to aim, followed by one last beat section for the level. Right as he's about to put in the final charge, CNMN pulls out his marker, and draws a real Game Face. That final blast atomizes the giant robot, and the sheer recoil renders CNMN Half the Bot He Used to Be. But CNMN got his wish: he finally got to really help the gang.
  CNMN: Was I "Dope", Mister Chai?
  Chai: That was very dope, CNMN.

Track 12: Curate the Future

• Kale does not play around. He instantly brainwashes Chai and separates him from the other heroes. When 808 still tries to fight back, Kale attempts to set her on fire. He might not be as great as his mother, but he is not an idiot at all.
• 808's Big Damn Hero moment when she takes on Kale to save Chai from the SPECTRA mind control on her own, as a cat. She has no special combat capabilities without Chai, but she still manages to dodge all of Kale's attacks and destroys the SPECTRA device, freeing Chai.
  Peppermint: YES YES YES YES YES YES, 808!
• Once Chai gets back in the fight, he kicks off his challenge to Kale with the line "Don't call it a comeback!", a subtle Badass Boast and the first line to one of the most recognizable rap songs ever: Mama Said Knock You Out!
• The final battle against Kale definitely is a spectacle, set to The Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails. Between fighting on top of a tower with a thunderstorm raging above, it's technically just a 1v1 against a suited up Kale (though his friends are still needed to break through his defenses). Between blocking lasers and lightning, this is definitely one of the greatest final bosses of all time.
  • In the final rhythm game portion of Kale's fight, after Kale calls his adversaries a bunch of losers, Chai points out they are unstoppable when they work together. Thus, everyone gets a chance to beat down Kale together in a crazy awesome sequence of hits, paying him back for all the grievances he's caused.
    Macaron: You've ruined this company enough!
    Korsica: Can't believe I looked up to you!
    Peppermint: This isn't just about Vandelay. It's about FAMILY.
    Chai: And this... is Game Over!
    • If you look closely at Chai's rhythm game portion at the end of the beatdown, 808 is actually seen attacking Kale alongside Chai in her cat form. Even she's getting on the action!
    • Even moreso, during the segments with Macaron, Korsica, and Peppermint, Kale is blocking all the attacks being thrown at him. Even while he's being knocked around, Kale is using sword to take most of the damage. It's not until 808 jumps on his face to blind him that Chai starts making his swings really hurt him.

Gameplay

• Managing to hit on the beat consistently. Once you get into the rhythm, everything starts falling into place. And if you get an A rank or higher in combat, your little scrap metal guitar transforms into a REAL guitar. The power of rock and roll is on your side, and you feel truly unstoppable.
  • Getting this score also has an audience cheering on Chai by chanting his name! If you get an S-rank, the cheering is far more frequent, just as frequent as the beat!
• Managing to perfectly parry any one of the duels the enemies trap Chai in causes Chai to do an single slash and instantly defeat the enemy in one hit.
  • If that enemy is the last enemy, the enemy will explode behind Chai after the slash, creating a nice cinematic set piece as the result screens pops up to show you the score.
• The fact that Macaron is just so physically strong that he can completely decimate Z-Shielding with a single punch.
• Many of Chai's special moves are just this in paper:
  • 'Hibiki' involves Chai rocking out, dealing incredible amounts of damage and knocking all enemies back in a final finish.
  • 'Air Guitar' has Chai ride his guitar and fly around the arena, knocking down and hitting enemies on the way, before drifting into a powerful finish.
  • 808 is deceptively strong, the strongest special that Chai had is basically him holding up 808 who scratches the opponent doing insane amounts of damage, so much so that she can singlehandedly phase boss fights.
• Getting an S Rank during a fight is awesome enough for the audience to cheer on you, but getting all S rank in a fight and keeping your combo throughout the entire fight gives you an 'S Star'.
  • Getting an S Rank in all of the fights in the level, causes the final track score to be an 'S Crown' (an S with a crown on it), the highest score you can possibly get.
  • To tag on this, getting an S Rank in any of the SPECTRA rooms is an achievement in itself due to how difficult some of the room's challenges are.
• You can totally parry a volcano if you want to. In fact, there's two in-game achievements tied to this.

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