During the song, you hit checkpoints which you will revive to when you die. If you get hit, a chunk of your shape disappears and once your shape is all gone, you die. A lot of playing is memorizing the level and learning music cues as to when to move or dash out of the way. The levels have the shapes moving and dancing along with the music and are always the same. You are also invincible when dashing so you can move across smaller chunks of pink death. You also have a dash move that can get you out of the way of danger really fast. You just move the shapes around and avoid the incoming pink blobs and shapes on the screen. This game is best played on good speakers or with a nice headset as the sound is really good if you like this type of music. Many are pulled from the Monstercat label, you can check them out on Youtube. The soundtrack is amazing, using many different electronic and chiptunes artists best work to create each level (all the levels are named after the song). Speaking of sound, that is where this game shines bright. When the songs are rolling, the colors and shapes on the screen move around like crazy and get incredibly hectic, this game could easily mess with someone sensitive to light and sound. As a single player, you always play as the blue cube. When playing multipler, there are 4 players: the blue cube, the yellow triangle, the orange circle and the green polygon. The pink stuff kills starts faded and will eventually turn to a solid bright pink, which hurts the player. The graphics in JSaB are super simple, consisting of colorful shapes on a black background. I have to say it’s kind of heart warming and it is cool to see the emotions the are able to convey with the little shapes and colors.

This mode is mostly just to introduce the player to the game and to unlock more songs to play in the other modes. The pink colored bad stuff is what you are fighting against to save the world.

There are slight obstacles to avoid in the overworld, but it’s mostly to get to each level and eventually to the boss battles. You play the tiny blue cube working your way through an overworld, kinda like some of the Mario games, and move your way from level to level.

The storyline of Just Shapes and Beats (JSaB) is pretty simple. It’s a new spin on SHMUPs, adding a layer of coop that’s at the core of the game: ’cause everything is better with friends. “Just Shapes & Beats” is a chaotic co-op musical bullet-hell based on three simple things: avoid Shapes, move to the rad Beats, and die, repeatedly. This entry was posted in Switch Soup and tagged Beats Chiptunes Colors Dodge Dubstep Electronic More Shapes Shapes Shmups? Shoot em Up on Apby Kevin Sears

Just shapes and beats song list