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We’ve seen plenty of rhythm-action games recently that put the emphasis more heavily on the latter half of that genre label, but perhaps none so much as Hi-Fi Rush. A surprise release from Tango Gameworks, it departs from the studio’s horror output to pick up threads from the other side of founder Shinji Mikami’s gameography: PN03, Viewtiful Joe and Devil May Cry. Aspects of each are blended into a combo-driven action game, where you’re constantly rated on your performance in battle, and which moves like a cartoon and puts music front and centre.

In Hi-Fi Rush, hero Chai snaps his fingers to the soundtrack, laying out the time signature that will dictate your every action. Jumps and dodges are synced to the beat, as is every strike of Chai’s weapon, a magnetic assemblage of scrap metal that looks a lot like an upended Gibson Flying V guitar. This syncing, it’s important to note, is not entirely reliant on when you hit the button.

Perfectly timed inputs are rewarded through audiovisual feedback: a speech balloon showing a musical note, a single stab of guitar, the cheers of an unseen audience. The resulting attacks are more effective too, allowing you to chain together combos and achieve high scores. But they’re not necessary, as such. If you’re not quite in time, the action simply waits for the next beat to trigger, while the soundtrack plays on regardless – none of Guitar Hero’s agonising dead notes here. There’s a generosity to these decisions, an effort to invite players in no matter their musical aptitude. But it comes at a cost.