Inside My Radio (PC)

Details: Category: Computer; By Cheryl Gress; 18.Sep; Hits: 5019

Game Info:

Inside My Radio
Developed by: Seaven Studio
Published by: Iceberg Interactive
Release Date: May 11, 2015
Available on: PC
Genre: Rhythm platformer
Number of players: Single-player
ESRB Rating: E 10+ for fantasy violence
Price: $14.99

Thank you Iceberg Interactive for sending us this game to review!

In an alley far, far away lies a dying boombox. When a green aura takes possession of it, an LED named Taek comes to life. In order to figure out what's happening to this boombox, he must get to and talk to his friends, Barry and Root. I chuckled when I heard Root introduce himself as "I am Root." There isn't much dialog, or any voice acting, but the music is great and crucial to your success.

Like many platformer games, Taek and his friends can dash, jump over, wall climb, and smash obstacles in their way. However, they can only do it to the beat of the ever-changing background music. Each character has their own music style that they move to. For Taek it's electronic music while Barry favors Disco and Root grooves to dub step. Throughout the levels, the beat will have to be changed in order to open up passageways to the next area. There are many areas for freestyling and adjusting the music as you see it.

Highlights:

Strong Points: Good music to jump and smash obstacles to
Weak Points: Very short game that can be beaten in two hours; game crashed when it lost focus
Moral Warnings: Electrical violence

The levels have many of the same obstacles used throughout, including moving platforms and electrified pits to avoid falling into. Later on, moving enemies are introduced to add some more challenge. Most of the enemies are spiders, and there's a Steam achievement, Arachnaphobiac, for killing ten of them on the same run.

There are some boss battles as well. I like how you can die and continue where you left off with the only penalty being that the boss regains a small portion of its health. That's not the case for all of the bosses, though. The last boss battle shows no mercy. The rest of the game, however, has plenty of checkpoints to resume from as needed.

Score Breakdown:
Higher is better
(10/10 is perfect)

Game Score - 82%
Gameplay - 15/20
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 9/10
Stability - 4/5
Controls - 5/5 Morality Score - 96%
Violence - 8/10
Language - 10/10
Sexual Content - 10/10
Occult/Supernatural - 10/10
Cultural/Moral/Ethical - 10/10

Inside My Radio is a pretty short game that can be beaten in two hours. Aside from the story mode, there is a time attack mode where you can gain time and points for every correct move and lose both upon failing. The tutorial is always available from the main menu under "Practice."

As much as I liked the look and feel of the game, I have a hard time recommending it at full price because of the short amount of gameplay. It's fun for anyone who like rhythm or platformer games, and it's safe for kids to play too. Some of the later levels may induce some rage quitting moments, but it is possible to beat this game! Since beating the game takes two hours or less, we recommend holding off on a Steam sale before parting with $15.