Hit game signals return of a classic

The success of Hi-Fi Rush has fans speculating about similar games that might come to Xbox, with one popular game in particular getting fans excited.

Xbox head Phil Spencer has sent the internet into a frenzy following the surprise release of Hi-Fi Rush last week after suggesting a fan favourite game might make a return.

Hi-Fi Rush was both announced and released on Thursday during Xbox’s Developer Direct presentation. The game was developed by Tango Gameworks, best known for horror games like The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo.

The surprise game release headlined the Xbox presentation, releasing on Xbox Game Pass immediately after the showcase, alongside a release on PC digital games marketplace Steam. Fans immediately went to download and play it, and it became an instant hit among players.

Hi-Fi Rush captured the attention of players due to its action rhythm gameplay and stylish visuals. The game has players fighting enemies by attacking in time with the beat of the music, a unique style of combat that’s quite rare in video games.

Hi-Fi Rush, supplied by Microsoft

While the development team feared that players might have troubles mastering the game’s combat, it became a huge success, with fans flooding social media and the game’s Steam page with positivity in the hours and days following its release.

As revealed in an interview with IGN, Xbox head Phil Spencer is also a big fan of the game, saying he was pleased with the game’s launch.

“I love Hi-Fi Rush, I love the way it looks, I love the music,” Spencer told IGN.

He didn’t stop there though, going on to suggest that he’d love to see the cult classic Jet Set Radio Future make an appearance on the Xbox in the future.

“One of the games I’d always wanted to get, we weren’t able to land it in our backward compatibility program, was Jet Set Radio Future,” Spencer said, “I thought it would be fantastic to be able to have that game back, and definitely, it’s a different kind of game, but [has] some of the same vibe”.

Xbox Series consoles have a large library of backwards compatible games, spanning from last generation’s Xbox One all the way back to the original Xbox. Not all previous games are available, however, either due to licensing issues or due to compatibility issues.

Jet Set Radio Future is a futuristic rollerblading action game with cartoon visuals that has players skating around a city and spraying graffiti at certain points. The game has become somewhat of a cult classic since its release on the original Xbox in 2002, but has never seen an official re-release in the 20 years since.

Fans of classic games have other options too, after a release date for GoldenEye 007 was finally announced last week for the Xbox and Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo 64 classic was announced to be coming to the modern platforms in September last year, but no release date was announced at the time.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.