Michael McWhertor
Tango Gameworks, the Bethesda Softworks studio behind horror games The Evil Within and Ghostwire: Tokyo, revealed its next project, Hi-Fi Rush, on Wednesday during an Xbox Developer Direct livestream. It’s a big swerve for the studio; Hi-Fi Rush is a cartoonish rhythm-based action game with a colorful visual style that looks somewhere between Sega’s Jet Set Radio and Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive.
In another big swerve, Tango Gameworks is releasing the game today. Hi-Fi Rush launches Wednesday on Xbox Series X and Windows PC, and is included with Game Pass for Xbox and PC.
In Hi-Fi Rush, players take on the role of protagonist Chai, who has a supernatural sense of the rhythm of his world. His moves and attacks help create a living soundtrack, Tango Gameworks says. The more you flow with the beat, the better you can connect with your attacks and abilities — “everything syncs up like a music video,” according to the studio. The game’s soundtrack features licensed tracks from artists like Nine Inch Nails, The Black Keys, The Prodigy, and Zwan. Hi-Fi Rush was directed by John Johanas, director of The Evil Within 2.