Industry legend Tak Fuji and publisher XSeed’s new rhythm game Gal Metal is easily the most peculiar game I’ve played at E3 thus far, which is quite an accomplishment when games like Senran Kagura and The Inner Friend are on my list. XSeed has taken the remarkably different concepts of anime girls, metal music, and alien invasions, and somehow combined them into a rhythm game that feels incredibly satisfying, easy to play, and full of charm.
The premise of Gal Metal is simple: octopus aliens from space are trying to destroy Earth, and only the righteous power of metal music can stop them. A young boy and a young girl, Rinko, find themselves co-inhabiting the girl’s body after a run-in with the octopi, so the two of them team up with her school metal club in order to protect the world from the sinister space seafood. It’s all kinds of silly, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Rhythm games can afford to be pretty fast and loose in the story department, so I love when games like Gal Metal take full advantage of this and have fun with it.
This premise also serves as a surprisingly natural set-up for Gal Metal’s laid-back tutorial. You get to practice different beats while jamming out because the boy in control of Rinko’s body has never played music before. There’s something satisfying about a tutorial that actually fits into the story, as minor as such a thing may seem. Still, the first few drum patterns are easy to pick up and do a good job of laying down the basics of Gal Metal.
I was quickly thrust into a rooftop band performance to stave off the space octopi, and somehow, despite my lack of musical experience, I managed to do it. Perhaps it was the simplicity of using the Switch’s JoyCons as drumsticks that made it possible, or perhaps it was the breezy tutorial, but I found myself getting pretty lost in the rhythm of Gal Metal as I banged away on my nonexistent drum-kit. Soon enough I was banging out complicated beats that I had figured out on my own, and though my timing was certainly rough at parts, I felt like I was playing really well.
Part of this feeling of success comes from just how much freedom Gal Metal affords you. There are no beats you absolutely have to hit, and no fretboard of commands to follow. If your beat sounds good and is consistent, you’ll get points, and that’s all there is to it. You can play simple or complicated beats, or jump between multiple patterns with no consequence whatsoever. Thanks to the accuracy of the JoyCons, you can hop into a new pattern on the fly easily. I haven’t seen this kind of freedom in many rhythm games, so it’s incredibly refreshing to say the least.
My time with Gal Metal at E3 showed me that it’s definitely a game worth playing. Tak Fuji’s passion for music is made apparent with how exciting and freeing the game is, especially when compared to its current contemporaries. I’m hoping a demo comes out so that Switch owners can understand how fun it is to rock out in Gal Metal, as it’s a demo that left me desperately wanting more.
