Synth Riders review — Same name, different game

Synth Riders has been around for a few years. With entrances on the Meta Rift and PlayStation 4, I believed the franchise to be a known element. Much to my surprise, the exercise gear I donned before starting the game on Switch was completely unnecessary. While the game is perfectly serviceable, perhaps they shouldn’t have deviated from what they’d established.

As a big fan of VR rhythm experiences, I’ve had plenty of time with games like Beat Saber and the original form of Synth Riders. Without looking at any gameplay footage beforehand, I had assumed that the game would follow suit with its predecessors, using the Joy Con gyros to provide a first-person kinetic exercise experience. What they delivered, to my chagrin, is a standard third-person rhythm game where you’ll match arrows coming down a highway. While the Switch release of Synth Riders isn’t bad, per se, I think that certain je ne sais quoi that helped it stand out on other platforms was lost as a result.

For those with no frame of reference, the VR version of Synth Riders has players waving their hands to trace arcs through the song. This requires big, sweeping circles and semi-circles, and pairs wonderfully with its own synth soundtrack. It sets itself apart in a significant enough way as to stand alone from its competition, namely Beat Saber. The Switch version of Synth Riders has opted, instead, to have a highway you’ll travel down, pressing your dual sticks in directions to match flowing arrows. It feels like the series went from a place where it would stand out to walking back two decades in its design. The result will, most likely, see it awash in the sea of existing rhythm games on the platform.

Let me be clear - Synth Riders is a perfectly serviceable rhythm game. It launches with 40 songs, some of which are certified bangers. It has a solo mode where you can choose any song in the game to play. Using your joysticks (or D-pad and face buttons), you’ll hit arrows, hold notes, and dodge walls in time to the music. Despite a little directional flourish, the notes can still be difficult to distinguish at times, particularly on harder difficulties. 

On top of the solo mode, there is a campaign and cooperative, and competitive modes. The campaign tells a story about hackers becoming synth riders to defeat an AI that controls the world. The characters are forgettable, and the animation style feels like it was done by interns. Defeating the boss doesn’t even yield a story wrap-up or cutscene; it just dumps you back to the song list screen. It’s a decent way to introduce players to some of the music, though. 

The game’s multiplayer is actually one of my favorite aspects of the game. While there are online leaderboards, all of the multiplayer is actually local split-screen. Competitive will have you trying to outshine the other players, but cooperative play has you working together to achieve the highest score. They do a great job divvying up parts of the song amongst the players, and it actually makes for the best experience with the game, if you have friends or family interested in joining you. It would’ve been nice to see matchmaking integrated, though.

The base soundtrack features music from lesser-known or niche bands, like Celldweller, Circle of Dust, and Sunset Neon. They even have a whole song list dedicated to Electro Swing, which works, but feels kind of awkward at times, given how hard the rest of the tracks can go.

There are three playable avatars: a man, a woman, and a robot. The characters do have names, but you won’t remember any of them. As you play, you can earn coins that let you buy cosmetics for your characters, including your board and hand orbs. Ultimately, it’s just aesthetic, but it gives you something to do that feels like a form of progression.

Synth Riders is an alright rhythm game. It has an enjoyable enough soundtrack, and the extra packs they have can bring some familiarity to the setlist. It just sucks that the song packs cost a third of the game’s price. Gameplay itself is about what you expect from a note highway rhythm game, but the occasionally difficult-to-distinguish arrows at higher difficulties feel like a notable point of frustration. The Switch port of Synth Riders feels like they took a sphere and forced it to look like a circle; it lost some important distinguishing dimension in the process. Still, there’s certainly fun to be had if you’re jonesin’ for a new rhythm experience.