Ragna is a character from the BlazBlue series of fighting games.  In this music rhythm side game, Ragna can’t seem to win any fights, so his friend (?) Dead Spike-san, decides that if he eats more, he’ll get stronger.  So he drags Ragna on a quest to eat more food in time with BlazBlue music in this silly game downloadable for Switch and mobile devices (reviewed on Switch here).

In this game, all the characters are presented in cartoony ‘chibi’ form.  First you’ll select a character which represents a stage music theme from BlazBlue.  Then you can select a difficulty from Easy, Medium, and Hard (although Easy is still pretty hard in most songs).  You can even select which character you want to play as.  Default is Ragna and Spike-san, but you can choose from two other groups of characters, one being dragged by the other.

Gameplay is pretty simple.  The letters L and R will scroll by, and when they hit a marker, you must press either the L or R button in time with the music, which will make the characters eat whatever food goes past.  Symbols will let you know if you need to tap the button, hold it for a time, or mash both buttons like a madman.  Do well enough and you may even unlock extra goodies in the gallery.  Just don’t miss too much or you’ll lose all your energy and you’ll have to start the song again.  Eat enough food in a row and you can activate a special power to refill energy, though.

Aside from the game being a bit on the hard side, there were two other problems I had with the game.  Since all the music is from BlazBlue, there isn’t a lot of variety in the songs.  Sure, BlazBlue music is good, but it all sounds like the same butt-rock music to me.  Also it just didn’t seem like the controls were responsive enough.  I don’t know if it’s just the Switch controller or the game, but I didn’t find it as much fun as other music titles.  Only get this one if you’re a huge BlazBlue fan and love its music.

Kid Factor:

Your character is dragged around by another, but that’s about as violent as it gets, as everything is very cartoony.  Reading skill is helpful for the text and younger players may find this game too difficult.  Eat Beat Dead Spike-san is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews