Hi-Fi Rush: How Edgar Wright’s Movies Inspired Tango Gameworks’ New Game
Summary
- Hi-Fi Rush Game Director John Yohanas took to the Xbox Podcast this week for an interview about Tango Gameworks’ surprise new game.
- He revealed that the game was partly inspired by the films of Edgar Wright and detailed exactly how.
- Hi-Fi Rush is out now for Xbox Series X|S and PC and is available with an Xbox Game Pass or PC Game Pass subscription.
Hi-Fi Rush could come as a big surprise to Developer_Direct by being announced and launch in one day, but that doesn’t mean its development was as whirlwind. In fact, game director John Johans has been pushing the idea of this experiment with rhythm action for years, back in the days of the original Evil Within. And it turns out he had a very specific, non-fiction inspiration from the very beginning: the films of Edgar Wright.
Speaking on the Xbox Podcast, Yohanas explained that while Tango Gameworks may be known for its horror games, the studio has been looking for a way to do something different for quite some time now:
“You probably know our studio for creating horror games with Evil within and Ghostwire: Tokyobut that’s what we wanted to do [would] really completely changed the image of our studio, and also pushed us as developers to what we can or even possible to do in the game universe, because we wanted to do something new, and that was the original idea – in fact, the way I am and presented.
“This game itself is something that I personally have always wanted to do for a very long time and thankfully the internal timing was right and we just saw it as a good palette cleaner after we were done. Evil Within 2to kind of branch out and try something new.”
While Hi-Fi Rush draws on some very recognizable gaming influences – the rhythm genre and classic tech action games loom large – one of the starting points for all this was taken from the movie world:
“One of the first things we had – and that kind of influenced the direction of our style in the way we did things – were the films that Edgar Wright made as a director. And I know maybe people would compare it to Baby Driver. [Editor’s note: I did exactly this in our hands-on with the game, whoops], which is about music – music is very coherently related to images – but in fact it is much earlier. There was a scene in the original Shaun of the Dead where they bar fight to Queen soundtrack [Warning: adult language] that was the choreography to him. Maybe you saw it, maybe you remember it.
“I thought, ‘That was so cool, what if we made a game that was exactly like that?’ This is how I presented it. So the idea was born, many, many years [ago] when we were doing the original Evil withinbut [Hi-Fi Rush] finally gave us a chance to continue working in this direction.”
This inspiration goes further than just the concept of rhythm combat. In wannabe rock star Chai, Hi-Fi Rush also features a particularly Wright protagonist:
“I knew I wanted the main character to be a non-superhero. A big benchmark we used was Scott Pilgrim, especially Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim, because I’m talking about Edgar Wright as an influence. But in a way, it’s kind of like an anti-hero – not that they’re evil, but they’re just almost dumb.”
Hi-Fi Rush wears these influences on his sleeve and becomes all the more joyful for this. This is a game dedicated to the games, music, and movies that helped inspire it, and that makes its surprise release on Xbox and PC (with Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass subscribers able to play as part of their membership) all the more exciting. . And, as for this author, if Tango Gameworks really wants to return to horror in the future, they always have Last Night In Soho to look at and keep Edgar Wright’s charm in full…
Hi-Fi Rush
Bethesda Softworks
$29.99
PC Game Pass
Xbox Game Pass
Feel the beat as wannabe rock star Chai and his ragtag team of allies rise up against the evil mega robotics advancement corporation with raucous rhythmic battles! Tango Gameworks, the studio that brought you The Evil Within® and Ghostwire®: Tokyo (no, really), brings you Hi-Fi RUSH, an all-new action game that syncs characters, world, and combat to the music in style! TEA AGAINST THE WORLD Dubbed “defective” after a dubious corporate experiment mistakenly plugged a music player into his heart, Chai must now fight for his freedom in a beautifully animated world where everything – platforming puzzles, enemy attacks, and even colorful gags and pranks – synchronized with the rhythm. OPEN MOSH PIT! Take on armies of corporate drones (read: real robots) in thrilling, fast-paced battles. Time your moves to perform flashy strikes, powerful special abilities, and even combo attacks with your allies! Do you want to show? Go ahead and jump into the rhythm to improve your skills and earn those coveted S-rank points. NOISY REBELLIONS VS. TOUGH BOSSES Lead a squad of colorful teammates and take on the heart of, uh, a heartless corporation. Take on the boss of every department, from production to marketing to finance, each more prepared to protect the company’s bottom line than the last, in incredible battles accompanied by their own music tracks! GRAB YOUR HEADPHONES Tap your toes to a killer mixtape of original music, plus songs from Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, The Joy Formidable and more! Want to showcase your skills in front of an audience live? Don’t worry: Hi-Fi RUSH includes a streamer-friendly alternate sound mode that replaces those licensed songs with original tracks made specifically for Hi-Fi RUSH streaming.
