Double Kick Heroes Review

If you had to come up with a list of crazy things you want to see in a game would it involve dinosaurs, sharks, zombies, a Cadillac, pixel graphics and heavy metal music? Double Kick Heroes delivers all of these and more! Even just by seeing the title card for the game, I had high hopes and expectations for this title. Developer Headbang Club took a rhythm game and cranked it up to 11.

You follow a heavy metal band who is playing a show in a designated quarantine area in Los Angeles. Once the band is on stage they suddenly realize the whole audience is actually zombies. The band members run out of there as fast as they can and get into their red “gundillac”, a Cadillac outfitted with guns to blast the hordes of zombies and other monsters pursuing you. The band then decides to take it upon themselves to rid the world of these zombies so the survivors can enjoy their heavy metal music in peace.

Clearly the game isn’t one of your super happy stories; it’s the apocalypse and zombies are taking over so it makes sense that the songs you are listening to are pretty intense! There are thirty different artists that have music on the soundtrack so there’s a big variety of songs you will play. Instead of just trying to get the highest score possible you will be attacking with the beat of music you hit. So the game isn’t only a rhythm game, it’s a beat-em-up at the same time. The band is armed with only handguns at first but as you hit the notes with perfect timing you will unlock other weapons to use like shotguns that deal more damage, then as the story progresses your car is equipped with cannons for ultimate damage.

So, like double kick drums where you have separate pedals for each foot which allows you to play faster and more complicated beats, the controller has you hitting the left and right shoulder buttons to hit the scrolling beats. Each button shoots the guns either higher or lower so not all the shots go to the exact same spot. Alternating the order I hit the buttons worked well for hitting the enemies on multiple levels making it harder for one group of baddies to catch up to the band. On the easy settings as long as you don’t miss too many notes the horde doesn’t usually catch up to Sheila (your car).

As the band travels across America and Europe they come across a lot of crazy characters. There weren’t only zombies in pursuit of your car but other people such as KKK members, angry animals and dinosaurs. These characters look super cool but it’s really hard to enjoy the mobs chasing you when it takes your attention away from hitting the scrolling music beats on the bottom of the screen. I also immensely enjoyed the obvious nods to other famous musicians and celebrities like Marlene Branson not Marilyn Manson, James Hetfield and Danny Trejo, known as Metalchete in the game. It makes you excited to head into a new town to see what other random characters you will find!

Once you do beat the main story you can always try to get a higher score or you can play one of the other modes in the game. There is "Arcade" where you just try to get the highest score you can onto the score board, "Hellgate" where you can choose the individual songs in the game to challenge, "Fury Road" which includes a daily run where you can unlock new gear for your car and face the same levels as other players to get onto the Leaderboard. The last mode is really unique and adds a ton of extra gameplay. You can create your own levels using a song you have on your computer or play a level someone else has made. I decided to try out Numb by Linkin Park so you just have to tell your game where on the computer your song is stored then it will begin the challenge for you. So, even if you aren’t the biggest heavy metal fan and just want to try out your own favorite songs, there are a lot of options. Then if you can’t find the song you want on the list you can just make it yourself.

I am a huge fan of rhythm games and I played tons of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and others like Theatrhythm so I was really excited to try this one out. It has a ton of personality to keep drawing you back in for more. I have over six hours into my game so far and I can’t wait to get back to the action. There is so much in this game it is definitely a must play for me! Pick up your controller, crank up the volume and go on an epic road trip through an apocalyptic wasteland.