Gal Metal
Release Date: October 30, 2018
Arcade, science fiction, rhythm, music, visual novel, Nintendo exclusive, singleplayer
OpenCritic
A rhythmic-musical game that allows us to play the drummer of a school heavymetal band fighting alien invaders. The title turns the Nintendo Switch console controllers into drumsticks and allows us to play on our own to the songs prepared by the creators.
Videos and Screens
[1:34] Gal Metal E3 2018 trailer
Nintendo Life: 7 / 10 by Jon Cousins
Gal Metal is wild, weird and cool. If you can embrace the vivid and wacky art style of the comic panel segments and strive for percussive nirvana, there is a refreshing, deceptively deep and gratifying experience here. What stops it from being truly great are the minor inconsistencies of the motion controls, the completely bonkers alien invasion plot and the slow, text-heavy teen melodrama stories. Even so, the game mostly succeeds by subverting many stale genre tropes. It will take time to master your set list and the absence of more contemporary music is initially jarring, but this is a title that is rewarding as well as just really fun. For those who are about to rock, we salute you.
Pure Nintendo: 7 / 10 by Kirstie Summers
Gal Metal is absurd and adorable in equal measure. There is no doubt it will find an incredibly passionate niche out there somewhere, but there's still plenty to entertain anyone with rhythm.
Cubed3: 8 / 10 by Rudy Lavaux
Gal Metalnot only offers a hilarious interactive manga story,but also an original approach to the rhythm game genre that shakes things up enough to set itself apart from pretty much everything else. The only real drawbacks?The occasional lack of response from the JoyCon,and a price that may be a bit too steep,depending on how hooked players get,and how willing they are to extract every last bit of creative musical freedom that this allows. Those only wishing to casually experience the story may not get much for their buck,while avid fans of metal and drum beats looking for a challenge to their creativity should not have any regrets.It is not a very long experience, but to the right audience, it has virtually infinite replayability.
Gal Metal Description
Story
Although Gal Metal is a music game, the creators also took care of its story layer, which was presented in the form of visual novel cut-scenes and comic book panels. Earth is threatened by an alien invasion. They want to take revenge on its inhabitants for spreading metal music through the Voyager probe that left the Solar System. The aliens intercepted the signal and could not resist the rock rhythms, which led to an epidemic of madness threatening their lives.
A small group of space invaders reach our planet and kidnap two Japanese high school students: the main character of the game and Rinko, a drummer of a female music club. The aliens need an emissary with whom they will discuss their revenge plan, but they cannot decide which teenager will be the negotiator, uniting their souls in one body. The couple must now learn to cooperate with each other and defeat all eight cosmic kidnappers with the help of music.
Mechanics
Between the story segments we take part in metal concerts. We take on the role of drummer Rinko and the main character trapped in her body. Unlike other productions of this type, when playing, the game does not display icons with buttons or notes, which we have to choose at the right time. Players have to beat the rhythm themselves using a standard controller or two joy-cons pretending to be percussion sticks. The game simulates the use of standard drums and plates. The creators have prepared an extensive tutorial, allowing us to practice the rhythm of the beat and the combination of different sounds.
Technical aspects
Soundtrack in Gal Metal consists of original metal instrumental pieces, as well as rock covers of classical music. The visuals use simple three-dimensional models of characters made with the use of cel-shading technique.
Last updated on February 17, 2020
Gal Metal Summary
Platforms:
Switch
