[Review] Encounters: Music Stories - Nintendo Switch

Developed By: ILOVEMEDIA
Published By: Cooking & Publishing
Categories: Rhythm
Release Date: 07.21.22

I feel at this point, rhythm games at their base standard can kind of blend in together. Hit the button in time with the music, you know how it is. Encounters isn’t exactly different in that core of design, but the way it twists itself into something different is pretty new to me. And you know what, I like it!

The goal? Get two people to meet eachother. Or rather, encounter one another. You do this by moving the blocks that get in their way. This is to the instruments, one designated to each side. Or perhaps one side each of a piano. This is done by a multitude of ways. Shake the joycons ala-Samba de Amiigo. Not really an option or you just play in handheld? Then go with touch screen controls or the ZL and ZR buttons!

Encounters is honestly kind of hard. I must have awful coordination skills. You do have training and easy mode, but you can only truly proceed if you beat a stage on normal mode. Otherwise, you have slowed down songs that maybe are a bit *too easy. Every level has multiple checkpoints, but using too many will lower your score, and this means you won’t get the hardest “Night” levels. But like anything else, practice will push you through.

If you enjoy classical music, this is going to be a good time for you. There’s also music by the designers of the game too, which honestly is pretty good too. If it was just the classical tunes, I’d probably toss it up as a cheap music game, as much as I like Claire de Lune, but the inclusion of original music really wins me over.

I’m not a fan otherwise of the game’s artstyle. It’s blocky and honestly kind of ugly. I’d rather it be 2D art like the promo art, because otherwise it’s all the same body, head, now with a new texture. At the end of the day though, that’s not exactly the most important part of the game.

I want to see more of Encounters, make a sequel, polish up the looks, get more songs, more originals, and I’m positive this will be a classic. I like what I played a lot, but feel it’s just shy away from being what it truly can be if it had more budget. That all said, I liked Encounters and for $5, you can’t go too wrong. I even started experimented playing it like having two people share one Switch in a co-op kind of way.