Go! Go! Break Steady
Encyclopedia
Go! Go! Break Steady is a breakdancing-themed puzzle game developed by Little Boy Games. The game was released on July 23, 2008.
The game is a timed-button rhythm game similar to Boom Boom Rocket
with elements of Zuma. A sequence of button icons rolls from various angles towards a target circle, and the player must hit those buttons when they enter the circle to earn "Beatniks"; the better the timing, the more Beatniks earned to shoot. Missing a beat or making the wrong button press fills the penalty bar.
The player then uses the Beatniks to eliminate the string of Beatniks arranged in an arc. The player must shoot each colored Beatnik into a string of like-colored Beatniks to eliminate them for points; the arc collapses in the same way as Zuma. An especially long combination "saves" the player by wiping the penalty bar.
The round ends when the song ends. If the penalty bar fills before the song is over, the song ends before the player eliminates the Beatniks, or the Beatnik arc gets too long, the player fails the round.
The game features 20 licensed songs which fall into the hip-hop, disco
, funk
and electro categories.
The versus mode involves a head-to-head match with another opponent. New power-ups appear in the beatnik circles in versus mode that allow the player to attack the opponent. To activate the power-up, the power-up beatnik has to be knocked out of your own circle. Power-ups include a "hammer" power-up that adds five beatniks to the opponent's puzzle and a spray paint power-up that covers the opponent's target circle with paint making it hard for them to enter inputs with the music.
In co-op mode, players play the rhythm portion together with the worst of the two inputs determining the number of earned beatniks for shooting. The players then take turns solving the beatnik puzzle.
awarded Go! Go! Break Steady a rating of 8.3 stating, "Go! Go! Break Steady is an unexpected visual delight (especially for HDTV owners) -- and it makes an already strong multigenre affair even better." IGN
gave the game a rating of 7.3, stating "Go! Go! Break Steady is a fun experiment in merging two genres that would seem to have nothing in common." GamePro
awarded the game a rating 8.0, saying, "Stylized graphics, smooth 2D character animations and a slick presentation make Go! Go! Break Steady an experience not quite like anything else out there."
Go! Go! Break Steady is the first and sole game developed by Little Boy Games, an independent game development studio founded by Ivan Tung and Ahmed Usman Khalid. The company is located in Vancouver, Canada. Both founders previously worked together at Electronic Arts
.
Gameplay
Boom Boom Rocket
Boom Boom Rocket is a downloadable video game for Xbox 360's Xbox Live Arcade service. Boom Boom Rocket marks the first rhythm game for the Live Arcade service and was developed by Geometry Wars creators Bizarre Creations and published by the Pogo division of Electronic Arts...
with elements of Zuma. A sequence of button icons rolls from various angles towards a target circle, and the player must hit those buttons when they enter the circle to earn "Beatniks"; the better the timing, the more Beatniks earned to shoot. Missing a beat or making the wrong button press fills the penalty bar.
The player then uses the Beatniks to eliminate the string of Beatniks arranged in an arc. The player must shoot each colored Beatnik into a string of like-colored Beatniks to eliminate them for points; the arc collapses in the same way as Zuma. An especially long combination "saves" the player by wiping the penalty bar.
The round ends when the song ends. If the penalty bar fills before the song is over, the song ends before the player eliminates the Beatniks, or the Beatnik arc gets too long, the player fails the round.
The game features 20 licensed songs which fall into the hip-hop, disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and electro categories.
Multiplayer
The game features two player off- and online co-op and versus modes.The versus mode involves a head-to-head match with another opponent. New power-ups appear in the beatnik circles in versus mode that allow the player to attack the opponent. To activate the power-up, the power-up beatnik has to be knocked out of your own circle. Power-ups include a "hammer" power-up that adds five beatniks to the opponent's puzzle and a spray paint power-up that covers the opponent's target circle with paint making it hard for them to enter inputs with the music.
In co-op mode, players play the rhythm portion together with the worst of the two inputs determining the number of earned beatniks for shooting. The players then take turns solving the beatnik puzzle.
Reception
Go! Go! Break Steady has received generally positive reviews mostly acknowledging the unique game-play experience it provides. 1UP.com1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
awarded Go! Go! Break Steady a rating of 8.3 stating, "Go! Go! Break Steady is an unexpected visual delight (especially for HDTV owners) -- and it makes an already strong multigenre affair even better." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the game a rating of 7.3, stating "Go! Go! Break Steady is a fun experiment in merging two genres that would seem to have nothing in common." GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
awarded the game a rating 8.0, saying, "Stylized graphics, smooth 2D character animations and a slick presentation make Go! Go! Break Steady an experience not quite like anything else out there."
Development
Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...
.