Pulsen

STEAM上鮮有的音樂遊戲，贊！

Not feeling it... At all... I'm just a casual fan of rhythm games, but can't really enjoy Pulsen. The songs are obviously a subjective matter, but there are far too many weird chiptune and ear-piercing electronic themes for my taste (the trailer should give you an idea of what to expect). But the main issue is that the game simply doesn't have anything special going for it. It's just like a DDR/Stempania clone with no interesting backgrounds and some really annoying effects during some songs. Not to mention, the notes themselves often feel like they "play" a song of their own, as regardless of the difficulty setting I simply cannot "feel the rhythm" to get into a given song. It feels as if I'm just pressing random arrows as the music plays in the background. May be fun for a while, and some people might enjoy it more if they like the music, but the game is certainly not worth the asking price.

Love this, even years later. Wish there was an update or sequel!!

This game is not worth $15 at all. There are much better FREE alternatives (Stepmania, Etterna) ((Both of these are online downloads, not via steam.) This game does come with a lot of good songs, with... interesting charts. Notably Kitsune^2 and songs from Crypt of the Necrodancer. Notes twist and turn and shift all around when playing, and so far I haven't found on option to turn this off. In Stepmania, there is an option to change the notes to a constant rate of speed, getting rid of these random twists and bounces. If that were added, and the price was reduced just a tiny tiny bit, then I might be able to recommend it. Get the better free alternative! (Unless you have $5 to spend and you don't really mind, but do not spend $15 on this.)

It's like if ITG marathons were the whole point of the game. A handful of songs don't have scripted modifiers but most do, and they're all really well done and even change by difficulty. Every song has at least 5 difficulties (DDR players know them as Beginner - Challenge, ITG players know Novice - Expert) and some even have a 6th Bonus difficulty. If you aren't a fan of the modifiers there is even an option to turn them off, so fans of any kinds of four panel dance game can enoy it. But back to the original point, the mods are the point. There isn't much in the way of stamina busting here, there's a little tech in there like foot switching but it's not over the top, I would say difficulty caps around ITG 12's for the charts themselves, but the game has it's own rating system that takes the mods into consideration. The game is made in a custom fork of StepMania, but it's worth your money. So is the DLC. Some content creators giving away their content for free doesn't invalidate the work put into Pulsen. You can also add your own songs to the game in a directory the game makes, which is nice. There are some small issues with some options not working right, and if you're used to having extra modes you won't find them. But what you do get in this package is worth playing. The presentation is good, but minimalist. When you highlight a song it's preview only plays once before returning to the Pulsen menu theme. There are no banners for the songs, but you do get little caricatures of the chart writers which isn't something I'd seen done before. Each difficulty has it's own name that is related to the song in some way which is a nice touch. There is a pause menu in game with options to restart the song or return to music selection, not something you get in vanilla StepMania so the effort to add that should be appreciated. When you beat your old score the game tells you what your improvement was which is cool. You also have the option to move the judgements from over the playing field to the upper left corner completely out of the way, which combined with the lack of background videos is nice for serious players who want everything out of the way. On the subject of videos though, some players do like what they add to presentation so that can be a pro or a con. There is a nicely animated image in the background though so it's not 100% plain. There are two scoring systems, one for casuals and one for enthusiasts. The one for enthusiasts has the timing windows we are all familiar with from DDR and ITG, but with an additional window above Marvelous/Fantastic so there are seven judgements compared to the six in ITG and five in modern DDR (after the removal of Almosts). The weights assigned to each judgement (and misses) are fair but the new Ludicrous judgement will see ITG players score well below the percents they are used to getting. Like if you're used to seeing a 98% on a certain difficulty level be ready to see a 95%. But it's a lot of fun and just adds that extra layer of difficulty to the game which is welcome given the lower difficulty of the charts. Overall, the presentation is clean and good, and something this light weight should run on any machine. Pros - Good music choices - Well done charts - Scripted modifiers are a lot of fun - Modifiers can be turned off if they're not your thing - Cute references such as Viridian hopping in and out of teleporters in the VVVVVV songs - No background videos, just a subdued non distracting animation - ITG crossover stuff like Frozen Fire in the DLC - Minimalist design with tons of character put into what you do get - Tons of content, over 80 songs before DLC with at least 5 charts each - Tough scoring system makes perfect scores fairly difficult - -Tough scoring is also completely optional Cons - Your last mods used don't save properly - 3D note skins don't work for everyone, I can use them in StepMania proper but not in Pulsen - No extra modes like courses or endless - No edit mode - No background videos can make things seem plain If you like 4 panel dancing games or enjoy playing StepMania on your keyboard this is absolutely worth your time.

not controller friendly

OMG THIS GAME ITS THE AMAZING THE MASTERPIECE HOLY COW I WILL REVIEW A 10/10!

Despite what Steam compatibility may tell you, Pulsen works great on Deck besides a few minor bugs. If your like me, this is your best bet for a DDR styled game at home. Developers, I beg you to keep updating Pulsen in 2025. Please.