NOW I CAN PLAY MY WEEABOO MUSIC AND BURN MY RETINAS AT THE SAME TIME

Turning your plain boring playlist into a visual explosion that will burn your eyes

Surprisingly entertaining and enchanting game! Also - it's one of the most beautiful games I've seen - in its own way. I absolutely love it! Consider it a creative way of listening to your music - or a way of falling into some sort of trance :P The shadow missions with the different ships are also loads of fun!

Only downside is that you can't connect it to your spotify account, so I had to download all the songs I wanted to play :)

If you don't play with Free Bird as the song and on the highest difficulty you're not playing it right.

Lots of flashing lights. I had a seizure and I don't even have epilepsy. 10/10

Any game with a seizure warning is good in my book.

This is a great little game. I love to listen to music and have a lot of great stuff on my PC. I don't listen to it as much as I would like as I am usually doing other things, frequently more than one thing at a time. When playing Beat Hazard I get to listen to my favorites songs while playing a truly fun top-down space shooter that reacts to the music itself. Wonderful experience. Highly recommended.

This game is freakin' addictive. When you combine twin-stick shooter mechanics with intense music-driven gameplay, you get Beat Hazard. Everything from the explosions to the type of enemies you encounter are all affected by the beat of the music. There's more to it as well. You can collect power-ups, get multipliers to increase your score and, of course, you can use your own music (You have to buy iTunes support, but it's only a dollar, so literally a small price to pay). You can also rank up and get perks that can give you a leg-up to shooting up the leaderboards. And then there's the DLC (Ultra and Shadow Operations) which add new ships, enemies, missions (getting [x] amount of points or completing [x] amount of songs on a certain difficulty) and even Steam Workshop support, letting you download even more ships and missions. Pausing's a little weird, however; with an Xbox 360 controller you have to press both Start and Back to pause. Other than that, this is easily one of the best music-driven games I've played. If you're tired of Audiosurf and want something different, this is for you.

A word of warning, however: There are LOTS of flashing lights and visuals in this game (it even warns you when you start the game). So if you suffer for photosensitive seizures or the like, then you should avoid this game (Then again, if you suffer from such a condition, you shouldn't be playing games in the first place).

Best epilepsy simulator on the market

I know some people who really like this game, and I know some people who really don't. Personally, I enjoy Beat Hazard quite a bit. I've heard complaints of times during stages where it's completely empty, but honestly, play on a harder setting if you're not being challenged enough.
Personally, I would recommend Beat Hazard a lot. It's an incredibly fun shooter.

A game that actually makes eye bleeding enjoyable!

I like videogames. I like music. I like having my retinas assaulted by swirls of colorful space dust.

If you enjoy treating your brain to videogames and music like I do, and are enthralled with the amalgamation of the two, then there’s a good chance you’re going to enjoy Beat Hazard as well. The twist is that Beat Hazard uses your own music to create custom levels.

Beat Hazard uses songs from your computer, so you can choose which song you want to play and the game creates a level around it. Levels begin like the arcade classic, Asteroids, where you reduce large hunks of space rocks into smaller pieces with your lasers before some mean old spaceships arrive to provide put up a fight. The unique aspect of the game is that everything from the velocity of the asteroids to the quanity of boss ships you fight is dependent upon the music.

Blasting enemy ships into space rubble provides power-ups, which increase your firepower and the volume of the music. Your weapons are also influenced by the tune of the music, so when a song is softer or hits a quiet spot, your firepower is greatly reduced. It’s like the gunner on the ship is a little kid sucking down fistfulls of Pixie Sticks. He’s running around screaming with his hands in the air one minute and the instant the song tones it down a bit, he is lulled to sleep.

In addition to determining the patterns of the enemies, the game’s visuals are also greatly affected by the song selection. As the ship is upgraded, its firepower is transformed from simple white blips into a seizure-inducing kaleidoscope of doom. Spots in the background that initially appear nondescript also pulsate and swirl with colors to the song’s beat. It’s something straight out of a Hawkwind concert (or Pink Floyd, for those not in tune with their ’70s space rock). The background effects intensify the point where it can seem like you’re trying to play a game through a late-90s Windows Media Player visualizer.

Did you ever watch those visualizers and imagine playing a game through it? Me neither. That’s because while the visuals are quite impressive and make the game infinitely more compelling for onlookers, they are also a serious hindrance to actually playing the game. I frequently find myself dying thanks to something that I either didn’t see or assumed was just a part of the background. I suppose it could be argued that the visuals are a way of increasing the game’s difficulty, particularly for longer songs.

Crazy psychedelic visuals and customizable soundtracks are about as useful as a chainsaw to a beaver if the game feels like a chore to play, and thankfully the meat of Beat Hazard is excellent. I find twin-stick shooters to be stressful at times because of the never-ending onslaught of ever-increasing enemies, but Beat Hazard is refreshing because your targets appear in waves. Depending on the song, you tend to have a few seconds to catch your breath before preparing for the next attack.

One of the unintended benefits of the game is that it gives me an impetus to root through my music collection and dust off some tunes I have not heard in awhile. I love shuffling through my songs and thinking “Hmm, I wonder what this song will be like?” I find that in general, songs tend to work better if they are more dynamic and have a lot of changes in their volume or beats.

The game does a great job of tracking your progress and keeping a tally of how many songs you have beaten, or if you have finished an entire album. Even if you don’t complete a song, the game still awards experience and you can still gain levels which add bonuses and a feeling of persistence. Achievements would be a fantastic addition to this game, but unfortunately are absent through no fault of Cold Beam Games.

Despite it being a little too mesmerizing for its own good, Beat Hazard is an amazing experience and quite the technical accomplishment. It is easy to recommend laying down the $5 for gamers who are music enthusiasts. Outside of the allure of playing your own music, Beat Hazard is an exciting and unique shooter and a great addition to the Indie library.


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I'm a little surprised I havent already reviewed this game, but simply put, this is one amazing gaming experience. Think of asteroids with modern graphics and visuals. The game adapts to and creates a new experience based on the music you play. You can use their in game radio station or use your own MP3's and other downloaded music files as well though. The game not only creates new levels based on the song being played, but it syncs to the dynamics of the songs as well. Truly an amazing experiencce that also capitalizes on RPG elements in the form of buffs/perks and upgrades to said buffs/perks, in addition to having various ships to choose from as you unlock them. The DLC gives you more missions and ships as well. there are points leaderboards, although I personally dont really look at those.
Overall, I dont think you can find a better Arcade experience from the comfort of your own computer.
10/10 and a must own, must play.

Epilepsy simulator 2015, 10/10 would seizure again.

In all seriousness, as a bullethell-lover and a music-game-lover, this music-driven bullet-hell-ish twinstick shooter is the perfect game for me.

This game really lets you know how STRONK your music is.
I actually fell in love with it <3

One of my favorite games, quite simply. Combines your own music with amazing visuals and excellent and repeatable gameplay. The Ultra addon somehow made the game even better, once I got used to it, and I would so highly recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of music games.

Awesome game. many adjustments, smooth controls, very satisfying gameplay and best of all, enjoying to play with your own music! Completely focussed on the music, the game can be easy or harder depending on what song you pick. And ofcourse there's a difficulty selection as well

A Solid twin-stick shooter that reacts to your music. Not much more to add really. You can tell if Beat Hazard is your thing just by looking at it.

How to get the best Beat Hazard experience:

1) Open the game.

2) Turn off the lights.

3) Next day go see your optician.

Want to interact with your music?

Want to fly around and shoot things in space?

Want to get a seizure and/or a migraine in just thirty seconds or less?

Look no further.

"Bullet Hell" themes are heavily layered on top of this shoot-em-up game, so if you are into constant panic and you have quick reflexes and good observation skills, this game will be just perfect for you.

I will be blunt with this next part. If you are epileptic or if bright and rapidly-flashing lights have any sort of negative effect on you, for the love of all that is pure, PLEASE stay the ♥♥♥♥ away from this game. There is almost never a single moment in the gameplay where some part of the screen is not rapidly flashing and changing colors. Luckily, I am not sensitive to rapid flashes or anything like that. But, seeing as how this explosion of lights and color was enough to make my left eye burn to the point of watering over and hurting really badly after playing through just two different songs, it will tear a [flashing] light-sensitive person to shreds in just a matter of seconds. Play carefully, people.

I give this fever dream a 10/10.