Music and color flow together. Tonight at the 2023 Game Awards, a new VR game with a bountiful amount of talent was announced. Thrasher comes from the mind behind Thumper and Fantasia: Music Evolved. The two ideas have joined to create a surreal music experience in Thrasher putting players at the beginning of time to set the stage against the backdrop of the entire universe.
The short trailer showcased some of what players should expect. The game takes place across a surreal landscape that is seemingly inspired by the 1982 movie Tron. Players dodge, swipe, and move to the groove to survive this chaotic early universe. Players solve puzzles and fight strange bosses, all with the power of music. Thrasher is shaping to be the ultimate sensory experience, as haptic feedback and spatial audio sink players into an experience unlike any other. Beyond the main story will be a chillout mode or a mode to challenge players to compete with the world in various stages. Where the spiritual predecessor, Thumper, was a fast-paced and chaotic rail adventure through the universe of sound, Thrasher asks players to be the composer at the creation of the universe.
Puddle Games consists of Brian Gibson and Mike Mendel. Brian was the driving force behind the 2016 music action game, Thumper. Brian is a bassist for the band Lightning Bolt and blended his talents into the core components of the game. Mike went on to work on a plethora of music-focused games. Fantasia: Music Evolved was a KINECT-based music rhythm game for the Xbox One, and was one of the very few that demonstrated great gameplay mechanics with the ill-fated device. Fuser made players their very own DJ on international stages and was well received when it launched in 2021. The two joining forces on Thrasher is ambitious and interesting. Players won’t have to wait long as Thrasher launches in early 2024 for Meta VR and PSVR2. A non-VR version will be available sometime after.
