If your instruments from Rock Band or Guitar Hero gathering dust are any indication, it’s pretty clear that the music genre has been in a bit of a decline in recent years on consoles. Enter Tak Fujii. Former manager and producer at Konami, and even a former drummer in a band, Tak felt now was the perfect time to bring a motion based music game to the Nintendo Switch. Lucky for us, Tak was at Tokyo Game Show at the DMM Games booth showing off the title.

Controls in Gal Metal are extremely simple and based completely on motion. By moving the right Joy-Con up and down (like a drum stick), you will hit the snare drum. If you move the left Joy-Con, that will hit the…other drum (I’m no musician, so please forgive me for my lack of knowledge of the naming conventions of drums!). If you swing both Joy-Con at the same time, you’ll strike the symbols. The beauty of Gal Metal is that it’s built so that anyone can pick up and play it regardless of musical ability.

Unlike most music games, there are no notes that you have to hit. There is no pass or fail. It’s pretty similar to Wii Music in the fact that you just play at your own pace. You can also play as slowly or as quickly as you like as the other instruments will match your pace. As you play, you will gain points based on performing combos between the different kinds of hits. Again, regardless of musical ability, you will always get through the song. The harder and faster you play, you’ll get more points that will help you take out an extraterrestrial enemy.

Without giving too much away, the story in Gal Metal revolves around a high school girl who is roped into a band as a drummer. The whole reason that the band is playing is to defeat an alien force that has invaded Tokyo. Through the power of metal, it’s your task to basically rock them right off the planet. There’s some even more ridiculous story elements, but it would be more fun to find out for yourself when you get the chance to play.

The visuals are manga/anime inspired and look fantastic. The story is brought to life via manga cells while the gameplay is cel shaded to match the aesthetic. Everything runs smoothly and your motions are matched pretty well with the on screen high school drummer. Added to all of this are metal tunes that set this game apart from other music titles to come before it.

The visual aesthetics and the general ease of play made my time with Gal Metal at TGS enjoyable. The story is also full of anime weirdness that is both cute and entertaining. The demo only had a tutorial and one song, so it’s kind of hard to gauge the staying power that Gal Metal will have when it launches next February in Japan. Regardless, I enjoyed my time with this unique title.

For more on the game, be sure to check out our interview with Tak Fujii from the show floor above.

Cross-posted from The Famicast