KickBeat is a martial-arts inspired rhythm game developed by Zen Studios. The game draws massive inspiration from the Dance Dance Revolution series and Gitaroo Man.

Plot

All the music in the world got stolen. Only the player can recover the music by using the last 18 tracks that were saved by humanity.

Gameplay

Just like in Dance Dance Revolution, the gameplay of KickBeat relies on the player pushing one out for four prompted buttons at the right time. Enemies come at the player from four directions, and by pressing the buttons, the player character attacks them in the right direction. All the action corresponds with the beat of a current playing song. By pressing the correct buttons, the players create a unique fight scene.

Despite having its own soundtrack, the players can import their own music into the game, just like in Audiosurf. There are 11 artists with 24 songs featured in the Special Edition of the game, with Celldweller, Pendulum, and Styles of Beyond featured in it.

The game is also inspired by the classic Hong Kong Kung Fu flicks, with all the character animations being hand-drawn to ensure the best quality possible. To focus the player's attention on the on-screen action, the developers got rid of action prompts and replaced them with well-made 3D characters.