Dead as Disco already blew my mind. And now Rhythm of Resistance is here to finish off the remaining pieces. The game is branded as “the first and only Metroidvania adventure where your playlist is your weapon.” And the trailer for it looks incredible.

‘Rhythm of Resistance’ puts music at the center of everything

At first, I was expecting this to be more like Unbeatable, a game that has a focus on music and rhythm as a point of combat. But Rhythm of Resistance is totally different in that the music affects traversal as well. There’s a section in the trailer where a set of laser beams is moving too fast for the main character to get through, so she changes the music to something slower –now, the lasers are moving slower. If you’re going to do stuff like that, I’m going to pay attention.

Music is collectible throughout Rhythm of Resistance, which ties into the larger story at play. “In a future where culture is outlawed, Aria discovers an ancient music player that grants her extraordinary powers.” So, you’ll be finding music throughout your journey that can do more than just aid in puzzle-solving. It can also change how enemies act. What I’ll be most interested in seeing is if these are strictly contextual choices or if you’ll be able to create builds based on the music that you carry into any given situation.

Combat looks challenging and would be my only real point of comparison to Unbeatable, and even then, there’s a pretty clear difference in how it’s handled. I can’t wait to see how exploration is handled using the in-game playlist. The back-and-forth exploration and traversal of Metroidvanias with new abilities is something key to the genre. Opening up new paths with music and figuring out speedruns should be pretty damn fun. Rhythm of Resistance is scheduled to release in 2026 and can be wishlisted on Steam now.