No Straight Roads

Vinyl City runs on EDM, corporate control, and the belief that only one sound deserves the spotlight. No Straight Roads casts players as Mayday and Zuke, two members of the struggling rock duo Bunk Bed Junction, who launch a loud, irreverent rebellion against the city’s music empire. The result is a colorful action-adventure built around extravagant boss fights rather than a conventional open world, with each district ruled by a superstar musician and themed around their genre. Its tone is playful and rebellious, but the visual spectacle often gives battles the scale of a music video gone wildly off the rails.

Combat revolves around reading the beat, avoiding incoming patterns, and turning an enemy’s musical attacks against them. Mayday fights with a guitar and favors aggressive melee pressure, while Zuke uses drumsticks, has stronger projectile options, and can create defensive tools; both can convert certain hazards into weapons or healing items when timed correctly. Unlike strict rhythm games, success does not demand perfect button presses on every beat, though learning each song’s rhythm makes dodging and counterattacking far more manageable. Players travel between boss encounters, take on optional side challenges, improve their abilities through collected upgrades, and can bring a second player into local co-op for a more chaotic band performance.

The strongest attraction is its personality: hand-drawn character designs, expressive animation, and a soundtrack that jumps between rock, electronic dance music, orchestral pieces, pop, and other styles without losing its identity. Every major opponent has a distinct gimmick, from screen-filling attacks to shifting arenas and music-driven transformations, making the campaign feel closer to a string of inventive spectacle fights than a standard brawler. Some encounters can become visually crowded, and the smaller exploration sections are less memorable than the bosses, but the game’s creativity carries it through. Fans of Hi-Fi Rush, Psychonauts, or character-action games with unusual style should find plenty to enjoy, while newcomers can appreciate that its rhythm mechanics reward instinct as much as precision.