Hundreds of years ago, giant robots were built to fight in a great war, but now that the world is at peace, there\u2019s little call for their use. So society decided to repurpose them for dance battles, and thus the world created a new sport! Ignore the fact that a 100 foot tall popping-and-locking death machine would demolish a town, and simply enjoy their sweet moves.<\/span><\/p>\n There\u2019s a plot here, with you playing as a silent protagonist finding themself in possession of a loaned Tenzen \u2014 the fancy name for giant robots \u2014 who travels around the land, battling other Tenzen pilots with the goal of becoming the world champion. It\u2019s a simple plot, involving beating a number of leaders to earn the right to enter the championships, but it serves as a suitable backing for the gameplay.<\/span><\/p>\n Before I go any further though, it should be mentioned that <\/span>Steel Century Groove<\/span><\/i> really feels like it\u2019s leaning on the <\/span>Pokemon<\/span><\/i> formula. You set off from a small town to defeat what are essentially gym leaders to access the championships. Other pilots run over to you when you cross their path for an impromptu battle. There\u2019s even a professor at the start of the game that allows you to select one of three starter Tenzens. It\u2019s clearly deliberate, but it\u2019s a formula that may be a little over familiar for some.<\/span><\/p>\n So you\u2019ll go from town to town, completing tasks to be able to get to the Principle Pilots as these leaders are known, but the real fun part of the game is the dance battles themselves. Whilst they can get a little tiresome early on, as you access more and more gameplay mechanics, things become really enjoyable. At its core, your goal is to fill up a bar with successful notes faster than your opponent does, but the battles are a little more convoluted than simply tapping the A button \u2014 assuming you\u2019re using a controller \u2014 when the marker crosses the note.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Your Tenzen has multiple abilities that activate depending on which button you press in time to the music. The basic one simply increases your bar, but others will increase it faster, slow your enemy, change how you interact with the rhythm entirely, or potentially shut down your enemy completely. Those enemies also have abilities though, and you\u2019ll be warned about when they\u2019ll activate them ahead of time, meaning you can use your own abilities to counter them if you time it correctly. There\u2019s a lot to keep track of between the music, your own timing, and what your foe is about to do, but once you get into the rhythm of things, you\u2019ll have a great time stringing together effective combos to wipe the floor with anyone that takes you on.<\/span><\/p>\n As you continue through the story, you\u2019ll acquire new Tenzens, as well as back-up dancers that give you new abilities too. Different Tenzens have pretty different playstyles too, meaning you\u2019ll need to adapt your approach considerably when trying out something new. It\u2019s a good idea to do so though, as you\u2019ll find some are more effective in specific combats.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s certainly fun, and once the mechanics open up, you\u2019ll have a really good time. The presentation leaves a lot to be desired though. Whilst the Tenzens look neat enough, you won\u2019t get to pay much attention to them in battle due to how laser focused you\u2019ll need to be on nailing notes. Other models and the world itself really didn\u2019t do it for me though, looking more like something out of Roblox with flat characters and a comparatively textureless world. I\u2019m not expecting earth shattering visuals, but this really wasn\u2019t my cup of tea.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Thankfully the music is excellent, as you\u2019d hope in a rhythm game. Genres vary considerably, but all of them were enjoyable to play. Whilst I likely won\u2019t be listening to them every day, they\u2019re catchy enough for me to want to replay some of them beyond grinding experience points. There\u2019s an interesting feature where you can drop your own mp3s (remember them?) into a specific directory and have them appear in <\/span>Steel Century Groove<\/span><\/i> too, with the game generating a dance and rhythm pattern for you to play. I\u2019m sure mileage may vary depending on what you use, but it\u2019s fun and something I haven\u2019t seen since the likes of <\/span>Audiosurf<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n Steel Century Groove<\/span><\/i> is a unique fusion of rhythm-action, <\/span>Pokemon<\/span><\/i>, and giant stompy robots, which is a sentence that I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever write. The visuals will likely put some people off, but the gameplay itself is really quite enjoyable if you give it a couple of hours to open up. If you aren\u2019t sold, there\u2019s a demo and a prologue version in the form of <\/span>Steel Century Groove: Midnight<\/span><\/i> to try out for free to get a taste for it. If you\u2019re a rhythm-action fan, this is worth a shot.<\/span><\/p>\n Steel Century Groove is available now on PC.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n![\"Steel](\"https:\/\/s3-b3bucket.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/06235351\/20260125213430_1.jpg\")
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