Game: Dead as Disco
Developer: Brain Jar Games, Inc.
Publisher: Brain Jar Games, Inc.
Platforms: PC
Genre: Action | Rhythm | Beat’em Up | Singleplayer and Co-op
Played on: Steam Deck OLED | PC
Have you ever had a song stuck in your head that plays on repeat? That’s what Dead as Disco has done to me. I’ve listened to Rhythm Divine probably 100 times and fought Arora more times than I can count just to listen to the song. Every track is good. The gameplay is fast, fluid, and fantastic. It’s a game that will pull you in with its catchy tunes and have you humming along while you beat bosses and try for a new high score in levels.
Dead as Disco is a beat ‘em up rhythm game that has you fighting former bandmates and their lackeys to the beat of songs. You play as Charlie Disco, a former drummer who was killed ten years ago and is now working to get the band back together.
It’s like if the Batman Arkham series and Beat Saber formed together to create a game about a bat fighting to beats. (Bat Saber?) The way Charlie moves and fights to the beat is very similar to how the Dark Knight flows around the battlefield beating up minions, though it is way more colorful than a Batman game.
Fighting is all about punching, kicking, and using special abilities you unlock by defeating bosses. Bring down one of the four bosses featured in Early Access and you can use the skill tree to bind one of their moves to Charlie. The skill tree can be reset before you enter a level, which makes for a unique combinations of moves.
The combat is fluid and responsive, like a dance. You’ll often fight multiple enemies at once who advance towards Charlie with melee attacks that can be countered or dodged, depending on their prompts. Dodge perfectly, and you can follow up with a hard hitting counter or rush them with a strong attack, knocking them off their feet. It’s chaotic and when a boss is introduced into the mix, there are multiple things to keep an eye on. From dodging huge boss swings to avoiding lackies, it’s like playing every instrument in a band all at once.
Boss arenas play out like a music video. The set design will change as the song transitions to a new beat or verse. One moment you’ll be fighting in a parking lot with car lights illuminating the arena, and the next you’re on a stage with seating stretching far behind. The style of game shifts as well. You can be fighting on a train as a side-scroller, before the scene changes to an open arena where you can fully run around without the camera being locked. It’s a fun way to showcase the set, backgrounds, and overall design of Dead as Disco.
Dead as Disco is currently in Early Access but it feels like a complete game, though with a few missed beats. Some animations, especially faces, aren’t finished with the character Arora not emoting during cutscenes. Brain Jar Games has released a road map for the rest of the year with the full launch planned for 2027 which should polish some details out.
As a game with music as the core theme, 2026 is shaping up to be the year of musical games. Not as in Broadway musicals, but games with music as a key component. The industry is definitely alive with the sound of musical games and Dead as Disco is one to shout from the mountaintops about.
A code for Dead as Disco was provided by Brain Jar Games and Pirate PR.
