The costumes also reveal why the game has a mature rating as some offer little to no clothing and ridiculous physics on-show as well as very fan service animations by the characters. The skins for the characters - which are Rin, Buro and Marija - also have abilities tied to them, some passive, some not, and also can change the overall HP of the character. You’ll also unlock Elfins which are passive buffs that do things like reduce the damage you take or increase your score faster.
You start Muse Dash with one of the three characters unlocked, but will quickly start unlocking the others as well as costume variations for them. So if you’re hoping for some more popular ‘Spotify Top 50’ songs here, you’re going to end up far from it. Yes, there are lots of artists and some songs are what I’d describe as 'Pop, while others are more 'Dance' but they’re all still variations of J-Pop.
The songs themselves may be what turns a lot of people off Muse Dash from the outset because there isn’t really any variety. Having access to all the DLC songs makes the grind for unlocks that the base game had for unlocking new stuff basically non-existent. All the DLC packs are open to you from the get-go, but the base games songs will unlock as you level up by playing songs. There are roughly over 100 songs here and for only $32 AUD which is pretty good. Muse Dash can quickly get addicting and with the Nintendo Switch version including all the DLC that has been added thus far, you won’t quickly run out of songs to play. You get to see the game's characters punching and kicking up, down, up, down all over the level - which looks like something out of an anime thanks to the games very colourful art style and design. When you’re hitting every note in a level it not only feels great but also looks just as good as it feels. Otherwise, Muse Dash is very simple to understand, and as a very un-convoluted rhythm game, a standout to me in the genre that's usually filled with many systems to learn. The only spanner thrown-in comes in the form of disappearing notes and items like saw-blades which you’ll have to jump over by pressing the air attack button.