Although two superficially familiar genres, fighting games and rhythm games are rather polar opposites. Certainly, both require precise input into a particular flow, but rhythm games rely on mechanical perfection, whereas fighting games require a deep understanding of their often unpredictable opponents. In an ideal world, the two would blend well together, but in the case of God of Rock, the genres they are trying to fuse are often at odds.

That can be a real shame. Fighter and rhythm are two of my favorite genres, so the idea of a game merging the two was music to my ears. Instead of a long list of moves and dedicated punch/kick buttons, God of Rock's battles take place on a chart of musical notes that scrolls at the bottom of the screen. If you hit the notes with the same precision as your opponent, you will block each other's attacks, but by getting more precise timing, you can break through their defenses and wallop them.

The match does not end until one player falls, so two players with perfect timing will engage in an endless battle as they increase the difficulty of the note chart. Here Modus Studios has added fighting game elements. Each character has three super and ultra moves, which can be performed with traditional fighter inputs such as half circles and quarter circles. In addition to hitting opponents with a collection of random notes, these abilities can rapidly change the speed of the notes or allow them to heal when being hit.

God of Rock's song library is perfectly usable. I wasn't that wowed by any of the songs, and I think the game would have benefited from a smaller song library or a smattering of licensed songs. The problem is that the fighting game portion of the game breaks up the flow of the rhythm part of the game in a big way. It was hard to find gaps for super inputs, and I usually had to deliberately drop combos to try to get an attack out. Thankfully, you don't have to remember every ability input exactly, you can usually just mash it out. However, when playing with a mouse and keyboard, it is almost impossible to pull off these moves. I did drop some combos with the controller, but it was far easier to use the analog sticks than it was to move my hand to a completely different spot on the keyboard.

There were also executable reversals, but reading and reacting to them properly added to the visual confusion. When an opponent attempted to perform a super move, the circle in the center of the screen would light up in a specific color. In order to reverse the opponent's attack and save your life, you must respond quickly with a higher level super move. It was nearly impossible to take one's eyes off the note, keep looking at the circle, read its color, and respond appropriately.

Not only that, but some UI choices make reading the notes in "God of Rock" a daunting task. There is a reason why games with horizontal notes are often relegated to one or two input lanes; having to keep an eye on four input lanes and poor rebind options made reading more dense note charts a challenge. A vertical lane would improve the experience tenfold, especially when playing on the keyboard. [The health bar is too far away from the notes, making it difficult to glance over and quickly read what your health or your opponent's health is doing. The actual combat going on in the background packs a punch and it is fun to catch a glimpse of it, but is often accompanied by blank flashes. Eventually I got used to it, but for the first hour it was even harder to read the notes.

God of Rock has a limited number of modes, including an arcade mode with nice illustrated cutscenes of each character, which you fight through the roster. In Free Play mode, you can play against the CPU or go offline to play a particular song with other players. Finally, the multiplayer mode has a ranked and casual lobbies where you can play against other players online.

What impressed me most was how streamlined the online multiplayer in God of Rock is. I jumped into the game several times with a fellow Rhythm & Fighter enthusiast. It took no time at all to set up the lobby, and we were able to play a game together in less than a minute. Once the game was over, it was right back to the rematch. As someone who is used to long rematch loading screens (like watching "Tekken 7"), this was much appreciated.

You could also jump straight into the rematch with a randomly selected song, eliminating the need to jump back and forth through the song list. The only thing I didn't like was that the only control for manual song selection was on the host's side. On that note, my friend could see me scrolling through the list and we could select songs together with a little communication.

Despite all that hard work, I really loved the appeal of God of Rock. Characters like comic artist Edith and carefree Lynn are a colorful mix of characters. I enjoyed their unique interactions in the arcade intro, but wish they could have been skipped in free play and multiplayer. [Unfortunately, I don't think "God of Rock" will immediately grab the attention of diehard fans of either genre. I myself had a hard time wanting to play it for more than an hour or two. It's a tough task to reconcile these two diametrically opposed genres, and God of Rock fails to mesh the two well. It looks great, and it's clear that Modus Games has put a lot of love into it, and I look forward to future updates; please consider tweaking the UI and adding the option for vertical notes, and I'm sure that the game will be a lot of fun to play, and I'm sure it will be a lot of fun to play.