54. Groove Coaster (Matrix Software, Arcade, 2013)

Groove Coaster is a rhythm arcade game that is controlled by two huge buttons that are mounted onto  pedestal-like appendages that can be moved in each of the 4 cardinal directions. So your inputs are limited to up, down, left, right, and button press. The game play works like a standard Japanese music game, where "notes" are scrolling down a track and you have to press the correct input at the right time with the music.

But the real draw of the Groove Coaster is how it presents the track, rather than something like Guitar Freaks or even the more dynamic Guitar Hero, Groove Coaster, as its name implies, puts you on a wild, ever shifting crazy geometric line, somewhat reminiscent of those old Windows 95 pipe maze screensavers. Though in this case, the shapes are choreographed to the music so that it does have the crescendoing feeling of riding a roller coaster. The controls were also fun to learn, though. I'm sure the game gets plenty challenging on harder modes / songs, but I had a great time on normal.

Also, the soundtrack included a remix of the Fantasy Zone theme song, so that kind of sealed the deal for me.

5/5, Apparently there's a Nintendo Switch version that came out last year and now I'm sad I'm not buying any games this year.

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