Rhythm games are an interesting genre, and most fall into one of two categories.

You have games like Dance Dance Revolution, which rely on the general rhythm of a song to provide players with a guideline to use when dancing, hitting buttons, or however they’re interacting with the game. Then you have more technical titles like Guitar Hero that try to mimic the sensation of actually playing music. Spin Rhythm XD, out this week on Steam Early Access, is a mixture of both styles of rhythm games in a way that makes much more sense than it should.

Spin Rhythm XD is also unique in that it offers a joyous experience using only two buttons. I wasn’t convinced that I could feel like I was “making” music, or even playing along with the 15-song soundtrack of modern electronic jams, just by tapping two buttons.

But I was wrong.

Positive feedback

Spin Rhythm XD makes use of a few simple gestures that, when taken together, create a strangely effective simulation of the feelings you get when playing music.

The first motion is tapping. As notes scroll down my screen in time to the music, I can tap along to the blue and red bars, as well as green lines that stretch across the play field. Blue and red notes are both activated with one button, while the green notes are assigned to another button. That’s it.

Unsurprisingly, these notes match the rhythm of the songs, pulsing in time with drum beats, chords, and other musical flourishes. I can also tap and hold the blue and red indicators when the game wants me to stretch out a note. While holding these notes, I slide the analog stick left and right on my controller to mimic pitch bending.

In fact, the analog stick is an essential aspect of the game. Since the songs are only represented by two major notes, the blues and reds, I have to spin the activator at the bottom of my screen to match the note placements. While other games might assign the blue and red notes to different buttons on the controller to break up the monotony of hitting a single button in time with the music, Spin Rhythm XD uses the analog stick as a kind of selector that allows me to play the entire game, no matter how chaotic, with those same two buttons.

In practice, this means I’m moving my analog stick left and right to the beat of the music while I line up the colored portions of my disc to tap on the blue and red notes that are coming down my screen (and also tapping a separate button when a green bar appears). It’s hard to describe in words, but hopefully it will make sense after watching the trailer.

This jostling of the analog stick creates a sense of movement I haven’t experienced in any other rhythm game. Like physically moving my hands up and down the length of a keyboard, Spin Rhythm XD’s use of a spinning disc adds momentum to the gameplay, making the otherwise simple button scheme feel far more involved. It’s rare to be able to feel movement in a rhythm game by playing it with a standard gamepad, but the effect here is far more engaging than it may sound.

That’s not all the analog stick does, though. Songs also require me to “spin” the play field by quickly flicking the analog stick left or right, depending on the prompt. Doing so rotates the disc at the bottom of my screen and cleverly snaps it back into place when a note is about to appear on the field. It feels akin to spinning a turntable platter the way a DJ might.

However, one of my favorite aspects of this game is how it cleverly adds complexity without forcing me to be a virtuoso at button tapping. Tucked between large blue, green, and red notes that I tap along to are smaller, dotted blue and red notes. I’m not meant to press any buttons to activate them; instead, I “trace” them. As they move down the play field, as long as these indicators fall into the appropriate color on the disc at the bottom of the screen, they will be played along to the music. These sounds represent the more musically and rhythmically dense parts of songs, such as arpeggios and fast hi-hat trills. To actually play these notes with single button presses would be a nightmare, but gliding the disc at the bottom of the screen to catch them still provides that sense of satisfaction without ramping up the difficulty to impossible.

While other rhythm games would leave out these more complex patterns on easier difficulty levels, they exist in all difficulties in Spin Rhythm XD. Including these more involved elements in the songs and only asking me to trace their path is an effective way to keep me engaged with the music, even if I’m only actually tapping simple beats otherwise. On the hardest difficulties, the tapping, sliding, gliding and tracing come together to create a musicality I haven’t experienced in other rhythm games. And to get there, I don’t have to go through the feeling of only playing “half” the song, which is what I get when playing most other music titles on easy or even medium difficulties.

I’ve been playing rhythm games for over two decades, and it’s always a pleasant surprise to see how game developers come up with new ways to enjoy the act of playing a game along to music. These games are close to my heart, but can be hard to recommend; the genre requires a good sense of rhythm and usually a large amount of physical dexterity to play, even on lower difficulty levels.

Spin Rhythm XD, with its tapping, flicking, and tracing mechanics, lowers that barrier of entry without dumbing down its design. Even though it involves far less of the button tapping that is the hallmark of other rhythm titles, it’s every bit as engaging as its contemporaries. If this is your first time playing a rhythm game, I’m envious. If you’re an old pro at them, get ready for something different but very enjoyable.