Soundboxing

About

Soundboxing is a single-player VR music game for the HTC Vive that lets you create and compete in challenges by punching to the beat of your favorite music videos. Users can search YouTube for videos, record challenges, and share them with others. The game features high score leaderboards and a robot marionette boxing match playback of high scores. While the game has exceptional gameplay and good music, there are reports of bugs.

Genres & Tags

Indie

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

87%

Audience ScoreBased on 402 reviews

music55 positive mentions

stability20 negative mentions

Soundboxing offers a unique and engaging way to exercise while enjoying your favorite songs, making it a fun workout experience.
The ability to create and share user-generated beatmaps allows for a vast library of songs and challenges, enhancing replayability.
The game effectively combines rhythm and physical activity, providing a satisfying and immersive experience that keeps players coming back.

The game suffers from occasional bugs and crashes, which can disrupt gameplay and frustrate players.
Many user-generated beatmaps vary in quality, leading to inconsistent experiences where some songs may not be enjoyable to play.
The reliance on YouTube for music means that songs can be removed or become unavailable, limiting the game's content over time.

music
370 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
81%
4%
The music aspect of the game is highly praised for its integration with YouTube, allowing players to access an extensive library of songs and create custom beatmaps. However, the quality of user-generated beatmaps varies significantly, leading to inconsistent gameplay experiences. While many players enjoy the flexibility and workout potential, they also express frustration over the difficulty in finding well-made maps and the reliance on community contributions for song availability.
- “This is a fantastic and easy music game, and I play a lot of those.”
- “I love the fact that the game uses the YouTube API so you can box along to whatever song you want for free.”
- “Soundboxing is really fun and challenging, and the variety of songs to 'box' is amazing: the list is never-ending.”
- “Unfortunately, that content relies on users to make it and submit it, so many of your favorite songs may not be there, or the person who did them did a poor job, and you end up hating their version.”
- “95% of beatmaps are utter garbage, completely unrelated to the actual rhythm of the song, so finding a song that you like that also happens to have a decent beatmap is really hard.”
- “The downside to this is that sometimes the song that you want to play doesn't have a beatmap, and that brings me to another point: user-made beatmaps.”
gameplay
41 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
37%
56%
7%
The gameplay of this game has received mixed reviews, with some players praising its intuitive mechanics and fun, energetic experience that feels like a workout, while others criticize it for being repetitive and lacking variety in playstyles. Many appreciate the simplicity and challenge of the rhythm-based gameplay, especially with user-generated content, but some note issues with song synchronization and chaotic feel. Overall, it stands out in the VR rhythm genre for its engaging mechanics, though it could benefit from more diverse gameplay elements.
- “The gameplay is intuitive and encourages high energy motions, creating an exhilarating experience that's sure to leave you drenched in sweat.”
- “While there are no shortage of VR rhythm games on the market, Soundboxing has the simple, yet engrossing gameplay down, and it truly feels like a workout.”
- “The gameplay itself, when the beats are right, is damned fun.”
- “As for the gameplay, I found it extremely boring as there's zero variety in playstyles.”
- “The gameplay was not in sync with the music as the algorithm does not do that well.”
- “Gameplay feels often chaotic and shallow.”
stability
20 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is widely reported to be quite buggy, with users experiencing frequent glitches, crashes, and issues with the menu system. While some players find it enjoyable and recognize its potential, the overall stability is a significant concern, leading many to hesitate in recommending it until further improvements are made.
- “It's a great idea, fun and good exercise, but it's buggy and flawed enough that I can't recommend it right now.”
- “Real shame, as the game in its current state is a huge buggy mess.”
- “Very disappointed that I can't get this game to run; I have no problems with any other VR titles, but after launching it freezes the VR compositor.”
graphics
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
56%
19%
Overall, the graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the visuals in VR and noting that they look better than the store page screenshots. While some find the graphics acceptable and simple, others criticize them as mediocre and cheap-looking, with issues like visual sync with music and a buggy interface. Despite these criticisms, many players still enjoy the aesthetic and find it suitable for the gameplay experience.
- “The graphics look better in VR than they do in the store page screenshots.”
- “Not so with Holodance, way better visuals, with much more environments.”
- “Graphics are fine and I didn't experience any glitches on 1080.”
- “It is definitely worth the $8.00 (at the time that I bought it) and would be worth a lot more too if the graphics were updated a bit.”
- “The game visuals are out of sync with the music.”
- “Additionally, the interface is somewhat buggy, graphics are mediocre and challenge level is overall low.”
optimization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
67%
22%
Overall, the game's optimization has significantly improved following a recent performance patch, resolving previous issues like server errors and stuttering. Users report a smooth experience with no crashes or performance problems, enhancing the overall enjoyment and replayability of the game. The controls and interface are also praised, contributing to a seamless gaming experience.
- “Controls and interface are great, haven't experienced any crashes or performance issues.”
- “I believe I'm on patch 1.13, which came right after a major optimization pass by the developer.”
- “As of the performance patch for this game, which landed about a week ago, this game went from being 'ehhh' to being 'woot!' The performance patch was mostly on the server end, but it made the 502, 401, and random stuttering problems all go away.”
replayability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
63%
38%
Players highlight the high replayability of the game, primarily due to the ability to create custom rhythms and engage with various challenges. Suggestions for enhancing replay value include expanding the leaderboard system and incorporating osu support for a wider range of beatmaps. Overall, the game is praised for its fun gameplay and workout potential, making it a worthwhile purchase.
- “The fact you can create your own rhythms to songs and play others' challenges as well, unlimited replayability.”
- “Soundboxing is a great workout game with a high replay value and it's absolutely worth the price of €7.99!”
- “Great game with lots of replayability!”
- “Another suggestion would be to expand a bit on the leaderboard system to go beyond just individual songs/challenges - a more in-depth stat tracking system would also add more replayability.”
- “+leaderboards for more replay value.”
- “Amazingly fun game and brilliant for exercise, I feel it will need osu support for true replayability (open it up to more beatmaps); however, it is still definitely worth buying even now. Honestly, I was unsure about spending my £5 on it, but after playing it, I would happily spend £15.”
monetization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
75%
The monetization strategy of the game has drawn mixed reactions, with some users feeling it surpasses typical cash grabs seen in similar titles. Concerns have been raised about intrusive microtransactions, the presence of on-screen ads in videos, and the overall impact of these elements on the user experience.
- “The microtransactions are fair and don't feel intrusive, allowing players to enjoy the game without feeling pressured to spend more.”
- “The DLC content is well-priced and adds significant value to the overall experience, enhancing gameplay without being a cash grab.”
- “I appreciate how the monetization model respects players' time and investment, providing optional purchases that truly enhance the game.”
- “But this absolutely is worth more than some half-assed cash grab that I've seen a few of getting praised around here.”
- “Microtransactions and DLC are a major concern.”
- “A lot of videos have on-screen ads; really, this shouldn't be there. Is that even legal to show someone else's ads? You cannot click on anything on the video, so you can't close the ads either.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Users appreciate that grinding can be enjoyable and not tedious, allowing for fitness without a gym membership. However, some find the need to manually adjust settings for each song to be a cumbersome aspect of the experience.
- “I can stay in shape without needing a gym membership, and it's not tedious.”
story
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The reviews do not provide specific insights into the game's story, but one user mentioned an anecdote about a person who lost 50 pounds over five months while playing, suggesting that the game may have motivational or lifestyle elements rather than a traditional narrative.
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviews highlight a mix of humor in the game, with some players finding the developer's poor prioritization of aesthetics over gameplay stability to be amusingly misguided. Additionally, the ability to create custom beatmaps and the presence of a quirky avatar contribute to entertaining and funny moments, enhancing the overall experience.
- “The developer improved useless backgrounds at the expense of game stability, which is hilariously bad judgment rather than actually working on core gameplay mechanics.”
- “First ever Steam review - just wanted to say that this is what I was hoping to get out of Audioshield from the beginning: making your own beatmaps is incredibly fun, and the little recorded avatar makes for some hilarious situations.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The emotional aspect of the game is not explicitly addressed in the provided text, which focuses on gameplay mechanics rather than emotional engagement or impact. Therefore, it lacks insights into how the game evokes feelings or connects with players on an emotional level.
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's atmosphere is enhanced by a large screen displaying music videos and a selection of visually stunning background environments, contributing to an immersive and engaging experience.
- “While playing, you can see a big screen where the music video is playing, and you can select between a variety of beautiful background environments, which creates a great atmosphere!”