Speed Modifiers

Lore & Background

The game takes place in many different surrealistic neon environments and features the player slicing blocks representing musical beats with a pair of brightly colored sabers. Following an early access release on May 1, 2018, the game was fully released for Windows (compatible with Steam VR and Oculus VR) on May 21, 2019, and for PlayStation 4 on November 20, 2018, and for the Meta Quest (Oculus Quest) in standalone mode.

Reader's Guide

Players use VR controllers to relocate a pair of glowing sabers, which by default are colored red and blue for left and right respectively, although the colors are changeable. In each song, the game presents a stream of approaching blocks laid out in sync with the song's beats and notes, located in one of the 12 possible positions of a 4x3 grid. Each block may be marked with an arrow indicating one of eight possible directions to cut, or with a dot which players may hit from the sides.

When a block is properly cut, it is destroyed and a score is awarded based on swing length, angle, and accuracy. Bombs should not be hit, and obstacles in the form of oncoming walls must be avoided. The energy bar starts halfway full and fills as the player hits notes correctly; mistakes decrease the bar, and if it empties the level ends. Since OST 5, Chain blocks (starting with a direction indicator followed by smaller blocks) and Arc lines (showing a recommended saber path) were introduced, both scoring differently.

Before each song, Modifiers can be enabled, affecting gameplay and rank (e.g., 'No Fail' prevents failure but lowers rank; 'Super Fast Song' increases rank at 150% speed). In 2024, songs with explicit lyrics were added; players 13 and over may choose to include or remove them, and players aged 10–12 with a child account have them removed by default.

Did You Know?

• The game sold over a million copies by March 2019 and over 4 million copies by February 2021.
• The game's soundtrack was composed by Jaroslav Beck, who saw prototypes on Facebook and convinced the developers to let him create the music.