Synth Riders Adds the Can-Do Positivity Of Massive Linkin Park DLC

Nothing makes a good rhythm game like music with a bit of energy to it. Playing tends to be a high-energy activity so for the most part you want tunes to reflect that, especially in gameplay-focused arcade-like titles. Which isn’t to say a dirge can’t work, but seeing as more notes gives more to do that means you won’t be seeing much of, for example, ambient drone. Energetic doesn’t necessarily mean upbeat, though, and a perfect example of this would be Linkin Park. The band’s music gets called a lot of things, thanks to the way it blends genres together, but I like to think of it as high energy self-recrimination.

Over Twenty Five Years of Music History In One Handy DLC

The band has been through a lot over the last decade but is currently riding high after a successful revival, and the new vocalist Emily Armstrong is both incredibly different from Chester Bennington and somehow absolutely perfect as well. After all the years and changes Linkin Park is still recognizably Linkin Park, and the band hasn’t stopped racking up the hits as its library expands. The size of the catalog means representing Linking Park properly is going to require a good-sized chunk of music, and that’s exactly what the new Synth Riders DLC brings to the table.

Groove Back Into the Dance Line with Synth Riders Electro Swing Volume 2 Release Trailer

Synth Riders’ Electro Swing Essentials 2 has great note tracks merged with the music’s fusion of a fun old-timey style and modern energy.

Synth Riders is, somehow, hitting its eighth birthday, and over the years has developed a wonderfully eclectic selection of music. It’s got tracks ranging from electro-swing to Crypt of the Necrodancer’s soundtrack, 80s tunes and K-pop, Lady Gaga, Muse, Gorillaz, and much, much more. The Linkin Park DLC pushes the total number of available tracks to over two hundred, with eighty-one included in the base game and the rest available individually or in packs, and blowing past the song-count milestone is helped in no small amount by this being the biggest release yet at thirteen tracks. The full track list for the Linkin Park DLC includes-

In the End
Numb
Faint
One Step Closer
The Emptiness Machine (Radio Edit)
Bleed It Out (Radio Edit)
Breaking the Habit
Battle Symphony
Papercut
Castle of Glass
Heavy Is The Crown
Up From The Bottom
Over Each Other

-which is, unquestionably, kind of a lot.As a recap for those who have yet to play Synth Riders, it’s one of the best music games out there and a good reason to keep the VR headset dust-free. The music track comes streaming towards the player, who has a red ball for a left hand and a blue one on the right. Touch the notes with the color-coded hand and that’s the bulk of it, but the track is swirling and twisting around the player keeping them constantly in motion. Barriers come down the track as well, which need to be dodged to avoid breaking the combo, and when put all together it’s basically a choreographed dance through the ntoes. Or flailing the first couple times on the higher difficulties, which are well worth practicing to learn. Synth Riders is a combination of great music and energetic aerobic workout, and while nobody says you have to do a dozen songs in a row a quick round can easily turn into a full workout if you’re just flowing from one tune to the next.

Synth Riders Linkin Park Trailer

The Synth Riders Linkin Park DLC is available on Steam, Meta for the Quest, and PSN for the Playstation 5’s PSVR2. Like all its DLC, the tracks can be bought either individually ($1.99 apiece) or as a bundle (with a nice launch discount dropping it to $19.99). It’s a lot of great music covering the history of a band that’s been active since the late 90s, and while it doesn’t seem likely they’ll get a second Synth Riders music pack in another twenty five years, both the band and the game have been running long enough that it’s difficult to write that possibility off entirely.