Image via Taito
|
When Groove Coaster Wai Wai Partyappeared on the Switch back in 2019, I fell in love. It’s a fantastic game with a large library of songs and enthralling gameplay. The loading time to get into it is a bit much, but it is worth it. When Groove Coaster Future Performers turned out to be a worldwide release at the end of July 2025, I couldn’t wait to play. A new entry seemed exciting, and I felt like I needed to review it. Except… I can’t. That’s because Groove Coaster Future Performers isn’t a complete game yet, the track listing can feel small, and it seems like the background video for one track uses undisclosed AI-generated images.
First, let’s get to the part about Groove Coaster Future Performers being unfinished. The eShop listing and official site mention 50 songs. You do need to go through the campaign to unlock about 20, from what I’ve seen. This means it can feel really limiting when you first jump into it, especially since the story mode isn’t executed very well. The tracks in both campaigns repeat very often, so I found what is there starts to wear on you. According to the roadmap released in a stream in July 2025, the free updates don’t start until October 2025. So one in October 2025, another in December 2025, then in February 2025, and so on. Which means there’s some time until more free songs start to appear.
But remember how I mentioned the campaign? There is a story mode about teenage Groovers Kakeru and Aria. These are fine, and I honestly appreciate the attempt to make Groove Coaster-ing seem like a plausible, competitive sort of event. When you get the game, you’re essentially only getting Kakeru’s full story. When you finish the fourth chapter of Aria’s, you get hit with a “to be continued: update pending” message instead of getting to continue on to chapter five.
The actual gameplay is honestly what’d expect from Groove Coaster, for the most part. Each song has four difficulty options ranging from Easy to Master. Inputs involve hitting face and directional buttons for the white inputs and hold notes and shoulder triggers for the green squares. Advanced Mode makes it more difficult, with some notes assigned to left and right side inputs. Everything is played in full-screen horizontal display. The Challenge and multiplayer modes from Groove Coaster Wai Wai Party are gone now, as are the ad-lib notes. Some tracks aren’t the full song, which is something to keep in mind, such as with “Bow and Arrow” from the anime Medalist.
Speaking of that track, what’s unfortunate is that I think Groove Coaster Future Performers appears to use AI for image generation for the background movies for at least one song. When going through “Bow and Arrow,” ice skates appear in the background. However, when I went through on the Normal difficulty, I realized it didn’t look right. When playing the song again on Easy so I could pay closer attention and take better screenshots since video capture isn’t allowed, I saw the telltale sign in the laces. The background video for that song isn’t great, which is disappointing since I do like the track a lot. The fact that there are a few backgrounds that don’t seem as impressive or vibrant as the previous entry make me wonder if I should be suspicious of them as well.
At the moment, Groove Coaster Future Performers is disappointing, especially when compared to the incredible Groove Coaster Wai Wai Party. The story mode is repetitive and unfinished. The number of songs you need to unlock mean you’re limited unless you dedicate yourself to going through the campaign stages that are present. Also, the fact that one song seems to use AI generated images in the video is making me wonder if I need to go back and double check other tracks to count characters’ fingers and see if similar things are happening. There’s a demo now, which is good for people who want to give it a try, but I would recommend sticking to the previous release.
Groove Coaster Future Performers is available for the Nintendo Switch.
Published: Aug 19, 2025 09:00 am