Ragnarock Making the Journey to non-VR in Vikings on Tour Demo - Hardcore Gamer

hardcoregamer.com:

One of the things VR does incredibly well is rhythm games, as evidenced by everything from Beat Saber and Synth Riders to BoxVR and Ragnarock.  That last one is a viking-themed adventure where you’re the drummer on a longship keeping time to the music, and the better you do the faster the oarsmen row.  You hold a hammer in each hand to pound the four drumheads as the notes stream towards them Rock Band-style, and keeping the streak alive lets you store up power in the hammers to release the bonus multiplier at just the right time.  It’s an incredible game in VR but there’s no reason it couldn’t work just fine for standard flatscreen gaming, and now it’s got a demo to prove it.

Ragnarock: Vikings on Tour is the non-VR version of Ragnarock and it plays slightly differently than you might expect.  The two-hammer limit is still in place so instead of just assigning the drums A, B, C, D, each of two fingers gets to cover three drumheads, A B C on the left and B C D on the right, mimmicking what your hands would do in VR.  When two notes come down together on the far left or far right you still need both hands to hit them, and this control method also has the advantage of setting Ragnarock slightly apart from Beatmania and other games that rely on note tracks scrolling towards the player.

The demo for Ragnarock: Vikings on Tour dropped today and it includes three songs to play with three difficulties each.  One of the major hightlights of Ragnarock is the viking/celtic/pirate rock of its soundtrack, providing exactly the kind energy needed to pound the drums for a ship of viking oarsmen.  For a taste of the music and the drumming ahead you can play the demo on Steam as of right now, and it’s not one to miss.