Play Custom Beat Battle - Draglade 2 (J) Online

Custom Beat Battle, known as Draglade 2 in Japan, came out for the Nintendo DS in 2008. It was developed by Dimps, a studio familiar with action and fighting games. The DS had plenty of rhythm and combat titles, but this one tried something a little different by blending the two. It didn't get a huge amount of attention, but it found its niche.

You control a fighter called a Grappler, moving through side-scrolling stages and battling groups of opponents. The main goal is to clear each stage by defeating every enemy, all while staying in time with the background music. Your attacks are mapped to the face buttons, and landing hits precisely on the beat builds your combo meter and powers up special moves. You can also customize your character's combos and special attacks between stages, which adds a layer of strategy. The difficulty comes from maintaining that rhythm while dodging attacks; the screen can get pretty chaotic. It feels like a constant push and pull between reading the enemy movements and feeling the music in your hands.