Just Shapes & Beats

Up to four players each control one small shape, surviving attacks simply by dodging against a variety of attacks, such as huge beams, bouncing hills, snake-like spirals, and pulsating shapes. These attacks appear, move, and attack in rhythm to the music, with difficulty increasing the further players progress.[2]

The rhythm visually manifests on-screen as all manner of objects, of different patterns and sizes, distinguishable by their pink color, that must be dodged until the track ends. Getting struck by one of these attacks causes the player to lose part of their shape, represented by either a cyan square, a yellow triangle, a green pentagon or an orange circle, if there are multiple players. If the shape breaks entirely, the game rewinds to the previous checkpoint. Three breaks within a single level results in a Game Over screen, with the text stating "It's Over" and the cyan square breaking down to pieces. Tapping Enter (PC/Steam), A (Switch), or the Cross button (PS4) multiple times causes the square to fix itself and changes the screen's text to read "It's NOT Over", allowing the player to continue from the beginning of the level.

Hardcore mode was added in 2019, which adds the harder versions of all available levels.[2]

Just Shapes & Beats offers multiple modes that feature variations on the basic gameplay, such as party mode, playlist, and challenge run.

The first demo of the game was revealed at PAX 2016 and was supposed to be released that summer. During the event, release date was delayed from late 2016 to early 2017.[3] The game was eventually delayed again, with a launch date of summer 2018. On March 20, 2018, it was announced that the game would also receive a release on the Nintendo Switch.[4][5]

Reception
Aggregate score Aggregator Score Metacritic (NS) 83/100[6] Review scores Publication Score Nintendo Life [7] Nintendo World Report 9/10[8]

On review aggregator Metacritic, Just Shapes & Beats has received 83/100, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[6]