To reach the pinnacle of martial arts perfection (if there is one) you have to have a pretty damn high level of innate talent and dedicate your life to it – probably something like the level Bruce Lee would have achieved if he’d lived to be 60. Why you’d want to make it harder by forcing your students to play tunes for the audience while whacking your opponent with a deadly weapon is a bit beyond us, but it does make a pretty decent concept for a DS rhythm-action fighting game.

Draglade is set in a world where scientists have invented melee weapons known as Glades, which generate music whenever they clash in combat. A popular sport has evolved around this phenomenon known as Grapping and you play one of four young characters that aspire to rise through the ranks and reach the majors in the Grapping circuit. Think of it as a sort of Capoeira sport, a fight that involves moving to the rhythm of the music.

As either Hibito, Guy, Kyle or Daichi, you start in your home town, given this background story and shown the ropes by acquiring a Grapping license from your local gym. Fighting is actually quite simple to pick up: you use the Y button to attack, X for a strong attack, B to jump and right shoulder button to block. You can also buy different bullet types from the shop to shoot at your opponent, but the main feature of Draglade is the beat combo system. By tapping the left shoulder button you’ll activate your current beat combo and by tapping the Y button to the beat you’ll unleash both a powerful attack and a funky tune. Winning fights and completing quests earns you more money and allows you to buy more beat combos, and you can even create your own rhythm out of others to tailor a fighting style of your own.

The combat system’s not particularly deep and there’s a fair bit of faffing around talking to people, but Draglade is a quirky, fun and accessible game that will appeal to anyone looking for a different approach to a standard fighter.