Because Dan Floyd really likes Just Shapes & Beats, which was released in May 2018 by Berzerk Studio, and he recommends it repeatedly to his viewers as he plays it. But before you rush out and buy it (if you haven't already), there's a major accessibility issue I need to bring to your attention.
Just Shapes & Beats is full of flashing lights. It's a bullet-hell rhythm game in which obstacles appear and disappear in quick succession following the beat of fast-paced electronic music. While there is an "epilepsy-friendly" setting that turns off flashing backgrounds, and there's undoubtedly a way to turn the contrast down, there's no way to make the movement of actual in-game objects less sudden, and watching the let's play series consistently gave me headaches, a sure sign that I would not be able to play the game myself.
But I kept watching in spite of the headaches, because there's so much that Just Shapes & Beats does well.
The game tells a sweet little story about a person setting off to save the world from a corrupting evil force with the help of friends they make along the way, not to mention the ability to dodge and dash through obstacles and massive clouds of projectiles. (The game includes a dash mechanic that saved Dan from a number of unfortunate collisions.) The graphics are at the far end of minimalist, using only polygons (and sometimes circles) drawn almost exclusively in the four colors of CGA Palette 1. Good things are cyan, bad things are magenta, and the little triangles you collect at the end of each level (as well as the Triforce-like large triangles that are the ultimate goal) glow white. You play as a small square, accompanied by a larger square with a demeanor I interpreted as fatherly, a semicircular sailboat, and a teardrop-shaped helicopter who swears a lot (in cute blue grawlixes) when it bumps into things on the level select screens. The villain is an angry circle with limbs made up of spiky star shapes. The things that are supposed to be cute are cute, and the things that are supposed to be scary are scary, but also kind of cute.
I can't speak to how the game feels to play, but watching it felt great, aside from the headaches. Beating levels looks really satisfying, and in between levels the story told by the background music and the animation of these simple shapes is surprisingly moving. Finding one of the big triangles and defeating the boss guarding it is accompanied by glorious victory music, as the big triangle magically un-corrupts the space you've just come through. Even the game over screen is inspiring: crash your square into one too many obstacles and you get a screen reading "IT'S OVER," but after a moment the word NO begins to flash across the screen until the message becomes "IT'S NOT OVER" and your little square heroically picks itself up and gets back to work saving the world.
Which brings me to the best part of Just Shapes & Beats: the beats themselves. The game includes songs by a wide variety of electronic music and chiptune artists, including Big Giant Circles and Danimal Cannon. When the graphics got too busy and flashy for me to watch, I would usually turn the screen away and just keep listening. The music is mostly fast-paced with strong beats, to fit the pace of the game, but there's also less intense music on the level select screens that set the tone of the game, guiding the player through not only the structure of individual levels but also through the narrative of the whole game.
Overall, I agree with Dan's assessment of Just Shapes & Beats: provided you have a higher tolerance for flashing lights than I do, you should absolutely play it. But if you're photosensitive or prone to headaches, it's probably not worth the pain.
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