Super Crazy Rhythm Castle - Review
When the first trailer for Super Crazy Rhythm Castle appeared online, I had no idea what to think, would this game be crazy, super or something else. Now that I have had the game drop its beat, I can say that I don’t think it knows what it wants to be, as I sure as heck don’t.
There is a story here and well, that might be being generous, but you are someone who is heading towards a mysterious castle, in order to challenge King Ferdinand. The problem is that the King Ferdinand, who came in years ago and beat all the former leaders in battles, is a cheater and while he welcomes all challengers, he won’t make it easy. Your goal is to accept all of the ever changing requirements that he puts forth and eventually you will make your way up to the top. Like I said saying the game has a story is a bit generous, but it does give you a reason to push forward.
Sadly most of that is hampered by the fact that your character doesn’t speak, or do anything really, so when the King Ferdinand states he needs you to count all his coin, you can only go and do it. This wouldn’t be an issue if the interactions with King Ferdinand were interesting, they are honestly anything but. He will randomly appear from a tv screen that falls into view when you enter rooms, normal or challenge type and will throw out random nonsense, before pulling the screen out again. There are times when he looks interesting, but then there are times when he straight up insults the player, not the character you are playing as, but you. There is no redeemable quality for King Ferdinand in the end and as he is the main character you will interact with, that is a massive let down.
If that were the only issue then we would be ok, but the gameplay is also so mixed, that there are times when I honestly wonder if the developers forgot the type of game they were making. The games main element is rhythm, you know pressing a button in time to the music and when the game lets you do that, it works great. Each of the challenges that you undertake are paired with some great songs, which I believe are original to the game and when you get high scores it feels satisfying. The problem is that with each challenge comes a host of pointless and often annoying chaos to go with it. There is one challenge that will have you cutting down timber walls and posts, melting metal boxes, exploding glass walls and then shredding paper. You might think that those challenges would be simple and they are, except for the fact that you need to recharge the tools you use by still playing the song in the room. This is not the only instance of that, there are times when you have to play a song whilst dealing with enemies, or cooling down a machine and more. This mechanic may have seemed fun to the developers when they were brainstorming what they wanted their game to be, but in execution its nothing but an utter mess.
Even when you are not in the challenges and are exploring the castle, there is little to do, I recall early on I entered the main foyer and things just kept getting in the way. It behaves much like a point and click style game, where you need certain things to solve a puzzle, but there is no puzzle you just have to play the challenges. There are items that you obtain, but sometimes their randomness is so random, you will never know if it’s something you have done to unlock, or the game just opting to hand them to you.
There is one saving grace for the game, once you have played a song and beaten it, you will earn a tape. These tapes can be taken to a special room where you can then just play them to your hearts content, no random chaos, no having to do 100 other things whilst you play, just enjoy the song. The problem is that you can’t just play the songs, which would have been nicer, so you have to deal with the rest of the game to unlock this one area and while great, is perhaps not worth all the fun.
On the games presentation side there are some interesting elements, the first is the characters that you can choose from, while basic they all look different. This will be helpful when you are playing the game with mates, as a bird looks quite different to someone with a beatbox as a head. The world is full of little touches that do eventually make sense, but they are not exactly obvious as to what they might be. The characters that you encounter all around the place are interesting enough, but they don’t really do much except stay in the place you find them in. A few of them will appear in more locations, but even then they just remain in place, which is a shame as the game getting a little motion in the world would have been great.
Listening the games audio is a treat and also not, the treat comes from the songs, which as I said earlier are pretty catchy. Some of them are so catchy that I find myself humming them when not playing the game, which to me is the sign of a great track. The not so great comes from the characters, who all play a sound unique to them when talk to them, but it’s the same sound all the time. Speaking with Eggar might be interesting, but hearing that egg shell cracking noise is not so great. The other not so great aspect is the games need to put noise to footsteps, which means each time your character or any other moves, you hear that noise on repeat and it’s kind of annoying.
If you have friends over and just want to play something utterly crazy then this may work for you, as I said the songs are the highlight here. The problem is everything else is not so well received and because of that, it’s a hard game to suggest, even worse if you try to play solo. From a simple idea, great games can be born, this just is not one of those.
The Score
6.0
Review code provided by Konami
The Pros
The songs are catchy and will have you humming long after you stop playing
With other players the madness doesn’t seem so bad
The Cons
The chaos whilst playing a song is just to absurd at times to be worth putting up with
Playing solo is not advised at all, even with the game saying you can and not because it insults you if you do
