Super Crazy Rhythm Castle

Konami’s recently published title Super Crazy Rhythm Castle is the debut game from the developers of Second Impact Games. It is a fantastical rhythm game which takes place at a castle where you (and up to three other friends) come to challenge and defeat King Ferdinand to become the king yourself. In order to get to the king, however, you must go through a series of rhythm based challenges. That’s not all! While you are doing these rhythm games, other hazards and tasks are thrown your way. These tasks and hazards are anything from collecting or moving items to defeating enemies. You must juggle and balance both the tasks and the rhythm game to make it to the end and be crowned king.

The Good

Aesthetic: There are many good points to be brought up about Super Crazy Rhythm Castle. One of the most obvious is its eccentric, colourful, and surreal world. The castle is filled with everything from piano key paths to an area that was entirely made of meat. Even the characters have fun, colour-packed designs. An example being the characters you are able to play as: a literal boombox, a demon-snake-creature, a moustachioed man with a stick horse toy, and a bird with a jingly bell (that one being my favourite). 

Writing: I love that Super Crazy Rhythm Castle seems to lean into its strange, eccentric vibe, not taking itself too seriously. The writing and overall atmosphere that this game gives off is one of pure lighthearted fun. The first boss of the game involves a ritual where you throw cans of beans into a summoning circle while a frog chants, the second an eggplant DJ…it’s ridiculous and I love it! Not to mention the downright chuckle-worthy item descriptions that had me excited to find new things to read with a smile plastered on my face. In addition, the snarky comments that the King gives you, and his minions as you make your way through the castle, also had me giggling throughout.

Gameplay: As someone who loves playing rhythm games in their free time, I know that sometimes they can be extremely repetitive and it loses its luster after quite a few songs. Super Crazy Rhythm Castle has clearly attempted to remedy this issue by making it as chaotic and challenging as possible. This is definitely not your average rhythm game, as it mixes its music aspect with small hazards you need to clear, and tasks you need to do in order to clear the levels. This creates a wonderfully challenging revamping to what is typically considered a straight-forward game genre.

TL;DR

• Beautiful, surreal world
• Unique game mechanics
• Creative and challenging levels
• Chuckle worthy writing

The Bad

As much as I liked this game, there are definitely areas that have plenty of room for improvement. 

Difficulty: If you are a casual gamer or  someone who doesn’t play rhythm games often, playing the game in single-player mode is going to be a challenge—A downright stressful challenge at that. Without the help of friends, you are left to juggle every hazard and task sent your way, alone. While still having to complete the rhythm game aspect in addition to the aforementioned tasks, it is nearly impossible to get a full three star score. It is just as chaotic and stressful as playing Overcooked, and had me screaming expletives at my screen a few times with the unfairness of the difficulty. Personally, I think that the game would have been monumentally more enjoyable and beginner friendly if the score benchmark was lowered if you were playing in single-player mode.

Gameplay: The second biggest issue I have found with Super Crazy Rhythm Castle lies in the fact that you are not able to remap controls. This is a massive drawback of the game, and took me ages to settle into. In normal mode, there are three buttons used for the main rhythm gameplay–L, R, and Y. The L and R bumpers are very small buttons that are extremely easy to slip up on, and that becomes an issue when precision timing is necessary. Not having at least an option to change it to more intuitive controls negatively affected my gaming experience, and I imagine it would affect many other rhythm game fans as well.

TL;DR

• Single-player difficulty
• Cannot remap controls

Final Score: 7/10

Overall, I quite enjoyed the challenge of playing it alone but I do honestly believe that Super Crazy Rhythm Castle would be best played with friends or family as a party game. The Overcooked-esque stressful juggling act is sometimes simply too much for one person to bear. Having other people to share the load would alleviate the stress and make it a much more fun experience. Not to mention, there is a VS area for multiplayer that is available when you need a much needed break from the main game.

Regardless of its shortcomings, Super Crazy Rhythm Castle is a wonderfully innovative game in the rhythm game genre and I will be keeping the developers Second Impact Games on my radar for their upcoming projects.

Thank you for checking out our Super Crazy Rhythm Castle Switch review, thank you to Konami (via Five Star PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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