Super Crazy Rhythm Castle Review — Beat it!

Let’s get straight to the point, I don’t play many rhythm games. In fact, in the history of my time as a gamer, I never even bought into the whole guitar hero, rock band phase that much. I had friends who had those games and the many peripherals that came with them, often at times when I went over to their place, we would inevitably play these games after a few beers, and it was great fun.

But that’s as far as I got there. I saw the rise of dance dance revolution in arcades, I remember the literal queues of people all lining up to play DDR, and even with all these iconic names, I still never quite understood the fascination with rhythm games, but I totally appreciate how it can bring so many people together to enjoy a solid gaming experience with music as its focus.

Fast forward to today, and I am tasked to review a game that I have very little knowledge about in a genre that is as foreign to me as calculus. The story and premise of the game are simple, you choose a character at the beginning to take on King Ferdinand, who rules over the kingdom due to his insanely good musical powers. He sets up unique levels for you to complete, each with its own unique premise, ultimately ending in boss levels.

Super Crazy Rhythm Castle’s story is told simply through dialogue of the many colourful characters you run into in your journey, and while the story is paper-thin on plot, it is at times charming, supplying enough humour and wit to make the journey entertaining, even if some character moments felt extremely long-winded as they just keep cracking jokes.

Playing using your controller, each level is designed like a guitar hero level, with timing being the key to success. Pressing the right key at the right time as the bar hits each note, gathering points to complete the level. However, as a remix to the genre, there are also alternative objectives in these levels, you’ll start the track off as you would any other level, only to be told halfway that you will now need to build a doll and request certain parts to build this doll by changing songs at regular intervals. Random, right?!

Other unique objective events include building up power to escape rooms with bombs and saws, collecting coins and avoiding poison trapped in bubbles. Every level has its own unique situation. This stop-and-start mechanic is quite significant in Super Crazy Rhythm Castle and does hurt its momentum overall.  

It’s not a bad thing to try a new twist on an established formula, and that’s what kept me engaged, but the number of times I had to replay the same songs and levels due to not really understanding the objectives apart from the song was more often that I wanted.

I joked that I found this game to be more difficult than a soul’s game, dare I say that I still believe it to be very challenging, it can be stupidly chaotic to stay on the beat while also being told to complete other these random tasks all at once just to get a good score.

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Playing in co-op is a big selling point for Super Crazy Rhythm Castle, and I did manage to play a big portion of it both solo and cooperatively. Playing with two players was fun initially, and it made the game much more engaging and easier, but it felt that it was more impactful in short bursts of gaming time rather than long sessions as we kept getting a bit bored of the repetitiveness of the game.

Given the story has enough breathing space to really impact the momentum of the game, playing in co-op isn’t as easy as one track to the next. There are many moments where you would have to complete puzzles in the world to continue before you get to the next track. These, at times, can take a bit of a moment to progress, which makes your player two just sit back and wait for their turn to arise.

That said, the tracks themselves are great. From classical, rock, pop, jazz, K-pop and heavy metal. The whole list of musical genres is here and represents a wide array of different challenges. They are, after all, the stars of the game, and you can replay these challenges at any time to improve your star rankings. Star rankings affect your progress of the game. The more stars you collect, the more you can open areas quickly and move on to the next set. The only real issue I had with these is the songs did repeat often. So, you can end up listening to the same songs a few times in your adventure which grew a little tiresome.

Graphically it’s all quite simple and suitable for the game. Bright, colourful, and full of character. It sets the tone quickly and stays consistent. In the end, this game is based wholly on its gameplay loop. Play some music, remix the music with random objectives, solve some in-world puzzles, tell a simple story and move on to the next challenge. Ctrl C, Ctrl V.

As I started earlier, I can totally appreciate how rhythm games can bring so many people together to enjoy a solid gaming experience with music as its focus. I enjoyed it for that. It was not intended for someone like me, and yet, even I managed to stick around for the 12 hours or so for completion (with many more hours on offer if you are a completionist). So if you’re on the lookout for a fun and unique adventure rhythm game, preferably to play as a group or two players, then I totally recommend you give this game a shot.