Super Crazy Rhythm Castle Review (PS5)

Keep that crown warm for me!

I love rhythm games so it’s not surprising that I was into Super Crazy Rhythm Castle when it was first announced. It already had my attention by being a rhythm game, but the story tease we got and the gameplay where your rhythm accuracy will help deal with the various roadblocks hooked me. Well, I finally got my hands on it!

Before you dive right into the game, you’ll be given a choice between four different characters you can play as. Actually, this choice comes up every time you load up your save. It doesn’t matter who you choose, as it’s really for co-op so players can spot their character easily, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick who you like the most (especially for us solo players). Personally, I picked Jingle the magpie, but Trinity was a close second.

Anyway, once you (or everyone if you’re playing with others) pick their character you’re thrown onto the path to the titular castle. You do need to get some tutorials and background info in after all. You meet Jaq who has been passing time playing a rhythm minigame as he watches for new challengers. As he helps you get the hang of the mechanics (and she’ll return when new ones get added in), you learn a bit about himself, the castle, and the King that resides in it now. The ruler of the castle isn’t determined by your blood, but by your skills. Your rhythm skills. Anyone can venture to challenge the King and if they win, they’ll be given the crown with the previous king being their servant. When you come into the picture, it’s been 10 years since the current king, King Ferdinand, beat Jaq, the previous king. Jaq doesn’t really have any confidence in you, but he’s pretty much duty bound to watch over your progress.

Once you do all of the tutorials outside, it’s time to head inside. You do need to do the entry test, where you get to see some of Ferdinand’s shenanigans, and then see how corrupt he is after you pass it. Instead of letting you challenge him, he sends you down to the castle’s dank, depressing basement known as The Undergrowth behind a locked gate. It looks like King Ferdinand likes to play with his challengers. The only way out of here, and the only way to get to King Ferdinand to challenge him, is to do the many rhythm challenge rooms set out for you as well as anything else you need to do to get pass any roadblocks. Like figuring out where an item is for a character, getting enough stars, or doing a quick puzzle. Alongside this, you’ll have King Ferdinand popping in as well as other characters that aren’t too fond of the current king.

Honestly, the story here is just what I was expecting. Super Crazy Rhythm Castle does well in framing the whole game and giving you just enough to where you know your goal and want to achieve it with how terrible King Ferdinand is. Not too simple, not too complex. The ending could be better and I wished the longer dialogue boxes didn’t go away as fast as they did, but I found the story enjoyable and serviceable with some funny moments.

Well, it’s time to get into the gameplay! First of all, the castle acts as a hub for all of the levels you’ll be playing. The castle is made up of six areas, or six chapters, and all you need to do to progress is complete the levels, with some needing you to do an easy puzzle or find an item. Some areas you do need to do the levels in order, but some areas do give you a bit of freedom with it. Once you’re ready to get into a level, all you need to do is interact with the level’s door where you’ll get a quick rundown of what you should expect. Each level will have the classic rhythm board with three lanes for notes. Once the music starts, notes will start falling down and you just need to hit them to progress. However, that’s not all. It doesn’t take long for gimmicks to be introduced that you’ll have to do or deal with.

There are a good variety of gimmicks that get thrown at you. Some mess with the board like moving it or obscuring it. Some levels also split up the board or give you two, which you may or may not say is a gimmick. The other gimmicks are more involved, requiring you to get off the rhythm board (don’t worry, your accuracy isn’t affected) and may even be the way you score. For the latter, the rhythm part of the level helps you be supplied with whatever you needed. This can involve you grabbing and moving items, aiming a cannon or a ray, destroying objects, making an item out of ingredients, or dodging attacks (which mainly come in for boss battles). There are also some levels that are more puzzle-y and you need to figure out what you need to do or a way to do it more efficiently. You’re also given various items that’ll help you as you progress through the story. You get a spicy chicken bucket so you can get some spicy combo bonuses, a bean trumpet dash, a weed killer bagpipe, a hypnotic pan, and a violin gun. Most of these help with some of the hazards/blockages that’ll be thrown at you and I love how most of these are musical instruments.

At the end of each level, you’ll be able to see your score and how many stars you got, what score you need for the stars you maybe didn’t get, and see your accuracy percentage. The doormat in front of each door will also glow with how many stars you achieved, making it easy to tell how many stars you have in each level at a glance.

You do unlock another difficulty level, Pro, after you complete the first level. This basically just adds another lane that’s tied to your D-pad and will give you a different note patterns. This certainly makes the levels harder, especially when you throw in the gimmicks that mess with the board.

I really did enjoy the majority of the levels Super Crazy Rhythm Castle has and I really liked how the gimmicks kept things interesting. There were certainly levels that I got annoyed at, especially at the multi-staged levels where you start from the beginning if you fall, but I really liked how each level had their own thing going on. Even when it was a returning gimmick, a twist was still added. There are levels where you need to figure out what you need to do, but I don’t think these were too bad.

I have no doubt that there are some people that are interested in Super Crazy Rhythm Castle, but not sure about it due to it being a co-op game. Sure, technically you can play this game solo, but can you get to the end solo without hitting a wall that screams “this isn’t meant for single-player”? Well, I played the entirety of Super Crazy Rhythm Castle as a solo player and I can safely say yes, you can finish game by yourself. Even better, it was fun throughout and there’s no feeling of the game putting you at a massive disadvantage of being by yourself. You can still tell when levels were clearly designed around having at least two players, but I never felt like I had a disadvantage and the only time I had to retry a level was when I didn’t figure out the gimmick until it was too late or I barely missed the score I needed to get one star. The only aspect that playing solo will effect is that it’ll be harder to get three stars on all the levels. Plus, the game does give you Hand Dog for levels that are impossible without a second person and Hand Dog really helps, especially since you can control which station it’s on.

Once you finish the story, which encompasses 22 levels, there is still more you can do if you want to. Of course, the obvious is going back and getting three stars on every level. There does seem to be a reward for it, as Zig asks for 66 stardust in the secret bunker, but if you’re playing solo this may be harder to achieve. Talking about the secret bunker, you do get access to it once you beat the final boss for the first time. This gives you access to the Demon Door, which challenges you to do the demonic versions of four levels, and gives you the item and levels you need to do to get the true ending. There’s also The Lab, which you can get to through the phone booths and doubles as a fast travel. The Lab lets you play the levels without as just a pure rhythm game without any of the gimmicks the level normally has. Your score is based on your skill and you’ll get metals (up to four) based on your score. You can then use these metals to open these chests which contain extra songs from previous Konami games you can play in the garage. These are pretty cool as the songs are cartridges you insert in a console and you get visuals on the TV and lighting effects in the garage. There’s also a Versus area for those playing co-op, which you get access to after you complete the first chapter.

Super Crazy Rhythm Castle plays fantastically on Playstation and I never felt it was the game’s fault when I ended up missing a note. I also loved the art style and visuals. However, I can’t help but be disappointed with the music. This doesn’t mean I didn’t like the soundtrack, I love the variety and I even have a couple favorites (Gold, No Plan B, I Got Money, Gotta Get Up, Keep on Hustlin’), but they do get repeated in different levels. I can’t help but wish each level had their own unique song (or songs as some implement multiple) that could fit the situation better and not diminish the first time it’s used (or the level that fits it the most).

Verdict

Overall, I liked Super Crazy Rhythm Castle and it certainly lived up to its name. I love rhythm games and I loved that it added gimmicks to the various levels. I also did enjoy the story that the game had, the various characters you run into and their dialogue, and there were some great songs in the soundtrack. Not to mention the small things, like most of your equipment being music based, and it still being fun solo. There certainly were some aspects that annoyed me like songs repeating, dialogue sometimes going away too fast, dialogue happening during the hectic rhythm parts, and having to restart at the beginning of multi-stage levels, but I still enjoyed my time with it and glad I ended up playing it.

I won’t necessarily recommend Super Crazy Rhythm Castle at full price, especially if you don’t have someone else to play this with, but I do think it’s worth picking up on a discount if you’re a fan of rhythm games, don’t mind the use of level gimmicks, and if you think the cons won’t put a hamper on your enjoyment.