HarmoKnight - Demo Review

Alright, time for another demo review.

HarmoKnight is a rhythm mostly side-scrolling platformer 3DS game (yeah yeah another rhythm game; deal with it) created by GameFreak, who hasn't created a non-Pokemon game since 2005 lol. In this game you play as a boy named Tempo (oh dear gawd, here come the music puns) who trains alongside with his trusty partner Tappy, both of whom live in the wonderful world of Melodia.


Goodness gracious, already I can't take this game seriously. This is so cheesy I can't... at least Mega Man's music puns weren't as cheesy. XD *ahem* Anyway

 So the game kinda gives off this childish appearance, but it has catchy tunes and adorable gameplay. Playing this on 3D is pretty fun too.

Tappy comes up to you and says that he spoke to Master Woodwin and says that if Tempo keeps up the good work, he'll be a great warrior of Melodia. 8D


First up is our tutorial stage. There is a teensy bit of handholding, but I can forgive it since A) the tune's catchy B) the game's rather adorable and C) it doesn't drag and distract horribly from gameplay. So really we just learn that B jumps and that we need to collect as many as notes as possible without falling to our impeding doom. Carrying on.

Now we go to part 2 of the tutorial and learn that we get to smack enemies in time to be the beat. Okay cool, press A to beat up some wooden mannequins. Next stage.

But before that; it seems we have trouble on the horizon! Some weird radioactive spiky urchin thing crashes to the ground, and Tempo and Tappy fall into some ravine... Where some sea monster snatches up Tappy and it's your job to save him!

 So errr this creature dude shats out little music bubble things that you need to swat away to avoid so that your health doesn't plummet. (And clearly it's painful, crapping out orbs that large) And ta-dahhhhhh! World 1 is unlocked and Tappy is saved~ :3 How does this work, I don't even...


So after this sticky ordeal, we get to advance to the next world.

Heh. Now this is where the fun starts: We get to hit shit in time to the beat~ Don't you just love smacking little piggies and froggies off the screen? 8D (PETA, get your pathetic asses out of here; no one likes you >__>) You can also smack the cymbals and tambourines to give you notes. If you're super awesome and collected a bunch of notes, then you might find a Royal Note, which you'll need later.

Next stage is a Special Stage called "Your Bicycle"... and I love it. IT'S POKEMON 8DD You know, I actually had a derp moment and wondered how HarmoKnight got rights to include this song. Then I remembered it was created by GameFreak. XD But anyway... Bike Theme, whoo~ The only thing that sucked was that sometimes the walls obscure your view of the enemies, so if you don't know the theme well enough, you might not hit at the correct time even when you don't see the enemies. And again, a high enough score might grant you a royal note.

Moving along. A meteorite is in our way, so we use our handy dandy Royal Note and ba-bam we can carry on with our merry lives. Now we have to do some...action aerial combat thing with some giant bee. And the name of this stage is Buzzooka Brawl *smh*

what is this I don't even..

 So the bees always have a different rhythm to hit to. The part that I hated was navigating through the ravine, because I could never turn at the right time apparently. XD So after many swoops, rhythms and hits later, we finally prevail 8D ... and hence the end of the demo.

*:･｡,☆ﾟ’･:*:･｡,Conclusion｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆,｡･:*

HarmoKnight is a cheery, simplistic little rhythm game. It has a bright palette, designs are cartoonish and cute, and the music is upbeat and simplistic. I'm a sucker for rhythm games and I was quite surprised to see a non-Pokemon game up from GameFreak. It's nice and family friendly to just unwind and pass the time. However, you may see it as a little repetitive by jumping and mashing notes. I wasn't that interested in the plot to be honest - it felt more like another RPG Hero type of game where you're suddenly awakening to your fate, so not sure if it entirely hits home there as something memorable. I played mostly for the soundtrack to be honest. XD But anyway, the characters are adorable (especially Tappy ･▽･), you got tight controls, and it's a pretty nice platformer rhythm crossover. However, the simplicity can make it drag a bit at times, and sometimes the side-scrolling isn't always the best choice of delivery. It all just adds up to personal preference.