Reviews from

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WE MAKIN OUT OF THE LAB WITH THIS OST

What if Yoko Taro made Dustforce after he’d just finished playing The Sands of Time, was on a Crypt of the NecroDancer kick and liked rats? That’s a really reductive description, but it’s also probably the closest thing to a box into which you can pigeonhole Mad Rat Dead. Rhythm games mixed with other genres are like crack to me, so even with the high standard I hold them to, it’s probably a sign that it’s done something very right whenever I start replaying levels for S ranks before I’ve even finished it.

The game's differentiated from most similar rhythm-plus-something-else hybrids in that, instead of maintaining a consistent beat, its songs’ BPM actually change throughout each stage and you’re expected to adjust the timings of your actions on the fly (which, without spoiling anything, goes into maximum overdrive on hard mode). There’s great foresight shown in some of the design decisions implemented to prevent this from becoming too overwhelming, namely how there’s a three second countdown after you close the pause menu to give you some prep time, Mad Rat’s basic movement isn’t tied to the beat and the game briefly goes into slow motion whenever the beat switches tempo. Considering how taxing it can be to mentally juggle the sheer amount of obstacles it’s often chucking at you with the need to time all his dashes and jumps correctly, these do a pretty remarkable job at avoiding frustrations which would have easily been prevalent in the hands of a lesser team.

Iffy situations can still arise sometimes despite how thoroughly thought out it is overall, though. Dying in Mad Rat Dead works like the 3D Prince of Persias’ time rewinding mechanic except it subtracts from the time limit instead of a collectible resource and any source of damage kills you in one hit; there were consequently a few instances where I’d found myself in enough of a cyclical death trap that it was more beneficial to just restart the whole level instead of trying to work my way out of a situation where (for example) I’d eventually ran out of disappearing platforms to rest my weary rat legs on. On the initial playthrough there doesn’t seem to be any way to skip cutscenes either, which can become grating in some of the especially difficult levels. That said, I’m hesitant to pour too much haterade on this partially because most of your time’s likely going to be spent playing through the level select menu (which wisely makes cutscenes optional), as well as the old adage: never attribute to flawed design that which is adequately explained by skill issues.

The third part is because it’s ultimately outweighed by what a joy this is to control. Without hyperbole, Mad Rat himself’s got to be one of the most fun characters to fundamentally just move around as in any platformer. He doesn’t get any new moves or abilities over the course of the game, but that’s because he doesn’t need any – familiarising yourself with all his quirks, like being able to jump mid-air if you’ve dashed off of a ledge, breakdancing while airborne to maximise airtime or shortening his dashes to a custom length by tapping the opposite direction you’re dashing in, intrinsically progresses you from feeling hapless at the start to like a champ by the end. There are lots of segments I initially couldn’t stop dying during which’ve eventually become ones I now occasionally boot up the game specifically to replay, just to dance around the proverbial litterbox of hazards that once gave me so much trouble or party with bosses that feel like you’re at a particularly malicious concert, complete with moves that resemble strobe lights.

Something you might notice in the first of those clips is how much the soundtrack’s reverbs sound like the mewling of an angry cat, which reflects another one of the game’s specialties: conveying character through music. Take a second and picture in your head a morally dubious cartoon rat breaking out of his cage with the intent to kill his owner, then imagine what a soundtrack to that scene would sound like: chances are it’s exactly like this. Now do the same for this scenario: that rat’s feeling like a hero with a newfound sense of purpose after developing a moral compass and saving the life of a young girl – same situation. The fruit of looking at a rhythm game and going “the music’s good” hangs so low it’s effectively underground, so it’s just as well that Mad Rat Dead’s soundtrack goes the extra mile and evokes all the right emotions so effectively (which is especially impressive considering how many different composers it has and how tonally scattershot it could’ve been as a result; clearly some strong direction going on here).

Speaking of strong direction, there’s a reason I mentioned Yoko Taro at the start. How many funny rat games kick off by interviewing you about whether or not you hate other people, if it’s always right to do what benefits the most people and whether or not you’ve the will to realise your dreams, complete with booting you back to the main menu as a joke if you pick the particularly suspect options? I don’t know either, but this one does. It’s not eccentric for the sake of itself, either, because these concepts tie in with the events that unfold throughout the story far more neatly than you’d expect; such a mechanics-driven game could easily get away with not putting this much effort into its narrative, but they did anyway.

It's what it says on the tin: platforming madness with an extra helping of heart. Don’t be a scaredy rat and give it a go – or else.

Incredible soundtrack, with a great story and solid gameplay, hidden gems.


You know a game is incredible if I go out of my way to get the platinum. Cannot recommend enough with some of the best music in the medium.

incredibly fun (if sometimes quite challenging for me) rhythm platformer with some real banger music and a surprisingly nice story, it's mad rat monday

Cannot believe I accidentally started playing this on a Mad Rat Monday.
Man, I love this game. My only real gripe with it is that I wish there were more of it! Mad Rat Dead is an offbeat little game whose idiosyncrasies allow it to really click with me in ways that most of its contemporaries don't. This is a game that oozes both style and sludge, in a way that makes it feel very indie, oddly enough? I was so charmed by its presentation, endearingly clunky writing (it clunks in a way that a roomba clunks against your wall, it's cute, I like it so much), and fucking UNMATCHED penis music OST that I REGULARLY forgot this was an NIS production that normally runs for like sixty goddamned dollars. I've only ever hit that specific feeling of charm with, like... Neon White? Maybe PaRappa the Rapper? Don't dig into those comparisons too much.
All of this to say this game absolutely owns. Outside of my gripes with the lock-on attacks, it plays like a dream, and its soundtrack is an absolute triumph. Story's surprisingly sweet, too—one specific element of the ending really got to me that you have to experience to understand. It can't be captured by video. You'll understand.
Chongo Show's Mad Rat Monday is a must-listen if you like music that makes you feel like your head's exploding.

(Final boss wiped the floor with me, though. Only time I ever got a game over. Ouch.)

So glad this game randomly blew up and got super popular because it deserves it! This game is everything I've ever wanted out of a video game from the general aesthetic to a lab rat protagonist to being a rhythm game with Dyes Iwasaki's music. It definitely suffers from the typical NIS difficulty but I expected as much. Not a single bad song in the game either, some definitely more memorable than others but everything I've caught myself humming to myself at least once or twice.

It must've died properly after how much I failed last two levels.

This is crazyyyyy okayyy im finally getting to talk abt it after finalyl getting good at the game and finishing it.
SO if youre a little confused lookin at the profile for this game, this is a 2d RHYTHM platformer, first thing ive ever played like it really! And first i've ever heard of to do it on this scale, and after playing it
YEAH yeah you can see why really fast

It's got a lotta electro n orchestral ass songs with the OST, but to be honest with you i think there's only a handful tht rlly stood out To Me specifically.. some of them I outright forget because I was so intent on just the beat alone and livin in the moment with it all
MRD also has some really cool looking visuals and colors! I actually rly dig how this game can manage to be pretty cute and cheery and also KINDA ugly and grotesque(in minute ways)

and im VERY surprised this even had a story.. like.. let alone a pretty decent story!! I liked the boss fights and the vertical platforming and bits when youre in the air and youre tensed and focused cause you REALLY R E A LL Y dont want to lose your rhythm because otherwise it can be hard finding that spot to rewind back to and Oh My GOd did I rewind a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOT

yeahhhhhhhhh kay now im talkin abt why this isnt a 5/5 to me, I rlly like the kit Mad Rat has in this game! hes got a drop dash and a homing attack and even a charge thingie he can do
What sucks about getting used to this game is that there's moments in the songs where things will get slow or youll see moments where youre not at a very fast interval of the song and youre doing shitty hitting the beat, and i didnt know how this worked for the first third of the game I thought the Switch version was just shitty and that It was performance issues
but it isnt!! atleast not tOTALLY in the ways I thought

But this fucked me up on numerous occasions babes, you get a time rewind feature that doesnt really account for the timer system(you can toggle this but I felt like if I toggled it OFF it wouldve cheapened the feeling of completing the levels and getting good at the songs for me... i wish i toggled it off LMFAO), its a good rewind since you can just keep using it at infinitum!! its just also if you get fucked up, you REALLY get fucked up in this game by proxy of "oh where the fuck is the beat" "oh why is it slow now noooo iim in mid air and i cant hit it right with this jump nooo i need to waste more time and go back"

And sometimes some shit can happen to you without you even rlly accounting for it, i came across a couple bugs where mad rat clipped through the land and one where he practically teleported off the walljump into a pit but like..
these only happened once or twice so i dont really fault the game for it
I still cant believe this got released in 2020 and I didn't know about it.. It's definitely earned it's spot in my heart as one of those rhythm games thats a dime a dozen for its creativity and how even though it's not too terribly long(really why would you want a platformer level based rhythm game to be something like 40 hours anyways, thats so much music.. i dont think we're there yet pft)
it doesnt dwell on anything too long and keeps goinnn and goinnn and you gotta respect that for what it is

final thoughts: so yeah above all else the game is fun, i think the music is charming and the character design is coollll, i think its got some rough bits here and there with the gameplay but the kit is so fun to do that it gets my brain twitchin to the point where id genuinely just keep hittin shit to the beat back and forth without even progressing in some levels just because it was that satisfying
but on the other side of the coin it can get TOUGH and you Will be thrown some curveballs here n there
but im glad to see this genre combo works really well :>
i wonder if someone's out there doin anything similar
but yeah shoutout to my friend Aidan for helpin me nab this, hes such a peach <3

I've wanted this game for, no joke, 3 years, and I finally bought it! It's good! It is hard carried by it's style, that is wonderful in every single aspect, I adore it it is EXACTLY my style. The animation definitely looks cheap but that's ok. The music is also, my style. Lots of electroswing which I enjoy, albeit in limited quantities. Songs started to blend together. The Forest level and City escape ones were the only ones I remember because they are GOOD. Ghost of Culvert and the one made by the frontman from Fake-Type are good too. My biggest gripe is that if you double jump you can't homing attack. Honest to god, that doesn't do anything but frustrate the player because the double jump is so miniscule. Besides that tho, good game!

she panasonic on my blu ray till i hh gregg

good game i don't like the controls

This review contains spoilers

A rat and his heart fall in love on his last day alive. Compassion makes revenge look so small. The moon means everything. And a wedge of cheese tastes it's best when it's from the heart.

An inventive mix of music/rhythm gameplay and pure platforming, Mad Rat Dead completely stole my heart with its extremely fun and unique premise. An amazing combo of two of my favorite genres and a boppin’ soundtrack to boot.

Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/now-playing-november-2020-edition/

I LOVE FAKE TYPE AND DYES IWASAKI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! please let me get the full game soon (I played the demo lol)

This game temporarily cures my depression when I play it

再挑戦が用意なリズムアクションゲーム。音楽がとても良いけれど、自分はサントラを聞き込んでから始めてしまったのでゲームに対する執着が薄くなってしまった。プレイしてからサントラを聞き込むのがよいと思う。

A rhythm action game that is ready for a second try. The music is very good, but I started the game after listening to the soundtrack, so I became less attached to the game. I think it is better to listen to the soundtrack after playing the game.

This game manages to make the difficulty ramp up by doing more than just increasing the BPM of the songs/number of presses you need to do, and it also manages to have a story that on top of being pretty good (tho the dialogue feels a bit rough at times, which is probably a translation issue more than anything), actually mashes with the gameplay in a really cool way. The gameplay's awesome, the music is phenomenal, there's even a song from xaki, one of the composer for the hit visual novel Umineko: When They Cry which is a reason to play the game by itself if you ask me fr

I love rhythm games, I love platformers, and I love rats. This game was made for me personally uwu

can def see this rising up for me the more i get good at it but for now its a super unique and p fun game albeit a bit frustrating and repetitive at times with level design that sort of blended together to me

still tho i think its worth it for the concept alone and the ost is crazy good

Rhythm platforming is a great idea. There's none I've played that quite feels the same as this and having the dual standard movement plus rhythm controlled movement were a good combo.

If you can get in a good groove and properly anticipate your next actions, it feels like one of the most satisfying rhythm games I've played. It doesn't feel great at all times, I wish there was better telegraphing of tempo changes and the like since you have to pay attention to multiple parts of the screen with strong focus.

It's difficult in a way that's very fun, and it also is successfully forgiving in a way that doesn't cheapen it. It feels a bit budget in some of the presentation(and localization), but I think it's unevenness in polish feels refreshing a bit. This was left field game with a strong core and all the necessary bits to keep that core afloat. The story is pretty good overall too, even if the dialogue and localization can be a bit off at times. It also just had Game Story syndrome where there wasn't great justification for some of it, and a lot of depth that could have been was absent.

The animations are pretty basic but the art is very pretty. I love all the designs including the UI for the most part.

Wonderful little game, shame it isn't natively available on PC.


INCREDIBLY powerful story. Short and sweet, yet with addicting gameplay. Totally recommend

A very fun game - just beware, hard mode pulls no punches for unexpected patterns. Having 100%'d the game, it's a fun game and worth your time/money if you're into rhythm games or platformers.

And to reference GGST, listen to your heart, not the voice in your head.

Really charming, but a lot of clunk gets in the way of the flow state the game seems to be trying to get the player in. Feeling the beat and moving to the rhythm would feel much better without all the random stage hazards and the changing beat that you can't possibly predict only by ear