Rhythm-based games are like an addiction for me, even though I am not that great at them I always become consumed. This dates back to games as early as Parappa The Rapper and later on the constant burst of Guitar Hero titles. The beauty of them is that you don’t have to be an expert by any means, but it’s just the fun and joy of trying to hit all the notes and keep striving for perfection. Rhythm Sprout is the latest in the genre from developer SURT and publisher tinyBuild and slides into the Xbox catalogue on 1st February 2023. For those intrigued by trying before buying, there is a game demo on the Xbox store that will grant you access to the first five levels.

Introduction

Rhythm Sprout takes inspiration from the rhythm-based games we all know and love but runs wild with their own imagination and stitches it into a wacky yet adorable storyline. Sprout is the chosen onion who embarks on an adventure to help save the world of other vegetable inhabitants from the wrath of villains who will do anything to get into your path. Each level has been created as your path to the next and you must do your best to hit notes with perfection, hit them right and you will proceed down each path with ease. Don’t perform well and you’ll need to brush yourself off and keep trying.

Gameplay

Whilst the game only uses a couple of buttons, it is your accuracy that matters here. The early levels will be fairly manageable with the pink notes using the A button and yellow strangely using the left button on the D-pad. Whilst it sounds a little odd on paper, it actually works quite well. As the tempo of the beats increases you will notice you’ll find it increasingly harder to land everything with a perfect reading. As the notes pass through the marker at the bottom of the screen you’ll see OK, Good or Perfect. They will score you 50, 150 and 300 points so ideally, you’ll be aiming for perfect for every single button press, something that doesn’t come easy.

After the first few levels, I started to struggle a little but persisted with missing some notes and breaking my combinations. If you struggle to get through or have a younger player who wants to give Rhythm Sprout a go, then you can knock the game down to a beginner mode that will only expect you to hit notes with the A button. During each level, you will be observing the chosen onion traversing down a path and successful note hits will keep him moving, start missing notes and progress will slow.

During boss fights and when coming across certain portions of levels you’ll see several blue icons which require you to press LB and RB in sync to land. This is often to dodge a boss attack and missing these will deplete your health bar in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. Lose all of your health and you guessed it, that will be the end of the run.

Increase Your Difficulty

If you’re an absolute pro at the core modes then there are several ways of making it even harder for yourself in the settings. You’ll be able to increase the tempo when the notes come down the screen or mirror them so you have the confusion of learning new button layouts. These will give you the opportunity to rack up higher scores if you absolutely ace them, it is something I don’t think I will ever master so hats off to anyone who can!

Graphics & Audio

Rhythm Sprout has a cartoony art style that is infused with bright neon hot pink and bright yellow notes dropping down the screen. Whilst your mind will be absolutely focused on patiently landing each and every note, I had to admire the handcrafted level design. The attention to detail throughout the entire game is something that didn’t go unnoticed by me.  My first thoughts were that 30+ levels may be a little bit on the light side for a game of this nature, but when you see how much effort that has gone into the environmental design, you start to realise that a lot of work has been poured in.

Between levels, you’ll experience a lot of witty and humourous dialogue between the characters and it just knitted the entirety of the game together. There are far too many rhythm-based games that just plonk the levels in to just flick between without thinking about anything else. Of course, if you have seen the dialogue sections before then you’ll be able to skip these as they can be a little lengthy when you just want to get going.

Soundtrack Hits All The Right Beats

The soundtrack really is the icing on the cake for Rhythm Sprout. It is refreshing to play a game fuelled with music that you’ve never heard in your life but become instantly attached to it. What I really loved was the variance in the genre of music throughout and it doesn’t just stick to one genre. As someone who has a versatile taste from Metallica to Lewis Capaldi, I really appreciated a range of sounds on the ears here. One moment you’ll be fighting a boss with some hard Drum & Bass and the next you’ll be plodding along a beach to some disco or K-Pop music. The audio offering is outstanding and really finishes off a fine experience where I had no performance issues and encountered zero bugs.

In Conclusion

Rhythm Sprout is an absolute blast and whilst it is hard as nails in the later levels, I really enjoyed airing my frustrations at my personal ability and starting a run again when I got a note wrong. Being a perfectionist when it comes to this genre is what turns into an obsession and addiction for me. Nailing a long string of combinations and absolutely acing a level is both satisfying and rewarding. The game is unique in the fact that there is an actual storyline and boss fights wrapped around the gameplay loop giving the gameplay loop a feeling of purpose. Whilst I have managed to just about get through the 30+ levels on offer, the replayability and longevity are served up by the fact I can keep popping back in an attempt to get every note bang on.

Realistically the prospect of achieving everything on offer in this game will take me hundreds of hours. For experts of rhythm-based titles, they may get a generous chunk of hours out of this one. It took me around 3-4 hours to fly through the levels with one crack of the whip at each, but this wasn’t taking everything absolutely seriously, to begin with. Once I started to go back in an effort to gain better scores and higher combinations, this is when the hours started to feel like minutes. Rhythm Sprout is well worth a buy and a lovely polished indie and is an excellent follow-up of Hi-Fi Rush which took the gaming world by storm last week.