Klang Review

  If there is one thing that will grab my attention it is a rhythm game.  I love to play them especially when they are backed by a great song selection.  When I initially started Klang by Tinimations
I was not sure if I was going to like it.  The crazy thing is the game grew on me.

The Game:   

  Klang is a 2-D platformer rhythm game.  This has to be one of the most unique games right now.  You will play as the duel tuning fork headbanger Klang who is addicted to the bass and dropping his enemies.  I heavily recommend playing on a controller.

  The game gives you a node-based map where you will fight your way up a tower.  Each node contains sublevels with a different type of challenges you will be graded on.  Grades come from several things including the time you take to complete the section and how many times you died.  If you are attacked you will also be graded on how well you counter them.

  When you are battling an enemy they will throw energy at you.  You will see it as a pie slice slowly filling until the end where you must press that direction with the right joystick.  If you do it on time you will counter enemies, otherwise, you will take damage.  If you take enough, you will die and have to restart from the last checkpoint.  There will be a time where you have to jump, duck, or dodge attacks and obstacles all while countering attacks.  It can become overwhelming real quick.

  When you are not fighting you are making your way through platforming levels where sometimes the ground can instantly kill you.  There are also times where platforms disappear and reappear.  The cool thing is, its all to the beat of the game.  As long you are paying attention to the rhythm you can time your jumps or your runs through a light that will instakill you.  If you get off by a little bit, it will spell your doom.

  There are also six keys hidden in the tower levels that will unlock special keys that you will use later on and allow you to go to the pirate hut to listen to songs.  The music is pretty good so you might want to take some time to listen to the tracks.

My Thoughts:

  At first, I was having a little bit of trouble getting into Klang.  Granted it's not a long game.  I was able to beat in less than 4 hours on my first run but it took some getting used to.  This is a game of repetition and practice.  You will have to do levels over and over until you get the timing right, or you figure out what you were doing wrong.  It all seemed a little too much but as soon as I started getting better the novelty of this game began to grow on me.

  (Spoilers)

  This wasn't truer than when I beat the boss at the end of the tower and saw that there were still other puzzles to go.  Once you get past the boss you can continue up into bonus levels.  There are three sections that are gated off until you have found the hidden keys and scored enough points in all the levels.  I found myself at a level of mastery here where all the noise on the screen wasn't too loud anymore.  When I saw that I needed to jump, I could jump and do the counter move at the same time.  I was able to time my movements better and that's when the realization came to me.

  Although this game is a platformer it is still a tried and true rhythm game.  Just like DDR you have to practice it to get good.  If you remember songs like Max 300, you know it was a little crazy to believe you are going to master it on your first go.  It took practice and the more time you put into the slower the game felt and all those arrows coming down were no longer a blur but an achievable pattern.  That's what Klang became for me.  Once I started focusing on the beat, trained myself to react in the right way to stimuli, and let myself fail the game became a lot more fun.  

  There were two things that kinda annoyed me though.  I am not sure if it was my controller or the game but every once in a while tapping left would send me running non stop until I fell off something.  With a game that has a lot of emphasis on precision, this threw me off.  There are also times where you just barely miss getting beamed by light and Klang will make a sound and slow down for a very short amount of time.  The problem is it's just enough amount of time it can really fuck up your positioning or timing and get you killed.  I was not a fan.

  On top of the great house music, the graphics were really cool.  Everything was neon and bright and the animation was solid.  I never had any slowdowns although it took quite a bit of time to load the game.  The level is alive with the beat of the music.  It is a lot of eye candy. 

   This game is not the easiest but it is about practice and perfecting your skills.  Once you get settled into the game it starts to become an enjoyable experience.  This is a really fun hybrid of a platformer and rhythm game that I really started to enjoy.  It's not a very long game but there are plenty of levels to try and perfect if that's your play style.  This game also seems particularly well set up for speed running.  

TL;DR:

  Klang is a 2-D platform rhythm game that will require a little patience to get into.  There can be a lot going so you might get lost in all the graphics but once you are able to see through all of it, it turns out to be a pretty fun rhythm game. If you are into rhythm games and you are looking for a unique experience this is definitely worth a try.