HarmoKnight is a game that seems completely up-my alley; it's a combination of a rhythm game and platformer with an incredibly appealing aesthetic. Unfortunately, while competently made, each gameplay element seems like it should fit together better than it does.

To start off, the aesthetic is beautiful. HarmoKnight was directed by James Turner and his artistic design shines through with the cute characters and anime-styled world. Each stage in the game presents a new rhythm style challenge where you hit items and smack enemies to the beat. What really bummed me out is that for a rhythm game, the music isn't particularly memorable and instead is rather functional. There are also a fair amount of courses that re-use past musical motifs. The courses that I thought were the most fun used arrangements of songs from the Pokemon series, which doesn't speak too well to its original soundtrack.

On top of that, something is off about the response time of the button inputs combined with the visual indictors on-screen for when to "hit to the rhythm". It results in a rhythm game that can feel a bit sluggish and un-responsive when compared to the music. This is an absolute killer for any game in this genre. On some courses, it felt like I was adapting to the unresponsive game controls rather than getting in touch with the song of the course.

At the end of the day, HarmoKnight is still a charming game. The boss courses are a particular highlight as each boss fight uses dynamic camerawork to enhance the spectacle. I only wish it clicked with me more.

Favorite Tracks:

Spring in Your Step: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hStrn3GRvp8&list=PLzVR5F5ns13yynPFv_cmjP9Oj0KCJufTV&index=11

Hideaway Beach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va8PNTA4pbk&list=PLzVR5F5ns13yynPFv_cmjP9Oj0KCJufTV&index=30

City Lights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1GDMx2g2ZE&list=PLzVR5F5ns13yynPFv_cmjP9Oj0KCJufTV&index=36

Stray thoughts:

- Very unfortunate that this Bit.Trip Runner knockoff came out only a year before Runner2, a game which iterates on its predecessor in actually good and fun ways.

- The regular levels are hit-or-miss, mostly dependent on which enemies and mechanics they include (some are benign, some are annoying, and some are completely broken). Any level with those fucking bounce pads can go straight to hell.

- I did quite like level 6-3, which sets up a pattern, introduces slight variations on it, and then slowly zooms the camera in to test your memory of the pattern and response times for its variations. Good use of the format! It's unfortunately quite late in the game, but there's barely any game here anyway.

- Most rhythm games have challenging notes that give you some kind of bonus if you hit them. HarmoKnight “innovates” on this design mainstay with notes that instantly end your run if you don't hit them, bypassing the hearts system completely. These notes’ placement is totally arbitrary—that is, except for the boss battles, where they're still placed largely irrespective of the given cue’s difficulty, but at least they correspond with big moments in the QTE cutscene you're playing. Oh, yeah:

- The boss levels are some of the worst I've played in any rhythm game. Maybe any game period. Some of them have fun visuals (I'm a fan of the steam…engine…thing? that you fight on the water), but you're spending more than half the time watching glorified cutscenes instead of playing the damn game! And for some ungodly reason, scoring for these fights is way, way tighter than non-boss levels—as far as I could tell, a single miss will bump you down to a silver medal on every one, and the game's various timing issues mean you'll likely have to replay these boring call-and-response QTE segments multiple times over. (Did I mention the final boss fight is four minutes long?) Meanwhile, you can completely bomb any of the normal levels and still have a decent chance at gold. I don't get it.

- The song selection for the Pokémon bonus stages makes no sense. One songs from gen I, two from gen II, and one from gen V? It was nice to play some levels with good music for a change, though, and I'd love to see a Theatrhythm Final Fantasy-style Pokémon rhythm game some day. You could even get indieszero to do it!

- More than anything, HarmoKnight feels unfinished. Three worlds in, the game has this winking fake-out where a character goes "I guess this is the end of our adventure!" and the joke is that it's really just getting started, but at that point you've already played more than half of the stages in the main game! Add that to the polish issues (you really couldn't think of anything to put on the bottom screen in the overworld?) and the unrefined gameplay, and the result is a game that feels like a demo. Actually, no, because a demo would be a proper vertical slice; this is more like an early-stage proof of concept. And it's not a bad concept! I've been extremely negative in this review, but I can't deny I was charmed by the game's early stages! I was ready for HarmoKnight to become my new fixation. But I can't pretend this game is good.

- When I get a Superb in Rhythm Heaven, or five stars in Guitar Hero, or even when I scrape by with a "U rappin' GOOD!" in Parappa the Rapper, I feel like I've accomplished something. Whenever I got a gold in HarmoKnight, I thought "thank God I never have to play that stage again".

HarmoKnight is one of the two 3DS games that were developed by Game Freak. It's a rhythm game that meets platforming where you jump and attack enemies to the beat, and it's a unique concept that could've been fleshed out a bit more

You play as Tempo, as he sets off to save Melodia and defeat Gargan and his Nozoid army. The story... exists. It's completely basic, but it does the job when progressing through the game. Along the way, you'll meet a few companions that will help you in certain stages, adding a bit of variety to the gameplay department

The music here is... ok. It's not terrible by any means, but it's pretty average and not all too memorable for a rhythm game. The standout songs from the soundtrack are the five Pokémon songs that are unlockable later on, but they're surprisingly short in length. I also find the timing for some segments to be quite off, and that is no more evident than the clockwork and minecart levels. Not only do I feel like they're kind of off-sync, but they're based on trial and error, leading me to retry several times, and I didn't enjoy my time with these

HarmoKnight is a decent 3DS eShop exclusive game. It has a unique concept with a neat art style that could've used a bit of polish. While I enjoyed my time with the game, I think something like Rhythm Thief (another 3DS rhythm game) is worth more of your time. Sad that this has never been ported outside of the 3DS, but if you have a modded 3DS or Citra, I say check this one out if you're curious about the games Game Freak made outside of Pokémon

HarmoKnight is one of a few miscellaneous efforts from the Pokemon motherbrains at GameFreak. Oddly while their format stays foundational in their beloved franchise, the company experiments in interesting ways when they decide to tackle a side project. HarmoKnight is no different, making its mark in the niche of rhythm-based platformers, only inhabited by indie darlings like Bit.Trip Runner. While GameFreak has some neat ideas, other games manage to surpass this creation in most areas.

The story is mostly a throwaway deal. You play as Tempo with his rabbit companion Tappy. The world is under threat by a rabid group called the Noizoids, and you have to smash all the enemies away from each of the game's main worlds. There isn't a big plot twist or interesting beats here, this is most akin to a mainline Mario game's narrative, quick bursts of writing from supporting characters in between stages and some hollow threats from the big bad.

The meat and potatoes is the platforming, which sees Tempo running, jumping, and smacking a variety of obstacles. All of this is set to music, which you must match to stay alive and gain enough collectible notes to progress. At the end of every level, you'll be ranked on how well you did, with a silver rank giving the ability to move forward. The game may challenge those who aren't musically inclined or have much rhythm game experience, but HarmoKnight is relatively generous with its health system, giving you five default hearts, and more on the path through each level. Missing a hit or jump isn't always lost health either, as slightly early or late inputs will just result in not getting a note in return. It's a shame the game has some autofail conditions though, and retrying feels too tedious, especially on the more lengthy levels.

While I liked the animated style and most of the soundtrack of HarmoKnight, the gameplay fell short for me due to its tutorialization of many of its enemies and rhythm elements. Figuring out when to hit enemies or even understanding how they approach you is largely left for your intuition and through repetition, learning the songs and finding the right beats to strike. Unfortunately, I never felt the game sets the player up to be able to have these moments, instead throwing you into a new song that pulls the focus away from new mechanics. Additionally, hearing the cues for enemies and jumps was frequently drowned out by the music and sound effects. As compared to something like Rhythm Heaven, GameFreak needed to balance the audio mix in a way that benefited the player more.

I enjoyed my time with HarmoKnight overall. Its boss fights are among its best moments, with blockbuster level action setpieces set to bombastic tracks, the game knows its strengths. But repetitive missions and poor musical guideposts make HarmoKnight feel like a tightly wound platformer than a rhythm game sometimes. Before you are unable to play it anymore, you may want to give HarmoKnight a chance.

i am not sure how the events surrounding the proposal, approval and development of this game went. supposedly, story goes, game freak allowed employees to initiate more side projects at the start of the 10s, anything other than pokémon. this shift produced a number of small, cute games that seem to be remembered by no one, relegated to and literally doomed on the 3ds e-shop. one of these projects was developed and directed by james turner, the first ever western pokémon designer at game freak and behind the designs of pokémon such as buzzwole or golurk. soon, shigeru ohmori, game designer at game freak who would later become the director for the 8th and 9th generation of pokémon games, was also brought onto the team. the game was born a platformer, but soon incorporated rhythm game mechanics and eventually became what i just finished playing, harmoknight.

why did i make all this preamble? because the game is legitimately good and it mostly came out of a development team known for making games of dubious quality for the most popular franchise in the world. they managed to create a product with an incredible artstyle (the noizoids are simply spectacular and also shoutout to lyra), a fun gameplay style (which was easily picked up even by an idiot like me who has barely even heard of the concept of 'rhythm'), impressive boss battles (i did let out a little scream when in the final boss stage i reenacted the ending to jojo battle tendency i am not going to lie) and an adequate difficulty curve (game held my hand like a baby just until i became a big boy able to walk on his own two legs). that projects like this can come out of a development team that is often derided, offended even, by critics of pokémon games (category i participate in in the same way a student spontaneously chooses to sit in the last row of class, yes i am there but please pretend i am not even here) is a sad state of affairs. i can feel vital energy pouring out of the screen here. maybe a cry for help? i hate wasted potential, it crushes your spirit. is that why the game is surprisingly mean in some of its parts? i intend that literally. during the beginning parts of the game, you are told that you are no harmoknight, that you are just a kid that has to pass the only weapon of the game, the note staff, to the true heroes of the land of melodia, although in the meantime you proceed to effortlessly beat several stages and a couple of bosses in the process. further, in the little dialogue boxes that come after the end of each stage, the other characters often direct comments to the main character tempo that belittle his efforts. only tempo's trusted buddy tappy seems to be supportive. are the developers trying to elicit some sort of emotional response from the player in order to support tempo and to generate second hand support the development teams efforts? nah. but to be honest there is something stifling creative drive at game freak. and if you want to have a feeling of what that creative drive could potentially be if let a little looser, play harmoknight. it certainly sparked an interest in me over all the other odd side projects developed at game freak.

One of GameFreak’s few titles that involves neither pockets nor the monsters therein, Harmoknight is a game that has a lot of potential but doesn’t quite reach it. More than anything else, a rhythm game lives and dies based on how good its music is, it’s the reason why Parappa the Rapper is so universally beloved despite the fact it’s damn near unplayable. Harmoknight’s music is… fine. There’s nothing outright bad here but nothing the least bit memorable either. The only real standouts are, of course, the unlockable Pokémon tracks but that’s a given. Harmoknight’s biggest flaw is, in my opinion, the greatest sin any entertain media can possibly commit: it’s really boring. I don’t regret my time playing Harmoknight, but it’s the same way I don’t regret eating a saltine cracker.

im still gonna mark this game as completed since i beat it a long time ago when i was younger but playing about halfway through i kinda got the gist and didnt really feel like i needed to play much more. the game itself is just very easy and doesnt offer much in the way of variety. sometimes they try to make it seem that way by doing call and response levels or changing the character you play as but in reality theres nothing different about any of the gameplay you get. as a rhythm game, it's competent enough. it works fine for the most part and only a few times would i find the note timing weird. the story is very uninteresting and bland, so much so that i try to skip through the dialogue as quickly as possible because i just dont care about the characters or story of this game at all, and yet somehow i can still skim the dialogue since the game doesnt let you skip through very quickly and i can still get the gist of whats happening. the music is also really nothing that special, it's all just very bland sounding and all just kinda blends in together. it especially doesnt help when they just use the same exact song for multiple levels in the same world. the one thing that i can really praise this game for is its presentation, i found the game pretty nice to look at and they honestly did some really cool things with the animations for the boss battles. the boss designs are also really cool in this game, i love the way they made them look. it just makes me wish though that the rest of the game had as much care put in as they did with the visuals because there's really not much going on in every other department in this game. it makes me kinda sad because i remember really liking this game as a kid since it was a very early rhythm game for me, and it just turned out that this game really does not hold up for the most part

HarmoKnight is one of the few non-Pokemon titles developed by Game Freak. Released exclusively on the 3DS eShop in 2012 for Japan and 2013 for everywhere else, this game is fairly unknown. Most gamers probably do not know this game even existed because Game Freak trapped themselves into being known as the Pokemon developers and nothing else. If it is not Pokemon, people are not going to care. I played the game up to the final boss and dropped it for numerous reasons. Let’s just say that there are reasons why people do not know about this game’s existence.

Before I blow a fuse, there is some positive aspects of the game. I like the visuals. The character designs are very cute. The gameplay and story are simple and I do like the pint sized levels. Now, here is why I dropped the game.
The soundtrack is unremarkable. Outside of the 4th world’s music, the rest of the soundtrack is generic and forgettable. For a genre where the music is important, this game having an unremarkable soundtrack is disappointing. Ironically, the bonus Pokemon songs you unlock are more memorable than HarmoKnight’s entire soundtrack. Game Freak cannot try something new without having Pokemon still stuck in their minds.

The biggest flaw with this game and the main reason I dropped it is the timing. I swear there is input delay for some of these stages. The worst offenders are the stages that require you to hit left or right and the final boss. I have died so many times in those stages that it almost made me want to chuck my system out the window. Timing is important for a rhythm game and the stages I mentioned are awful. I did not have a hard time on the other stages, so why is the timing for the left or right stages and the final bosses so bad?

HarmoKnight could have been a hidden gem on the 3DS. Game Freak trying something different instead of barfing out a Pokemon game almost every year sounds like a great idea. However, the unremarkable soundtrack and awful timing are preventing this game from getting more recognition. It is no wonder that Game Freak’s non-Pokemon titles get little to no attention. Say what you want about the recent Pokemon games, but RPGs are where Game Freak excels at. They are a one-trick Ponyta.

The good:
The art style is unique and it has good graphics for what is essential a random side project game. I like how you unlock a Pokémon music level for completing some worlds.

The neutral:
The gameplay is simple and the music is kinda average for rhythm game standards. The story ... exists. It's extremely basic but works. It hits most of the basic necessities. Nothing crazy good but not bad either.

The bad:
The boss cutscenes drag on too long. It's really annoying sometimes. The timing for left/right segments feels a little off IMO but maybe that's just me (thankfully spamming the button works tho). Also the ending is just ... there. I feel like they could've done a lot more with this.