[PlayStation 5] Rhythm Sprout Review

Rhythm Sprout from tinyBuild and SURT is a fun and colorful rhythm game on PlayStation 5. Learn more in our Rhythm Sprout review!

Rhythm Sprout from tinyBuild and SURT is a fun and colorful rhythm game on PlayStation 5. It’s a chill experience in which you’ll be completing level after level with tracks inspired by hip-hop, EDM, disco, KPOP, and even metal, which makes for a varied journey. Each track will have you explore a 3D environment designed around that track’s overall theme and feel. Along with the original tracks and levels, there are some extra options to increase replayability, such as Mirror Mode, which flips things around, or Turbo Mode, which considerably bumps up the overall speed.

Once you get going, you’ll be awakened by King Brock… because you fell asleep while talking to him! You are Sprout, the Chosen Onion, the one who must protect the Vegetable Kingdom. Unfortunately, the Army of Sugary Sweets is on its way. It’s led by King Sugar Daddy, who must be stopped at all cost. King Brock has given you permission to perish in the name of justice, and he promises you that your name will be written into the history books… as the King’s humble assistant. What could be more honorable than this? Oh, and you should probably try to find Princess Cauliflower while you’re out fighting against the Army of Sugary Sweets. She’s been missing for a month!

Since timing is at the heart of this journey, before you can get started, you’ll have to spend a minute going through the calibration process to make sure that you can have the best possible experience with Rhythm Sprout. To give you a chance to get a feel for this whole experience, the game will send you straight into a tutorial once the introductory story segment has been completed. It’s there that you’ll get to learn all of the basics for Rhythm Sprout.

There are three main note colors in Rhythm Sprout: yellow notes, red notes, and blue notes. Yellow notes are collected by pressing left, right, up, or down on the D-Pad. Red notes are collected by pressing the Square, Triangle, Circle, or X buttons. As for the blue notes, they’re collected by pressing the L1 or R1 buttons. As long as a note lands within the hitbar at the bottom of the screen, it can be collected. If you miss a note, then your combo will suffer, and its count will be reset.

Along with these, there are also trap notes to consider. As the name suggests, these special notes are not good for Sprout, and should, therefore, be avoided at all times. If you do hit trap notes and fail some dodge notes along the way, you might find yourself very low on HP. If this happens to you, know that you still have one special ability to use: Sugar Rush! This can be activated with the L2 and R2 buttons, and it will make every note grant you 400 points, allowing you to hit any button to collect those special notes. And the best part of Sugar Rush? It will also fully restore all of Sprouts HP!

Sprout has a hit point bar at the bottom of the screen. If you miss a dodge note, then he will lose one HP at a time. Miss several dodge notes in a row, and you’ll be in trouble! If Sprout runs out of HP, then it’s game over, and you’ll have to restart that level. The good news is that for every 20 notes you collect as part of a combo, Sprout’s HP bar will recover, and he will heal a single HP. This is why long combos are a must if you want to see the credits roll!

If you are having trouble completing a level or two, there’s always the option of activating Beginner Mode, which will lower the overall challenge, but this will keep you from being able to get a three-star rating for the overall score obtained for that level and for reaching the combo targets, and you won’t be able to obtain a CD from it either. Once you complete a level, you’ll be able to select from the aforementioned EX Modes, even getting the option of activating all of them at once for a hearty challenge!

The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy, and since it’s a Cross-Buy title, if you own a PlayStation 5 console, you’ll be able to work on not one, but two Platinum trophies since each version has its own separate list. Each of said lists includes 12 Bronze trophies, 13 Silver trophies, and 5 Gold trophies. What objectives do you need to complete? You’ll have to complete the main story, the side story, and all bonus levels, obtain 50 and 100 stars based on your performance, defeat each of the bosses in the game, complete 10 levels in Turbo Mode, 5 levels in Random Mode, and 5 levels in Mirror Mode, collect your first CD, collect 10 and 25 CDs, get the Target Score in any level, hit 20 trap notes in one level, die several times in a row, wear an unlockable skin over several levels, and rewatch a cutscene several times, to name some examples.

Rhythm Sprout is a fun and colorful rhythm game with a solid soundtrack, fun gameplay mechanics, and a quirky story that will keep you going until the end. You can play each level in its original version, or add modifiers for Random Mode, Mirror Mode, and more, even being able to activate all of them at once, which increases the game’s replay value. Rhythm Sprout is available as a Cross-Buy title, so your purchase will give you access to both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost.

Disclaimer
This Rhythm Sprout review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by tinyBuild.