SUPER CRAZY RHYTHM CASTLE

Criminal what happened to this game really, Konami really blew it when it came to advertising this one. super crazy rhythm castle is an enormous variety of things. It's like a homage of as many rhythm games as possible, it's as though you were playing BeMani but instead of a scratch panel and piano combo you control a different segment of a vintage fotoplayer, which is to say, the developers' main objective is to have you do anything but actually play the music, I'm pleasantly surprised by the fact that despite this premise, reception for this game was rather warm and nowhere near as polarizing as I had imagined.
First and foremost this Is a rhythm gamer's game, okay this is the game you go out and buy long after you start 1ccing/fcing every arcade and console game the exact instant you boot a new one up and begin to miss when rhythm games seemed indomitable time commitments, this is the game you play after you beat through the fire and the flames on expert first try after years of not touching guitar hero and realize something has gone horribly wrong.
Preferably you would play on the highest difficulty upon booting the game, yet fortunately you're not pressured into doing so, at first this would appear to alleviate things but the experience of multitasking various interactive segments unique to each level is kept intact in either difficulty, as such the experience is largely identical in either extreme of the rhythm game difficulty bell curve, it's everything else about this game that's likely to filter you instead.
There's an endless cornucopia of vague descriptors I could throw around to describe isolated minute aspects among thousands of others that constitute what makes this game interesting. Mario 64 stars, wario ware missions, point and click puzzles, half the time you're gonna be running around like a headless chicken trying to make sense of what's going on, what's changed in the last 20 seconds, if playing the rhythm game portion is having a significant impact on something else happening elsewhere. This is an ADHDer nightmare if you try to play this alone like I did, there's levels that ontop of being complex also throw a timer on you.
You're thrown outlandish obstacles and abstracts that become increasingly complex with each level, it's a roundabout way to get someone who's too good for the rhythm section to actually replay the levels through clever obfuscation, and I can see it go either way, it could be the most frustrating game in the world or a breath of fresh air, I feel fortunate to have enjoyed my time with this game despite its proclivity to troll you, specially if you're playing alone.
As a musician It was also a very pleasant surprise to hear that the music is light years ahead of what was featured in second impact game's (that's the name of the studio) previous outings, and don't get me wrong I grew up playing super crazy guitar maniac, it's precious to me, but the composition here is really impressive, I was hoping to be able to play in your eyes by verax as featured in guitar maniac 3, they do make homages to that game, and noticeably smaller nods to konami's own cemetery of rhythm and retro games like DDR and BeMani, but it's very minimal, I felt this was a mistake, I would have liked seeing characters from pop 'n music show up, more retro cartridges being available and having them be more accessible from the start, these types of titles are a great opportunity for that, even if it's been overdone in the last decade.
I feel it prefers to vow indirectly to the games it was inspired by, there's always something it lifts from a different classic title, some identifiable ground is paved for laymanship to make its trek amid the stupefying noise, it does want to be seen to the very end, but it doesn't outright state its intent for such a thing, you'll feel a bit clever by the end of it.
For me the closest thing this reminds me of is adventures of cookie & cream, it's chaotic, much harder on your own, filled with charm and original ideas, very inspired and a wonderful addition to anyone's list of co op games, though sadly this was a bit of a flop across all platforms, it'll be difficult to find anyone to play with, more so given its rhythm game profile, it's not an ideal game for remote play together, i think most people deemed its asking price too high for a game soliciting multiple copies and high proficiency. It's a niche within a niche really.

Really fun co-op rhythm game.
Most of the levels are setup so that someone plays the notes while the other(s) do different tasks like fighting creatures or cooking or just whatever the level is. For that reason I don't think it'd be a good game solo but it fun with 2-4 people. It's also really easy to get off and on the notes since sometimes you need all 4 on the notes to generate enough power.
It did feel a little clunky sometimes but not that bad.
The story is pretty funny and I enjoyed it. Art is great. Music was phenomenal. I would say its about 50% original music from them and the other half from already existing songs.
Great game with friends, worth full price. Solo, maybe not so much.

Gotta say, I love the party theme of the game alongside rhythm game.
Music is a bit wacky, gameplay is great, but there is one thing that pisses me off.
Please do not make cutscenes / forced dialouge stop literally one after another.
moving 2 steps to end up being stopped again when you are trying to get to the next level is a bit annoying lol

SCRC tries to combine rhythm with the party genre and it also does its own thing where you get to explore a big castle to unlock songs, advance the story, search for secrets/collectibles and do optional content at the lab/garden. It’s a wonderful combination that works and it makes the game unique. But the rhythm part gets in the way a bit as it’s not tightly designed to support the pro difficulty or the more demanding songs imo, this becomes apparent the further you get. The icons do not represent the controls on your controller and their placement doesn’t feel intuitive. The rhythm part also seems weird as it doesn’t seem to depend on whether you need to press the buttons once they reach the end line, but they’re more dependant on a song’s speed/rhythm. Where sometimes you have to press them quickly, sometimes you have to be slower even though the buttons appear to be on top of the end line. It’s hard to trust what you see sometimes, it’s not as well designed as other rhythm games. Because of this, I settled on getting all the achievements except for the one that asks you to get 3 stars on pro difficulty.
Aside from the originality that makes the game stand out, it also has a lot of personality with the characters you control and NPC you interact with. The graphics are decent, the song selection is varied, you can check lots of stats through ‘progress’ and it’s a great game for co-op if you’re patient with figuring out what you’re supposed to do. There are more flaws aside from the competency of the rhythm gameplay. You can speed up text but you really should be able to skip them. The game has 2 endings and getting one of them is tedious with the random steps you need to take. It’s not difficult if you look it up but it also feels unnecessary. It doesn’t help that after you get the first ending, you will unlock special challenges that made it seem like they would give you the second ending after completing them, instead you get an optional song. That feels like a missed opportunity imo.
SCRC wasn’t on my radar, I wasn’t really interested in it until it was 95% off on Steam and being able to try the demo. Less than 16 hours later, I can say the game was worth the €1 I paid. It’s even worth more than that, up to €10 would be a pretty good deal. It’s a cute game that is fun with a friend. It’s a game for players who like to try out weird combinations of genres. I recommend giving the demo a try to make sure you like the idea. Just don’t take it seriously with the pro difficulty, it’s not designed tightly enough, something that is required for the rhythm genre when you have to play close to perfect.

This is like Overcooked and Guitar Hero had a weird and fun baby. Just like Overcooked, it's way funnier with friends, and that's the hardest part—finding friends to play with!

The most fun multiplayer game i ever play with my friend!!!
the choices of the song is amazing and so good!!! gradius remix is the best song so far
u must play this game if u have friends or not just play it!!!

hidden gem
if you like rhythm games and crave novelty, then i highly recommend this
it's basically an action-puzzle-rhythm hybrid
plus i find the overall style of the game pretty wholesome and endearing
dont know how i left this out of my original review, considering its actually a big deal for this type of game, but just wanted to add that the music is actually generally pretty good. a variety of artists and genres with a decent number of stand out tracks. for some perspective on how often and how much these tracks hit for me, there is a spotify playlist and i've added 15 of the 20 songs to my liked.