Technical Data

Developer/Publisher: Unbound Creation

Release Date: 15. April 2021 for Switch, Xbox One and PC Played: April 2021 on Switch

Rain on Your Parade is a one of these very special indie games. One that fully manages to achieve what it sets out to do: make you laugh and rain on people. It is perfect for the Switch and its core ordiance in particular and especially fit to play with a younger child or a more casual gamer even without a real multiplayer mode.

Seed crystals of the rain

It is time to rain down on a parade. But the next is in Seattle. So it is time to set out as Cloudy to get there. Causing all kinds of chaos on the way. To do so the player controls Cloudy in a top down way to rain or snow down on the “humoons” and everything else. Every stage has different objectives but not all of them must be completed to finish the levels. The core of the game though are the wacky situations, not so much the puzzles. The parodies and homage of the gaming past. Mostly it is about being fun.

The physic system does support the wackiness really well. Rain not only soaks NPCs but also makes them run away, which can be used to guide “humoons” where you want them or you can just enjoy how the NPCs flail around. Thunder does not only scare people. More importantly is that it allows you to burn the whole world down. Who would not want to do that? And since the game makes a point out of it: They are not people, just puppets. Lastly there are the snow and hurricane abilities that are in my opinion the best. Snow allows everything to become extremely slippery, so that everyone will just fly all over the whole stage you are on. While the hurricane hovers up what is not nailed down. It is arguably the most fun but also the most flawed. Not in a way that hinders the game it is just a bit imprecise.

Is the level design good?

The level design is varied as are the objectives themself. Everything is designed to look like cardboard and craft, an art style that fits well with the bedtime story format of the overall narrative. I found the design for the human characters not that intriguing. But that did not stop me from enjoying the game. Mostly the levels are on the easier side. Nothing is really hard to complete there are just some to challenge you, that are almost all optional. The game is set up to be fun and a relaxing time. Something that it in a way even states at the beginning: “Press any button to begin (or don’t It’s cool no pressure)”. I could see that for some there is not much substance to the objectives. But the references to Doom, Zelda and other media break the pace. There are much more. But the player does not only cause chaos. In some levels you help one of the NPCs to achieve their goals. For example you need to plant new trees in a park for a frog. There are also some levels with a high score in which you can just experiment with Cloudys different powers. Experimenting in these is quite fun.

Conclusion

While the story of Rain on your parade may be just little more then a set up, it fits well for what the game is and tries to be: An over all fun game to lean back and relax while playing. Sure humor is something really subjective but at least for me it worked really well. The physics system is robust and really holds up the comedy and game overall. I really enjoyed this colourful and interesting indie game and there is little that is like it. Rain on Your Parade is a special kind of game that is hard to find everywhere other than the indie space and I do really recommend you check it out. And after you beat it there is even a new game + mode that adds another objectiv to every level.

A Good Game