Rhythm Sprout

Rhythm Sprout - Sick Beats and Bad Sweets

Slay to the beat!

A Hero in Sweatpants

Rhythm Sprout is a cute and quirky single player, story-driven 3D rhythm action game. It’s available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC for Windows. It was developed by SURT and published by tinyBuild. 

The Chosen Onion

In Rhythm Sprout, you play as the Chosen Onion, tasked with saving the rest of the Vegetable Kingdom. You’ll have to face King Sugar Daddy’s (yes, really) candy-coated army, and maybe even find Princess Cauliflower, who’s recently gone missing. Each note will move your knight forward through the world one step at a time, or otherwise dodge and attack enemies in your way. 

Semi-Original

This game’s low-poly graphics are nothing you haven’t seen before in some sense, and rather reminiscent of the Overcooked game series. Each level is book-ended by a cutscene where Sprout encounters a new (and inevitably food-themed) character who also makes their home in the kingdom. 

The soundtrack itself is the soul of any rhythm game, and when it comes to Rhythm Sprout, this one is surprisingly varied. You’ll find hip-hop, EDM, K-POP, and even metal music to play to. These songs are suitably catchy and guaranteed to stick in your head, and sometimes a bit absurd. Characters’ voices in each cutscene are the incomprehensible, cutesy-style you’ll recognize from games like Animal Crossing. 

Graphics and Audio Rating: 4/5

Simple Layers

Rhythm Sprout has a total of 20 stages to play, which in total will only take a couple of hours to complete. However, completing these stages unlocks modifiers like Turbo Mode and Randomizer, and getting a maximum score is the key to unlocking outfits and weapons. 

In the world of the Vegetable Kingdom, Sprout moves forward by hitting the yellow and pink notes, and will dodge enemies by successfully hitting blue notes. If you miss too many blue notes, your HP will drop to zero, and you’ll end the stage early. Through each stage, you’ll progress through the environment and can see upcoming battles moving towards you, which makes them easier to predict. 

Delightfully, there are a fair share of unexpected rhythms and beats to keep players on their toes mixed in with each song, which are welcome and the key to any enjoyable rhythm game. However, you’ll only ever hit one button at a time, and the gameplay focus is on precision rather than crazy combinations of notes. 

In terms of difficulty, it's speed that'll become an underlying antagonist, and without bars or other indicators with the approaching notes, it can be hard to figure out exactly what kind of rhythm the game wants you to switch into.

The narrative and comedic style is quirky, and will be either a solid hit or miss with gamers. If you’re a fan, you’ll find the jokes to be a delightful addition to the game’s narrative, but if not, you’ll be wishing those dang vegetables would just let you get on with the song already. 

Gameplay Rating: 4/5

Purchase Guide

Rhythm Sprout was released on February 1, 2023.

It's available for $10.99 on Switch, PlayStation and Xbox, and $14.33 on PC. For only a few hours’ gameplay at minimum, this is a decent price to try it out and see if it hooks you. 

Solid Beets

Rhythm Sprout is a surprisingly difficult, lively new take on the genre of rhythm games by combining an action element into the mix. However, the humour may not land for everyone, and it offers little gameplay on its own if you don’t end up drawn into the game to replay its limited stages.

Replayability Rating: 3/5

The Pros

• A fresh approach to the rhythm genre
• Wide variety of music
• Cute style

The Cons

• Short playtime
• Unoptimized default button mapping on consoles
• Hard to gauge timing between notes

TL;DR

Rhythm Sprout is a cute and quirky game that combines rhythm and combat for a fresh twist on the genre.