Sxynix Posted April 15, 2021 Posted April 15, 2021 Rain on Your Parade (PC, Switch [reviewed], Xbox One) Developer: Unbound Creations Publisher: Unbound Creations Released: April 15, 2021 MSRP: $14.99 (also on Xbox Game Pass) Millions of California residents like myself are bracing for what could be a very dry year for our state. Water conservation may have to make a comeback in 2021 as our snowpack is below the yearly average, and I honestly can't remember the last time it rained where I live. While I guess I should be thankful to reside somewhere that's bright and sunny nearly every day of the year, I could sure go for some clouds right about now. Especially a jerk cloud, like the one in Rain on Your Parade. Rain on Your Parade Rain on Your Parade has a simple ask for players: be the jerkiest jerk cloud you can possibly be. Set to the backdrop of a grandfather's bedtime story to his grandson, the game puts players into control of a cloud looking for a mythical land known as Seattle. To get there, he'll travel across a few dozen stages completing challenges and unlocking new abilities. The cloud's principal ability is that of rain. Use it to soak people, to water gardens, to extinguish campfires, and more. There are actually several different liquids players can utilize in their puzzle solving. Soak up some acid and you can corrode vehicles with it. If you find some oil, you can burn this mother to the ground. Depending on the level, you might have to retry the challenge if you run out of liquid. Most stages shouldn't give players too much trouble, however, as the real trying tasks aren't unlocked until you gain access to New Game I have to hand it to the developer for getting just about the most out of the premise as it could. Across 50 stages, players will use the cloud's four abilities -- rain, tornado, snow, and lightning -- to wreak havoc on the people below. And nobody is spared from this cloud's wrath. One level will propose you soak a bunch of children until they run scared across the school, while the next will challenge you to free a little green alien trapped in a quiet mountain town. Several stages here reference pop culture to great effect, such as a level inspired by Silent Hill and another that presents a series of challenges based on the American Office. There's even a separate mini-game modeled after Doom with first-person shooter controls and all. When these levels and themes hit just right, they stand out. Unfortunately, so do those stages that really miss the mark. Later challenges, such as a Plants vs. Zombies tower-defense level and one themed around The Legend of Zelda, were probably good ideas on paper but are long and dull in execution. And while I know it's a challenge to come up with 50 completely different puzzle ideas, I'd wager one or two of these stages were designed around getting attention on social media rather than creating a unique and interesting challenge. Thankfully, those levels are few and far between. Most of my time spent with Rain on Your Parade with filled with absolute joy. It's simply a fun game with genuinely amusing dialog and art direction that is very pleasing to look at. The developers might have overused the screen-blur effect, but each one of these stages is quite lovely and I can tell there was a lot of consideration put into the layout and design of each one. And the costumes you can unlock for this jerk cloud are absolutely adorable. Rain on Your Parade more or less delivers on what it promises. It's a clever and charming game that's bound to put a big, dumb smile on your face each time you ruin some unsuspecting person's day. By far one of the best aspects of Rain On Your Parade though is the fact that it is chock full of references and allusions to a vast array of po[CENSORED]r video games. Every few levels there will be a special one that is almost entirely inspired by another game. There is a Metal Gear Solid level that has you exploring a secret military base to destroy a deadly weapon while avoiding detection. There is also a zombie-themed level that has the little cloud raising a horde of zombies to attack unsuspecting citizens that is loaded with Resident Evil references. There is even a Legend of Zelda style level that almost feels like its own game. Rain On Your Parade is a very interesting and clever puzzle game that manages to keep things fresh and exciting with the huge amount of pop culture references that po[CENSORED]te many of its levels. These references become a major aspect of Rain On Your Parade, and they are really what sold me on the game as a whole. With each of these levels, you will have special objectives to complete that will stretch the limits of what their abilities can really do. This is also combined with the fact that as the game progresses the cloud also earns different skills that give you many different options when it comes to solving puzzles. Rather than just being able to rain on things the cloud picks up the ability to create lightning strikes, snow on things, or even create tornadoes. This is not even to mention that some levels grant you other special abilities like the one that tasks you with dropping meteors on the dinosaurs. Learning how all of these abilities interact with the world and each other makes for a very exciting process. There are no shortage of bizarre little indie games out there for both the PC and Nintendo Switch, and a large portion of these games are hardly worth most player's time or money. When I first saw Unbound Creations' Rain On Your Parade I assumed that it was going to be another title that I would want to play for an afternoon or two and then promptly forget about a week later. My first hour or so with the game didn't do anything to assuage those concerns either. Eventually though Rain On Your Parade began to show its true colors, which revealed itself to be a fairly competent and extremely charming little puzzle game for gamers of all ages and skill levels. Rain On Your Parade puts you right into the shoes of a young and mischievous little cloud who wants nothing more than to constantly ruin the days of all the humans that it comes across. This cloud really just enjoys wrecking everything it possibly can, so it is up to the player to decide the best ways possible to mess things up. On your journey the game takes you to a wide range of different locales like classrooms, wedding venues, farms, military bases, and so many more. Using the different abilities that the cloud has access to, the player will travel to each of these different areas wreaking havoc wherever they go. Time To Ruin Everyone's Day Rain On Your Parade Wedding Level The pure chaos of completely ruining this wedding is far too much fun. Each level in Rain On Your Parade gives you a few challenges to complete that are radically different depending on the specific level. For example, the level that takes place at a farm gives you three main tasks to complete. The first task is to scare away all of the crows on the farm by raining on them, the second is to soak acid up into the cloud and corrode all farm equipment, and the third is to destroy a specific crop. To finish a level the you have to explore the area to see what tools have been provided, and then determine the best way to complete these objectives. It makes for a really fun little puzzle game reminiscent of Untitled Goose Game. There are also special secret objectives in each level that can only be unlock by interacting with the world in different ways. On some levels the secret objective might be to rain on every human that is there, or to destroy specific types of items that po[CENSORED]te the level. Some of the objectives are a little more particular though. One level has you exploring a forest and tucked away in a corner is an older couple watching the sunset from bench. If the you decide to be a monster and rain on this couple you will complete a secret objective. Essentially the goal at all times in Rain On Your Parade is to just make everyone's lives a living hell. ------------------------------- System Requirments ------------------------------- Recommended -------------------------------- Memory: 4 GB Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i CPU: Intel Core i5 750S File Size: 800 MB OS: Win 10 or newer --------------------------------- Minimum --------------------------------- Memory: 2 GB Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Q6867 File Size: 800 MB OS: Win 10 or newer -------------------------------- Game Trailer :
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