Man, I’m a sucker for slapstick games, especially when they put in so many cameos that you’re actually wondering if you’re still playing the same game you finished the tutorial for. Sounds a bit complex? I’ll explain in a bit – hang in there; I won’t rain on your parade, just yet … get it?
Rain on your parade!
The game starts with a grandfather telling a bedtime story to his grandson but quickly turns into a slapstick comedy game where you play as a mischievous cloud determined to ruin everybody’s day. Since it’s a child’s imagination you’re toying with, you have the option to customize your cloud with hats and accessories and even draw your own face! Just like What the Golf, you get to play across a wide range of levels while unlocking new abilities and mechanics that get progressively more ridiculous. Sure, What the Golf is a physics-based game in which you play golf, so what does this have to do with clouds? Well, more than meets the eye.
Rain On Your Parade
Since you’re a cloud, the main ability you learn from grandfather Cloud mc Claudius (not his actual name) is that of rain. You can use it to soak people, water corn, extinguish campfires, and blow up computers. But since clouds do more than rain… rain (water, Nick, that’s the word you’re looking for). Cloudy can 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 rainability. Be sure to try and soak as much as possible since most stages have hidden quests unlocked by fooling around. Most stages shouldn’t give players too much trouble. However, the game gets hard (like hail) when you dive into New Game+.
I applaud the developers for getting creative with the concepts. Like I mentioned in the above paragraph, you start with just ‘Rain,’ but soon unlock other.. meteorological abilities. 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. Most of the time, it’s pretty straightforward – rain on people, let the flowers bloom, etc. – but there are some more challenging levels ahead, in which you have to escort cows onto a train or guide an alien back to its spaceship.
Critical notes
To spice things up, because 50 levels with rain are a bit … dull? The developers created a few stages with references to pop culture. Among a few of my favorites were based on the American Office (including Jello), Metal Gear Solid sneak and destroy levels, and 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 were a bit … tedious in execution. Especially since they don’t offer many contexts, I would have preferred something more along the lines of the dinosaur level… I did like the conceptual stage (you’ll see when you get there) and small nudges to other companies – looking at your Bug & Frog.
Cloud-Clusion
So to conclude – most of my time spent with Rain on Your Parade was filled with absolute joy. It’s simply a fun game with genuinely amusing dialog and art direction that is very pleasing to look at. I would love to do another run with my daughter when she’s a little older to understand certain mechanics. She just flew over cornfields most of the time, bashing the thunder button (which was fun, and I hadn’t thought of it yet). It’s the perfect wind down after a busy day of work, with an over-the-top villain (nudge nudge wink wink jokes), combined with just enough challenge to keep you on your toes. Oh, and Solid Cloudy is among the options, for those wondering.
