Occasionally you hear of adults enjoying shows aimed at children. Depending on who you are, that may sound silly and immature. Even if I don’t personally like something, in my mind it’s a testament of a show’s quality when adults can get into the often relatively simple story and characters.
Rhythm Thief feels like the video game equivalent of a good kids’ show. It’s a light-hearted tale about a boy looking for his father and a girl looking for her mother. Oh, and Napoleon is rising from his grave to reclaim France.
No character in particular is deep, but most of them have a positive can-do attitude. It reminds me a lot of Skies of Arcadia’s cast. The thief is confident in his abilities to get out of sticky situations and the law enforcement always claim they’ll get him next time. The characters are shallow, but charming. It helps that their roles are accentuated with stereotypical accents.
A part of the Rhythm Thief’s appeal comes from it being… well… a rhythm game. The tracks are worked into the story as if it’s a musical. The cast isn’t necessarily singing in them, but the lyrics are worked directly into the plot.
I just can’t help but smile when I play it. Not every game needs to be The Last of Us.
