Klang 2 Switch Review – Revenge of the Rave Warrior

Klang 2 is a futuristic, rhythm game. Promising a killer soundtrack, along with eye-popping visuals, it looks to bring its cyberpunk aesthetic and booming soundtrack to the masses. Wielding a weapon called the Tuneblade, can you help Sonus press Y to wield the Tuneblade like a true Klang?

Before you answer that, we need to find out if it’s worth becoming a Klang, so let’s stretch those fingers and dive deep into this future rhythm battler and find out if it’s worth it to hit Y to put on a great show!

Klang 2 is a rhythm game set in a futuristic cyberpunk-esque world, where you are just kind of thrown into it. The story tries to pull some amnesiac working for the bad guy thinking they are the good guy that doesn’t really work, because we are given strong hints almost immediately. But the story is rarely why you would come to a rhythm game. Mostly it’s just fodder to bring on the next set of tracks, very reminiscent of early Guitar Hero games, where you start with 4 available tracks and the tracklist grows as the game goes.

The music in Klang 2 fits the style and vibe of the setting really well, even though the EDM music scene isn’t really to my taste, I was able to find one or two tracks for each set that I could vibe to. Playing in small chunks is the best way to go. I found after playing around 20 or 30 minutes, the songs started to melt into each other and all start to sound the same. That’s not saying the music is bad. It is in fact quite good, but when you have to play songs multiple times to unlock the next story beat and set of songs, especially in the beginning, everything just kind of blends together.

How sets work is you play a story section which is kind of like a boss fight (dance battle?). Then this all-knowledgeable overseeing eyeball lets you lose in the arcade, which looks like a jukebox, and you need 10 points to unlock the next story mission. To get points, your score on each song needs to be a certain percentage, going from 1 point up to 4, I was never able to get above 3 stars, so I ended up playing each of the new 4 songs unlocked in each set.

The nice thing with Klang 2 is that the button setup is very simplistic. It only involves the left thumbstick (Hopefully you don’t have drift, or this is a write-off) and the Y button. While I say simple things do get very hectic, there is sometimes A LOT going on on-screen, between flashing lights, explosions, circles moving, etc, it can all just become too much.

I found it hard to follow along, especially in later songs where things get fast and button prompts come and go too quickly. That being said, I always felt that when I missed a prompt, it was my fault and not one of the games. The songs are all tracked out very good, it’s just hard to see sometimes.

The visual art style in Klang 2 is gorgeous, too. While sometimes there are too many things happening at once, the vibrant colors are always popping and it knows its tone and style and nails it. This psychedelic cyberpunk world looks great with all its neons and vibrancy.

Overall Klang 2 works. The soundtrack really comes out swinging and hits it home. There are only really one or two songs that don’t work for me. While the visuals in battle can be overwhelming sometimes, and the story is kind of just there, replayability is the biggest driving factor here, even if the game is quite short.

It feels good to play and will challenge even the most veteran rhythm game players to push themselves to get those perfect scores. If you are a fan of rhythm games, EDM, or cyberpunk, Klang 2 is for you. Even though I finished the story, I can’t wait to jump back in and try to beat my scores.

Klang 2 Review provided by Nintendo Link
Review also found on OpenCritic
Publisher: Tinimations
Developer: Tinimations
Release Date: November 17th, 2021
Price: $14.99 , £14.99
Game size: 1.2 GB