Tadpole Treble Encore

Genre: Music-Rhythm

Players: 1

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Review:

Tadpole Treble is a family-friendly Music-Rhythm game first released on PC and Wii U in 2016, now ported to Nintendo Switch in this “Encore” version with expanded content including a new stage, making this the definitive version of the game. In this game, players take the role of a tadpole swimming in stages arranged like sheet music and must dodge obstacles while collecting pickups.

The presentation here features cartoony 2D visuals that are decent but nothing special. As for the music, you have a variety of songs ranging from orchestral to chiptune and even a few with lyrics, and they’re all decent, but nothing that I found to be truly catchy.

Likewise, the gameplay here works, but doesn’t do anything that really makes me feel compelled to keep playing it. Partly that’s due to how fiddly the controls are – each movement up or down the scale requires a separate tap, meaning players wanting to quickly rise or fall need to tap feverishly on the D-pad or control sticks. Also, as Music-Rhythm games go, there’s something less compelling about avoiding notes in a song as opposed to hitting them, and it seems like the most prominent parts of the rhythm here are notes you’re meant to avoid.

This game does have one nice inclusion that I’d be remiss not to mention though, and that is a fully-fledged level builder, which of course doubles as a song composer. Budding musicians looking to create their own musical stage to play through will find some nice tools to do so here, though be warned it will take some adjusting to learn the ins and outs of building a song/stage, and even when you do it’s a time-consuming process. Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be any way to share your creations or download the works of others.

One other thing I should mention before wrapping things up here. Tadpole Treble Encore does support the touchscreen, but only in menus and in the stage builder. On the one hand, I’ll say its inclusion in the stage builder is a huge plus – it makes creating your own stages much easier and less time-consuming to move stuff directly rather than controlling a cursor. On the other hand, I feel like the gameplay of the game itself might have benefitted from touchscreen controls if they were properly implemented. Alas, no such luck – you’re stuck playing the game with traditional gamepad controls.

The result is a Music-Rhythm game that’s average-not-great, but the inclusion of the stage/song builder bumps this up to be a little something extra. Fans of Music-Rhythm games and especially young kids will probably be amused by Tadpole Treble Encore, but I don’t think it’s likely to be many players’ new favorite Music-Rhythm game.

tl;dr – Tadpole Treble Encore is a family-friendly Music-Rhythm game where players guide a tadpole through stages laid out like a music sheet, avoiding obstacles and collecting pickups. It’s decent but nothing particularly special, save for the song/stage builder. Younger Music-Rhythm fans may enjoy this, but most will probably find it less engaging than some other games on the Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C+

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