Developer: Unbound Creations
Release Date: April 15, 2021
MSRP: $14.99
There’s something strangely compelling about a game that demands you create chaos, and that is pretty much the entire point of Rain On Your Parade. Technically, it’s a puzzle game, but most levels aren’t all that tricky to complete. In fact, you can probably finish the entire game in a single evening. Sure, there are a few optional objectives that will make you feel clever for a moment when you figure them out, and there are a few somewhat-out-of-place stealth levels, but for the most part, you’re here to ruin someone’s … or rather everyone’s … day.
After all, what loftier goal for rain cloud than to do what you exist to do – rain on things. At first, that’s exactly what you do. Some levels only give you a limited amount of water to soak everything you need to soak. Some levels let you refill your water meter over and over. Just as you’re getting comfortable with the idea of just being a force of chaos via water, the game steps it up a bit.
Yep, on some levels you can pick up other liquids and rain with those. Find a flame, put down a trail of oil, and you’re now setting the world on fire instead of getting it wet. If there’s a conceivable way that you can ruin someone’s day with liquid from the sky, you’re probably going to be tasked with it eventually.
There are also abilities that unlock as you proceed through the game. First, you can put down some thunder, which startles people and creates small sparks of lightning. Then you get the ability to snow, which leads to some really deviously delightful interactions. I played about half of the game, and I’m guessing there’s another ability or two I have yet to unlock.
On most levels, if you meet all optional objectives, you’re rewarded with a cosmetic for your cloud. You can also change your color and redraw your face in the Cloud Home. If you’re really into collectibles, it’s worth looking around outside of the levels for things you might be able to effect – there are random cosmetic unlockables for a cloud who likes to explore.
Make no mistake, Rain On Your Parade isn’t a particularly difficult game. Most progression objectives have fairly obvious solutions, and even the optional ones are, by and large, not that challenging. If I had any criticism, it would be that there are some levels that take you out of your power fantasy of dropping rain and snow on … well, pretty much everything. Mostly, it’s just pure, silly, mischievous fun that doesn’t take itself too seriously, or even seriously at all.
SteamDB estimates somewhere between 10,600 and 29,200 people own Rain On Your Parade on Steam. While that’s not amazing sales numbers, reviews have been almost uniformly positive, leading to a rank of 124 out of 10,967 games released in 2021.
Nerd Girl Thoughts 