Klang

Klang is a rhythm game that dares to be different, blending rhythmic mechanics with action and platforming in a way that feels fresh and exciting. You’re not just pressing buttons to the beat—you’re dodging attacks, platforming through hazards, and reacting to patterns, all synced to a vibrant and energetic soundtrack.

What sets Klang apart is how its visuals and environments pulse with the music, making every level feel alive. The color palette is stunning, and the synchronization of every map element with the beat amplifies the immersion.

The storytelling, done entirely without dialogue, is another highlight. It’s short but impactful, leaving room for interpretation and proving how much a game can say without words.

Replay value is solid, with unlockable bonus missions, increased difficulties, collectibles, and secret passages that reward exploration.

Klang is an underrated masterpiece that pushes rhythm games in a bold new direction. It's a shame that more developers don't explore ideas like Klang, as its unique blend of rhythmic gameplay and innovative mechanics remains untouched by most, leaving me wishing for more games to embrace this incredible style.

utterly confusing game with terrible controls and a user interface that regularly literally causes seizures. don't buy this game. the idea is interesting, but the execution is some of the worst i have ever seen in my entire life.

The overly complex control scheme, awful beat resonance, and lame OST make this game a poor choice; especially if it's compared to anything else in the genre.

The acid trip that I didn't want from a dance music game. Too weird. Too out of sync. Too weird - did I say that already? Does anyone really want to play through the mental issues of an over-worked, over-dosed DJ struggling with a god complex? If so, this is the game for you.

Klang is a rhythm platformer. I like rhythm game, I like platformers, I loved Klang. It blended the two genres pretty well. When it all syncs together it great. Its pretty intense and satisfyingly difficult. Theres a lot visually going on and I could see it being a bit much for some. Its a bit short for a single playthrough but I do plan on replaying.

Neither the rhythm nor the platforming parts are particularly good or original, and they don't mix that well together. The game has a huge difficulty spike in its second level (as showcased in the linked video, at 8:30). Now I don't mind a good challenge, but the timing here is ridiculously hard, not enjoyable to execute (as I had runs where I felt I did everything perfectly and still couldn't make it in time to the end of the section), and it's just suddenly way too difficult as compared to what was previously encountered in the levels.

For a good platformer that has great rhythm components mixed into its design, I highly recommend 140.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhWD01nhdSY&t=8m30s

From the few minutes I played, the game really poorly matches us the audio with the gameplay, which is really bad for a "rhythm game".

Refunded.

Good idea, poor execution.

I loved this game, but at the same time were a few things that made it a bit frustrating and less enjoyable.
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I played the demo for Klang 2 and had a blast with it so I decided to give this one a go.

The 60 Hz thing was weird on starting up the game, but whatever. I adjusted my monitor settings, not a big deal.

This game has great music and is a very visually pleasing game, love the color palettes. Also loved the gameplay, very unique rhythm game with some cool platforming mixed in. I really liked the traditional level map rather than just a list of songs to select from and the boss fights were cool, too! It's pretty challenging coordinating all the different moves you're supposed to do and there's A LOT that you need to multitask/keep track of. Overall I enjoyed playing through it!

Now what made me like the game less (it'd be a perfect game to me if these didn't exist):
1. The spotlights gimmick - the hit-box cone is massive and causes insta-death. Make the cones way smaller or better just get rid of them.
2. The diagonal hits, get rid of those too. Using the right joystick was so janky to get the beats. I was happy during the sections where it kept it limited to the four directions A B X Y. (also tried keyboard controls and while felt smoother for inputs, it is even worse for diagonals having to hit two keys at once)
3. The attacks/beats don't always line up too well, mainly in the platforming sections so it felt a little awkward at times trying to get the attacks in.
4. Nightmare mode - I'm on the fence about the way it was done. I like the challenge, but while the tracks are sped up the movement speed of the character is kept the same so it makes some of the platforming levels not line up at all.

Despite the bit of jank it has, it's still a very unique and fun rhythm-platformer game. When I played the demo of the second game none of these issues seemed to exist. I also really like the changes made to the rhythm inputs (real time aiming feedback with left joystick while pressing the X button at the right times in sync with the beats).

Klang 2 Demo was great and can't wait for the full version to be released!

If you don't mind a bit of jank and frustration, then you'll enjoy Klang!

You know how a rhythm-based game basically makes all your body feel in sync with beats? This one just doesn't .. I expected to be trained into the rhythm like a mindless pet, instead after an hour the game still feels clumsy and I need a lot of conscious thought to even make it through basic jump-scenes. Not a fan, refunding :(

A unique take on the rhythm genre that has plenty of fresh ideas and perspective. It’s far from perfect though and mostly suffers from implementation issues that shoot itself in the leg like Cheddar Bob. Every facet will impress you, and then at the same time disappoint you. It’s an experience to play this game, offering plenty of challenge and sublime moments of accomplishment. The issue is that I see this being a game you’ll either love or hate, with little to be found in the middle.

The most important aspect is the gameplay, and this offers a combination of 140’s rhythm platforming elements and DDR’s rhythm based direction action phases. Everything is mostly solid, with the occasional bug where the beat and action/platformer phases don’t sync up properly. Upon death or reset though these usually rectify themselves. This section is the main reason for my recommendation, as there are only very minor issues.

The visuals are one of the most prolific section that I can think of that is a double-edged sword. They are beautifully colorful, with a great aesthetic pleasure to it. The use of visuals gives a very psychedelic persona to the whole experience. Yet, these same qualities end up being the downside as well. During peak action times the screen gets overrun with various effects and color swaps that end up looking more like screen vomit than anything else. It distracts from the gameplay at a variety of times and is just too much at times.

Next is the control options. Both the keyboard and controller controls feel very tight. The keyboard is by far the better option though, with the timings and input lag between commands being decreased. This is mostly due to the full reset control scheme that must be adhered to. When using the Klangs, the right joystick must go to a full neutral position before the next command can be input. This offers a few extra millisecond lags as the keyboard only relies on a key to fully reset. Movement controls are better with the controller though. Certain sections see you flying around on a board, of sorts, and the keyboard limits you to only 8 directions. The controller joystick has no such limitations. Then there’s no remapping allowed for either scheme. Old controllers beware though, there are no sensitivity options for the joystick so even the slightest offset from neutral will have you running at full speed.

Third, the difficulty is skewed at many sections of the game. This game is hard, and the dev states that this was intentional. The hardship of this is manageable on the main setting throughout the entire game. As well you can change the difficulty on the fly with no real penalties applied. The issue is that there is no ramping of the difficulty once you get past the p1rate b4y level. There are sections in the early areas that are more difficult than other later sections. Now the end levels are by far the most difficult, but there are random ups and downs in this context. As well, the controller issues explained above can add to the difficulty in what feels like an artificial way.

A few things that this hit totally on the head are the music and story aspects of the game. The former has maybe a song or two that I wasn’t a fan of. While the latter is perfectly flippant, and comical for what it is. There is a subtlety to the story that one must look for in some of the fine-tuned details that add depth. Either way they felt totally at home within the context of the game.

I enjoyed this game, it was an interesting experience. If it didn’t sabotage itself through implementation issues, I would easily give it a much higher score than the 7.5 I’d rate it currently. As it stands though, I still think this is a title that deserves to be checked out. It’s a challenging and fun experience that I think most rhythm gamers will thoroughly enjoy. Though maybe watch the videos on the community page to get a sense of some of the faster paced action elements.

Klang is almost good. There is a good game under it, somewhere, but the amount of very significant problems will keep most people away, myself included.

The amount of visual noise is mind boggling. 85% of the time, I didn't know how I died or what hit me. For example, you know you have to press a button by a cone in that direction. You know what's also a cone? An attack. They also have more or less the same colors, so good luck parsing what's on the screen.
The game also has an excessive amount of explosion effects that obsfuscates the most important kind of information...

In a reflex based game, the least you need is to make every gameplay element distinct. This is one of the worst games I've played in that regard.



Then, there's the controls. Using the analog stick for discrete input (8 directions) is not a good way of doing things. But that's what this game does. The keyboard controls aren't much better, since you have to press two keys at once to get the 8 directions. Playing with a keyboard, with a ton of buttons, you have to press two keys at once...
Again, this is a game where reflexes matter, and pressing two keys at once is awkward and sometimes registers incorrectly because you accidentally press one key before the other.



Then, there's the fact that levels are extremely short and not at all song oriented. In fact, the more "song oriented" levels are about 1 minute long at most. This leads to two problems.
The first problem is that this simply doesn't work as a traditional rhythm game (in any way) where can just pick different tracks to play through and enjoy your time. 1 minute long isn't enough to get in the flow or have any real progression. You get 3 or 4 short sequences and you're done...

The other problem is also related to the unorthodox control scheme and the amount of clutter:
Maybe you can learn how to parse all the information and press the right keys intuitively. But that requires some amount of practice. Of which this game has none. Because everything comes in such short sequences, you never get the change to really learn anything. It has a huge amount of checkpoints, so you rarely play for more than 30 seconds at a time. And the game doesn't reuse many elements. One level is rhythmic combat, the other is stealth, the next is platforming, etc. Too fragmented and never gives the player a chance to learn the game.

It's rare that I want game to have filler, but this one definitely needs it. Again, most of my time with it was spent in frustrating, not knowing what the fuck was going on from all the visual noise and getting tripped up over what keys to press.



Finally, there's the fact that there's barely anything "innovative" in here. It doesn't push the genre beyond anything. The platforming and the rhythm part are completely independent of one another. Basically, you have to press the right arrow keys on time while also running left and right to dodge beams. That's it.
It's just multitasking. The game doesn't use the platforming in a rhythmic sense at all, except wall jumps...

Before the Echo was a really good example of a rhythm game that actually tried to do things differently. The game was difficult to play, at first, and involved a good deal of multitasking. But it also had a much better structure, allowing you to get used to the gameplay before presenting the real challenges.

140 is a rhythm platformer that is really good as well!

This game isn't, really.

And it's unfortunate, because the game has a very unique artstyle. It looks very unique and the developer is clearly talented to make all this!
And when the game worked, it was good! Unfortunately, it barely every worked for 20 seconds straight.


I tried to give it a good chance. I finished the main ending, then completed all of the bonus stages for the extra ending. I also tried "hard" mode, which is really just a sped-up version of the main mode (which, come on, now the levels are 45 seconds long instead of 1 minute! And the music doesn't sound nearly as good what are you doing?).
I see some reviewers having 10+ hours, one even 90. This game is extremely short, could be easily finished in 1 or 2 hours if you can parse things. So I assume they got over the clutter in time and actually started enjoying their time.

I tried, and got a bit better by the end. But then, with all the levels being so short and extremely narrow, I didn't think it was worth to keep playing. It's not like you're mastering a song. Instead, you're mastering very short sequences that while rhythmic, don't have much to do with the song.

So yeah. Not to my liking at all. But I think there is a fun game here. Here's hoping KlangM (his next game) will improve where this one fails so that I can try the good game this is supposed to be.

Beautiful looking and sounding game with a high skill cap; you can beat the game in 2 hours or master it in 80. 11/10 would buy again, absolutely LOVED it!

it's been almost two years now
still my favorite game
it's definitely got some syncing issues, but holy hell was this a one of a kind experience
go play

The big dealbreaker for this game is that half the time the rhythm game element just flat out does not work. Like, "doesn't sync up properly to the music rendering the game nearly unplayable" doesn't work. There are times it does but those moments are almost exclusively when you are not doing any platforming, and surprisingly I found this happening even during the boss battles where you'd expect the most polish.

At the start of the game I was going for all S ranks. I gave up on that by the second boss at which point the game had become completely unreasonable and a lot of the faults with the rhythm game element had started to show. But that's also the point where the level design became genuinely kind of bad, the boss has you attacking to spawn platforms and making basically any failure an instadeath. That's one thing. The health system in this game is rendered nearly useless when 90% of the time you're just going to be instakilled by a laser or fall into a pit and die. Why even bother, life regenerates really quickly normally anyways. But yeah the game did not really improve from there.

It's also fairly short - completing the normal ending took under three hours for me, including a lot of replaying earlier levels for S-ranks, and going out of my way to find the bonus levels and play those too. And the extra ending didn't take even an hour on top of that. For a $15 game I don't feel I would've gotten my money's worth but fortunately I got this fairly cheap. Still.

The game never really develops its platforming much and most of the game is focused on the combat, which is incidentally the broken part of the game. So yeah. Woops. There's some real frustration in the later levels where the attacks and the music are just slightly out of sync so that something that should become mindless as soon as you see the notes instead becomes another thing you have to keep track of.

And there's so much visual clutter in this game that it's way harder to keep track of things than it should be. The constant neon effects are one thing but the way everything changes color when you build up a combo or are at low health just makes it all that much more difficult to keep track of stuff, especially when you're trying to platform, attack, and dodge instakill lasers all at the same time. This gets especilaly bad in the later boss fights and most of the extra world but it can stll be a problem before that. The visual style looks decent at first sure but it's very unchanging and eventually rather monotonous to look at.

The soundtrack is also, to my ears, hot garbage, but I am admittedly not a big electronic music fan. It just feels... really samey & rather basic. A lot of the same synth tones, usually a basic beat and bassline with a different melody overlaid on top of it. There are some moments, usually during the climactic moments of a boss battle, where I can kind of get into it but for the most part I find it pretty generic and forgettable and often borderline obnoxious.

So uh yeah. What do I like about this game then? Well, the concept itself is actually really good, but the execution itself is just not there in so many ways. And it's a shame too, this did look pretty neat but I didn't enjoy my time with it past a certain point and definitely won't be bothered to complete all the remaining achievements, especially considering how difficult some of the later ones are. Entire game without dying? Yeah no. Speedrunning? No sir. Getting every level perfect at 1.5 speed? Jesus christ, no. I don't think these achievements are necessarily bad to have on their own but with how little the game functions at its core it's insanity to be expecting this level of perfection from the player, when the game does not give it in return.

This game merges rhythm and platforming in a way I have never seen before. While I had fun with it at the start, there is an incredible amount of visual clutter and most of the time I had no idea why I died. I'm glad I tried it but I could not tell what I was supposed to do near the end.

I bought this game becaus bLiNd is one of my favorite EDM artists. I think this game can best be summed up as a Rage-Rythm-Platformer. Imagine your right hand playing DDR and your left hand playing an action-platformer at the same time; now imagine that with rave music blasting and someone has a strobe light that is cycling colors going crazy in your face. That is what playing Klang is like. If you think that sounds cool (and it is) there are some things to consider first.

I did beat the game on normal but this game is difficult. Unfortunately I feel like a lot of the difficulty is artificial and comes more from the volume of audio and visual noise tripping up your brain as you're trying to multitask. Again, it's like playing DDR but you're also having to maneuver your character around on platforms and/or constantly dodging beams that either insta-kill you or cause an obscene amount of damage. To make matters worse, when you get a combo above a certain amount it changes the color scheme of everything on screen so by the time you readjust you're likely to be taking damage and drop the combo (ironically taking you back to the color scheme you just left as well). A lot of the time I would die and not even realize what killed me due to the sheer amount of crap on the screen whizzing by (looking at you Angel boss). The bosses in general are just a mess and I actually found it easier to fight them when I turned the game sound off. That should never happen in a rythm-based game.

There were also some technical issues as well. The cutscenes, though beautiful, would experience lag spikes even though the game itself was fine. Platforms in levels that are programmed to fall so you don't wait on them too long would sometimes instantly fall without giving the player a chance to move but other times would give you the normal 1-2 second window to actually keep moving. I actually soft-locked the game once by skipping a cutscene. Luckily there was a checkpoint right at the start of the cutscene but still...

Despite all this I have to give the game its due. The soundtrack is FANTASTIC, bLiNd really outdid himself on this project and you can actually unlock the music tracks if you just want to listen to them later on. Visually the game is beautiful with vibrant colors that really draw you into this weird rave world. The story makes no sense but that seems intentional and I honestly didn't mind it being left open to interpretation; I kind of got a God of War feel from it honestly. While short it should provide enough of a challenge to keep people playing for hours on end to even just finish it.

The gameplay is pretty good overall as well. Somehow Tinimations turned DDR into an action-platformer and made it work well. The controls were pretty responsive and apart from some parts where I questioned a hitbox and the slide mechanic, it handled better than some AAA games I've played that also rely on controls being precise. The wall jump mechanic is pretty cool as well and it enabled the game to do some pretty interesting and diverse things in the levels. And while I did slag off on the mess of visuals a little bit ago there are levels that are much more just about hitting the "notes" or hitting the "notes" with just a little bit of platforming thrown in and these are great.

I feel as though if some of the visual mess were to be toned down and some of the death beams ease up a little, this game would be a definite recommendation by me to anyone. As it stands though, while I did enjoy it overall there are parts I never want to play again, chief among these are the bosses. If you like EDM music and want a novel game that will challenge you and maybe make you frustrated, give it a shot.

For people who like rythim games and platforming this is a beast of a mashup. Soundtrack is amazing(electronic music), the game mechanics are solid and the graphics despite looking good don't require too high specs.

Kinda short, but I enjoyed every second of it.

9/10

Love the game, but it demands a controller. Mouse and keyboard isn't precise enough.
The best part is the harmony in the gameplay and music. And it's crazy hard.

Unfortunately it runs slowly on my PC.

7/10 - I need a gamepad.

Update: The game had some difficulties in using the dedicated GPU over the integrated one. That's the main reason it ran poorly on my system. Very fixable.

Is the idea of the game fantastic? Absolutely!

Can I recommend this exact game? No.

The execution needs a lot of work (mainly heavy stuttering, which is #1 on the list of things that should NEVER happen under ANY circumstance for a rhythm game). In addition, lining up more than just the immediate next action NEEDS TO BE THERE and it's not (unless you know what to look for). E.g. in Rockband you see every single note coming at you down the track. In Klang you only see a timer for the immediate next action. Is the next action only an 8th beat away so you have less than a beat to respond because you didn't see the teeny-tiny marker coming at you? TOUGH LUCK.

That being said, most of the game is good. The mechanics are solid, the graphics (when they're not stuttering) look amazing, the soundtrack is of course amazing. It's just a few execution issues that just completely kill it for me.

The art style of this game is pretty amazing. The music...top notch. Even when it gets you into a trance and you're going along without really realizing it. It's as enjoyable as when I played it at PAX West.

My only complaint is the levels are very short which breaks up the song. Once you get into the groove, there's a loading screen which breaks the rhythm and takes you out of the game.

There's also a few syncing issues, but nothing that is game ruining.

Get it if you are a fan of these types of games or enjoys some good trance-ish music.

Pros:
Music and visuals complement eachother nicely.
Great tracks and pulsating animations ads flavor.
When your combos are on a roll the envirorment goes trough several stages of color palettes making your skill progression more satisfying.
The game does a great job at teaching you how to play by trial and error, all levels have multiple checkpoints.
Gameplay is innovative and progressing in complexity trough the game. Every level feels unique. Boss battles are nice and ads new elements.
Has bonus levels after completion and an additional difficoult level.
There's an ingame lobby where you can listen to the music.
The cutscenes are gorgeous!!


Cons:
The skill pacing is challenging, practise makes perfect. (this could be concidered a pro)
Character movement feels slightly slow or delayed at times.
The laser-beam is unforgiving, almost always killing you in one blow, personally for me breaking some of the immersion.
Wish the game had an endless mode to get more of that rythm vibe, it feels abit short.


Side notes:
Recommend using a controller
Spent ca 4 hours on the storyline

Mesmerizing experience,definitely recommend this game!

I found this via a small Page for us Nerds on Facebook, and i'm glad I did.

It is really fun so far. A bit frustrating in the beginning, but when you get used to the controls, it's a blast.
The visuals are very simplistic in a good way. It can be a bit much on the screen to catch every direction you'll need to block/Attack, but it's just a small detail. And don't forget, the music, really well composed to fit the game.
If you like a great platformer/Rythm game, and good music, this is a must buy.

And it's Cheap!

I'm really enjoying this game thus far! The visuals are playful and colorful, with a color palette that I have absolutely fallen in love with. The gameplay is challenging but fair, meaning that I, a person with no rythm, will have a few hiccups. But this is one of those rythm games that I can really dig, and try to get better at. Give it a go!

*Longer review will be written when I have played more of it*