Rain On Your Parade Review

There are no shortage of bizarre little indie games out there for both the PC and Nintendo Switch, and a large portion of these games are hardly worth most player's time or money. When I first saw Unbound Creations' Rain On Your Parade I assumed that it was going to be another title that I would want to play for an afternoon or two and then promptly forget about a week later. My first hour or so with the game didn't do anything to assuage those concerns either. Eventually though Rain On Your Parade began to show its true colors, which revealed itself to be a fairly competent and extremely charming little puzzle game for gamers of all ages and skill levels.

Rain On Your Parade puts you right into the shoes of a young and mischievous little cloud who wants nothing more than to constantly ruin the days of all the humans that it comes across. This cloud really just enjoys wrecking everything it possibly can, so it is up to the player to decide the best ways possible to mess things up. On your journey the game takes you to a wide range of different locales like classrooms, wedding venues, farms, military bases, and so many more. Using the different abilities that the cloud has access to, the player will travel to each of these different areas wreaking havoc wherever they go.

Time To Ruin Everyone's Day

Each level in Rain On Your Parade gives you a few challenges to complete that are radically different depending on the specific level. For example, the level that takes place at a farm gives you three main tasks to complete. The first task is to scare away all of the crows on the farm by raining on them, the second is to soak acid up into the cloud and corrode all farm equipment, and the third is to destroy a specific crop. To finish a level the you have to explore the area to see what tools have been provided, and then determine the best way to complete these objectives. It makes for a really fun little puzzle game reminiscent of Untitled Goose Game.

There are also special secret objectives in each level that can only be unlock by interacting with the world in different ways. On some levels the secret objective might be to rain on every human that is there, or to destroy specific types of items that populate the level. Some of the objectives are a little more particular though. One level has you exploring a forest and tucked away in a corner is an older couple watching the sunset from bench. If the you decide to be a monster and rain on this couple you will complete a secret objective. Essentially the goal at all times in Rain On Your Parade is to just make everyone's lives a living hell. 

Pop Culture References Galore

By far one of the best aspects of Rain On Your Parade though is the fact that it is chock full of references and allusions to a vast array of popular video games. Every few levels there will be a special one that is almost entirely inspired by another game. There is a Metal Gear Solid level that has you exploring a secret military base to destroy a deadly weapon while avoiding detection. There is also a zombie-themed level that has the little cloud raising a horde of zombies to attack unsuspecting citizens that is loaded with Resident Evil references. There is even a Legend of Zelda style level that almost feels like its own game. 

Rain On Your Parade is a very interesting and clever puzzle game that manages to keep things fresh and exciting with the huge amount of pop culture references that populate many of its levels.

These references become a major aspect of Rain On Your Parade, and they are really what sold me on the game as a whole. With each of these levels, you will have special objectives to complete that will stretch the limits of what their abilities can really do. This is also combined with the fact that as the game progresses the cloud also earns different skills that give you many different options when it comes to solving puzzles. Rather than just being able to rain on things the cloud picks up the ability to create lightning strikes, snow on things, or even create tornadoes. This is not even to mention that some levels grant you other special abilities like the one that tasks you with dropping meteors on the dinosaurs. Learning how all of these abilities interact with the world and each other makes for a very exciting process.

Charm More Than Makes Up For Any Issues

My only real issue with Rain On Your Parade is that there are some sizable drops in level quality at times. While there are times when you will be doing things like causing the extinction of the dinosaurs or recreating scenes from The Office, at other times a level might just be as simple as "Rain on all of the humans in this city" or "Rain on all the humans in this forest". It is understandable that the game can't be exciting and hilarious all the time, but the stellar design of about three-quarters of Rain On Your Parade's levels shows how boring the other quarter really is. 

Ultimately though Rain On Your Parade is a terrific little puzzle game that can be a huge amount of fun for all kinds of different gamers. The vast majority of its levels are very well designed and have enough secrets tucked away in them that you can spend hours just finding easter eggs alone. It may not be the best puzzle game out there, but its charm and ability to put a smile on your face make Rain On Your Parade more than worth the price of admission.

TechRaptor reviewed Rain On Your Parade on Nintendo Switch using a code provided by the developers. Rain On Your Parade can also be played on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.