Review #059: Floor Kids (Nintendo Switch)
Updated: Oct 8, 2019
Reviewer: Allan J.
Developer: MERJ Media
Publisher: MERJ Media
Category: Music, Action, Sports
Release Date: 12.7.2017
Download Floor Kids from the Nintendo eShop here.
The Backstory
In 2007 & 2008, Floor Kids made its debut as a series of short animated films that featured music from Kid Koala. These films were also used in live sets by Kid Koala as part of the visual show. The idea was created by animator and former bboy JonJon. Years later, working alongside game programmers Hololabs and producers Envision, JonJon and Kid Koala took it a step further and created a video game based on the Floor Kids and their breakdancing world. The result is a beautifully hand-animated freestyle rhythm and dancing game that takes you through the exciting lives of the breakdancing bboys and bgirls of the Floor Kids universe.
Busting Moves
The gameplay, at its core, is almost akin to the freestyle feel of Tony Hawk: Pro Skater, in that you have no set choreography as you play each round, you just make up moves as you go and try to make the different tricks flow together for the highest points possible. Obviously there are no vert ramps or half-pipes to traverse as you breakdance in Floor Kids, but the free-form flow of it all is where I make this connection.
In the beginning, you must play through a tutorial that shows you all of the different moves, how to perform them, and what they are called. After that, you are basically just told to wing it and hope for the best. Each new stage provides you with tips and tricks on how to score higher point and improve the various metrics on which you are judged, such as flow, fire (which is a measure of how quickly and accurately you perform the moves that the crowd shouts out as you do your thing), and flavor, among other categories.
As you progress through each stage and song, you unlock different player cards, which, in turn, unlock new characters to play. The higher the score, the more stars you get, and the more cards you receive. In all, there are 8 unique characters, each with 16 different moves, and over 100 ways to transition between these moves.
Personally, I found this formula to be ok at first, but it started to feel a bit repetitive after a while. Perhaps I am just not the target audience, or perhaps I just don’t have the “flow” or “fire” for this game, but I honestly felt like I was just mashing random commands without a clue how it was going to end. Sometimes I got 4 stars, sometimes 2, and I couldn’t really tell you what I did differently that affected this outcome in either song.
Audio/Visuals
The visuals are handled quite nicely in this game, and you can definitely tell that the artist loves what he does. The animations are all hand-drawn, and graphically very clean and smooth, but with a real organic soul to it. The audio tracks are all courtesy of Kid Koala, and since the dancing animations were designed with his music in mind, the cohesion is quite good. Overall, while the music is not necessarily my personal favorite genre, it is still well done.
Wrapping Up
Floor Kids is a decent game, and with multiplayer mode, it is pretty fun with a friend. The single-player mode does get a bit flat after a while, but again, if you are more into the bboy thing than I am, you may very well feel differently. At the end of the day, this is not a game I will likely find myself coming back to any time soon, but if you are a fan of the bboy scene and like a decent rhythm game, then you may want to pick up Floor Kids and give it a play.
Final Score: 6/10
Download Floor Kids from the Nintendo eShop here.
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*Review Code Provided By popagenda