Floor Kids (Nintendo Switch) Review

Regarding the rhythm genre, Floor Kids is a pleasant departure from the norm. While most titles are all about pushing the right button at the right moment, this has you (break)dancing to your heart's content, since it lets you choose the moves, rather than wait for an on-screen ordering as in Just Dance 2018, for instance. Of course, this doesn't mean that players aren free to do as they please, because in order to score high, you have got to wow the crowd.

Keep hitting a move button to the beat and the audience will fall asleep. In other words, one has to aim high and do a lot more than that. Rhythm is fine and all, but variety is even better, thus the one in the centre of the room must add diversity while showing his or her move-set. Therefore, along with those fancy down-rock and up-rock techniques, you will have to do some freeze poses, hops, head spins (be careful not to fall on your face), as well as combos, and be sure to accept those crowd requests.

How does it all feel? Without any exaggeration, it feels awesome, and considerably different from the rest of the competition due to its freestyle approach to the rhythm genre. Sure, some fine-tuning would be more than welcome, as performing moves doesn't always feel as smooth as it should, not to mention that the tunes themselves leave a lot to be desired, since they sound as if they are all beat, and no melody - luckily, most are two minutes long, therefore, none overstay their welcome.

In conclusion: Floor Kids is a fun take on rhythm gaming. It's less constricting than usual, it's pleasantly niche, and, yes fellow readers, the visuals are awesome, with an art style that looks as if those simplistic learn-to-sketch line drawing figures have put on some clothes, and a nice variety of nicely coloured, Bronx-y locales that fit like a glove with the game's vibe… but! …but the fun won't last for long.

Lasting appeal is where this loses, and loses big time, and the reasons are aplenty. For starters, while it actually requires memorising moves similar to a fighter, this is not as much a game of skill, but training, meaning that, once you learn what moves raise the score, you will stick to them and never really try anything else, something that discourages freestyling, and thus ruins the biggest strength of this title.

It is this that then leads onto the repetitive nature of it all, something that turns this, otherwise, fun indie labour of love, into something that will only fill an evening or two. Apart from a slight difference in difficulty, all stages offer pretty much the same deal, and once you are done with it, you are completely done and dusted. Long story short: Floor Kids has a real severe need for some extra modes and additional mechanics. Oh, sure, it is possible to spend an hour or two in the local multiplayer mode, but don't expect this to replace your favourite couch party game anytime soon.