Pride Run

I came into Pride Run expecting a gimmick with a good message slapped on top. What I got was a genuinely competent rhythm game that borrows the note-highway format from Guitar Hero, wraps it in the loudest pixel art of 2019, and then bolts on a second, completely different mode that plays like a light RTS. That two-for-one structure is both the game's best idea and its main weakness, because neither half gets quite enough development time. Vanilla mode is the accessible entry point. Notes scroll from right to left, you hit them as they pass the timing bar, and your crowd size swells or shrinks with your accuracy. Three difficulty tiers - labelled Virgin, Vicious, and Queen - give it range, though the lower two will be cleared in an evening by anyone with rhythm game experience. The bigger frustration is a timing calibration issue that multiple reviewers flagged: the visual cue tells you to hit slightly early, and if you trust it, you miss. Trust your ears instead and the whole thing clicks into something genuinely fun. At Queen difficulty the game demands simultaneous button presses and sustained holds at pace, which is where the concept finally earns its keep. Each of the 16 city stages also ends in a boss dance-off in a 2D fighter-style arena, where you input attack sequences, mash through damage phases, and try to fill a "pride-o-meter" before your opponent does. The bosses are hit or miss thematically - a Wendigo in Toronto lands as a joke, a matador in Madrid less so - but the fight mechanics add just enough variety to break up the note-highway runs. Play Hard mode is a separate beast. You build a parade roster before each stage, pulling units like bears, drag queens, twinks, and veteran marchers, each with stats and abilities, then manage their positions in real time while the parade rolls. Haters on the sideline throw disruption at your crew, and underused units eventually disperse and leave - an attrition mechanic that creates genuine pressure. It is a novel idea, and the RTS loop of assembling a squad around a power cap before each city has real charm. The problem is the unlockable leaders sit behind an experience wall, so early runs default to whatever the game recommends, and the depth that looked impressive on paper arrives after you have already cleared most of the content. Most leader variety lands in Play Hard's back half, when the difficulty curve should be rewarding experimentation anyway. The soundtrack by Italian queer electronic duo Hard Ton is legitimately the game's strongest asset, and that matters in a rhythm game. Each city carries its own sonic character - the San Francisco opener hits immediately, and the musical palette shifts enough across the 16 locations to keep the ear interested. The pixel art is dense, colorful, and occasionally overwhelming, which is fine because the game knows exactly what it is. Both modes support local co-op and PvP, which is where this kind of casual-facing game actually lives. On a couch with the right company, Vanilla mode's simplicity stops being a flaw. Metacritic landed it at 69, Steam user sentiment is roughly 76 percent positive from a small pool. Neither number lies.

Fred · Scout Team

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