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Let me start by saying that I am not a man of rhythm. I have never indulged in games such as PaRapa, Dance Dance Revolution or Guitar Hero. As such, I really didn’t know what to expect going into Catchy Cadence, the latest freeware release from PDAMill. The truth is, now that I’ve spent some time with the game, I’m still not sure I’d be prepared for other rhythm games! And talk about a game that makes you go argh…
From a gameplay perspective, Cadence is nice in that there is no deep plot, no impending evil, and no madman trying to take over the world. The simple goal of the game is to score above a 70 in each of twelve mini-games, thereby earning at least a bronze record for each game. Of course, the impetus to keep playing is that if you're like me, you most likely will not score a gold record the first time you beat a particular game. In fact, I don't think I've scored a gold record on any game yet. For most of the games I'm lucky to get by with a bronze. But, for the sake of wanting to see what the game has to offer next, I'm more than happy to take that bronze. Each new game is not available until you've earned at least a bronze in the last one that was unlocked, so if you're like me and at least want a peak at them all, you'll be satisfied at first with the bronze. 
So how do you actually play Catchy Cadence? Well, the rules are actually different for each game, but the common thread is that you tap. Some games require you tap the screen - or a certain part of the screen - on the beat after an event occurs. Other games require you to tap on a certain part of the screen when something happens. Still other games want you to repeat a sequence of events, following the same beat pattern that the events were presented to you in. The key to each game is to follow the beat. Sometimes, though, this can actually be a bit frustrating. There were a couple of games that, despite reading the instructions every time before I began, it took me several tries before I realized what I was supposed to do. In other cases, even though I did understand what I was supposed to do, it seemed like I could never break a certain score because once I finally mastered one spot in the game, another spot would give me grief.
I think the most frustrating activities were the remix games. These were games that were a combination of other games. The first three remix games combine each triplet of games that came before it, and the final remix game combined all nine of the individual games. They weren't frustrating because of difficulty. In fact, I think I passed most of the remix games more easily than their individual counterparts. However, the remix games seemed very disjointed. Each of the individual games were designed to be unique, and that was quite evident in the transitions of both song and activities during the remix stages. I would much rather have seen either the remix games removed or replaced with three more original mini-games. They just didn't fit the flow of the rest of the game.
The overall feel of the game graphically is somewhat simplistic. That's not to say the games didn't contain any detail, but they certainly aren't the normal level of complexity you've come to expect from PDAMill games. I did appreciate the fact that each game sported its own look stylistically, though some fared much better than others. My favorite was probably "Which Sandwhich?", which I felt had the cleanest and most cohesive look to it. On the other hand, I wasn't particularly fond of the "brand" levels - ones based off of characters from Arvale and Rats - simply because they just didn't have the same visual panache that their source material maintained. And for some reason, Duncan had this odd nervous twitch (I suppose he was trying to keep the beat). I will say that I found the nod to "Dangerous Waters" on the "Rats On The Beach" level quite clever.
Now on to the part where, as you'd expect, Catchy Cadence shines: the music. This has got to be about the best music collectively that a PDAMill game has contained. I mean, one of the songs even has lyrics that flash by in good old fashioned Sesame Street sing along style! While I enjoyed all of the tunes, I'd say my favorite was the song for Dangerous Waters. It was intense, peppy, and seemed the most in tune (pardon the pun) with the game it was guiding. If you get the chance, I highly recommend going into the jukebox once you've earned a silver in a given game and listening to its music without all the distractions of the sound effects and actually having to play the game. The sound effects, much like the graphics, were quite varied in quality. Some were decent, others were easily ignored, but some actually distracted from the game. This was most notable in the Tennis mini-game.
This was a tough game to rate. The reality is that for someone like me, there's not a lot of longevity to the game. Once I've beaten everything, even though in most cases it was just with a bronze, there's little chance of me going back to try and get the golds. It's just too frustrating to play a near perfect game, just to mess up once and miss the 100% mark required to get a gold. It would be nice to have some hint as to what the gold level "extras" were so I knew whether the effort was worth it. On the other hand, the game is worth it just for the music, especially given that it's free. Of course, it doesn't hurt that some of the games actually are a blast, and most of them grow on you after a few attempts (I'm still not particularly fond of the waltz mini-game). Even though the game is free I don't think it's for everyone, and it's certainly not my favorite PDAMill game, but if you're a PDAMill fan or you're really into precise timing games, this just might be for you. And in case I didn't already mention it, the game is free!
Overall Score: 6/10
You can download the game here
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