Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure

You will play the part of a famous art thief known only as Phantom R. You have taken the task upon yourself to right the wrongs done in your past. In this rhythm game with a couple of puzzles sprinkled throughout you're going to have to solve the mystery of a symbol found on a coin that your character's father dropped before he disappeared. You'll get to meet many unique individuals along your way, some will be there to help you, others will stand in your way.

Graphically this game looks about on par with most 3DS games. I did find there were times during the rhythm sections where I felt like I was slightly off when trying to follow the beat in 3D, but didn't experience that same issue in 2D. To be honest I liked playing this game a lot more in 2D simply because I felt more confident in the precision one needs to pass rhythm puzzles.

The music had a certain jive to it. Right now I'm having a hard time really placing it but it was more like jazz mixed with big band. It worked for the game, and its different sections of the story. The voice work I felt was just sufficient, I wasn't blown away by the voices, some of them caused me to not really invest in their characters.

The controls, as I mentioned before were precise when playing in 2D, but seemed to lag by half a beat or second and caused many misses to occur if you're trying to follow the beat and the guidelines. Most of the game is going to be spent using the stylus and the touchscreen, during these moments is when I felt the most disconnect when trying to do things in 3D instead of 2D.

I came into this game thinking some rhythm, definitely, simply because of the title of the game, but they market it as a puzzle game. Most of the puzzles that didn't have to deal with musical beat felt beyond weak. There was just something missing, there was no complexity to the puzzles. Sure there were just a few of those puzzles, but I would have thought if you're going to market this game as a puzzle game you'd have something even slightly close to Layton-esque. The story was pretty good, there's an ancient evil that has reappeared and they are trying to recreate a crown that controls a machine of great power. You're going to have to beat them to it, but how can you without a little help. You'll have your trusty man's best friend, and an orphan girl with amazing musical talent to help you out.

If you're a rhythm game fan, you'll like this game, but I recommend on playing it in 2D. If you're a puzzle game fan, there are a ton of better puzzle games out there that you'll enjoy. This is a good start to a series, its ending leaves it open for sequels, but if that's going to happen they're going to have to market as more of a rhythm game, unless they actually want to step up to the plate and put puzzles in the game that actually some difficulty. This game gets a6.2 out of 10. I'm a puzzle fan, was excited about experiencing something new, and this didn't even come close.