Gabriel is a bit of a prankster and a jerk, but he’s also the best Angel at Guardian school. Everything comes naturally to Gabriel, so he doesn’t even have to study for his tests. He’s basically been gliding his way through school without a single problem. That all changed when he learned that his final exam involves protecting humans in a series of races. As a lesson to Gabriel for being a bit too confident in his training, he is tasked with guarding a rather clumsy human named, Harold. Now Gabriel must help Harold place third in every race or he won’t obtain his scholarship to Archangel Academy.
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High Points
Fun Story – Gabe is a brash and confident Angel-in-Training trying to get his wings. Saraphel Malakh has a rich family history to live up to, but she’s not in the same league as the rest of her family. She watches Gabe earning his accolades and gets bitten by the green eyed monster. Needless to say, watching the both of them come to terms with their own failings is worth helping the uncoordinated, Harold.
Great Animation – The cinematics are flash animated but they boast a nice art style and a Saturday morning cartoon aesthetics. The animations during the gameplay are astounding to say the least. It is fun to watch Harold go full sonic the hedgehog, or be wowed by the smooth transition of one of the many boost cinematics during a race. The backgrounds could be a bit more dynamic, but the shifting level scheme more than makes up for it.
Awesome Soundtrack – The music during a race escalates depending on what place Harold is in during the race. Since this game is all about heavenly miracles the music is filled with the gospel sung by a choir. As Harold advances in a race the hymn will begin and start a song about his exploits.
Hard And Fun – Harold is an endless runner with a few tricks up its sleeve. As a god like being you control the environment around Harold and his fellow racers. You’ll move objects so that he can continue at his pace, and strike down lightning with FURIOUS anger to bring out his inner speedster. It’s a challenging process to keep him dashing at optimal speed, and also sabotage his opponents by moving platforms out of their way.
That’s probably the best part of the game, sabotaging the other angel’s racers by trapping them or pulling the rug out from under their feet. Every stage is based on remembering where to jump, or what to move in a certain stage. This gradually makes the platforming more difficult as Harold proceeds through the various races. Like a game of Rock Band – you’ll have a chance to practice areas of the course so that Harold can move through it faster. The game is layered with alternate course routes and constant boosts to keep Harold moving act optimal speed. It’s a ton of fun if you get used to the control scheme.
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Average Points
Controller Support Only – It makes sense that the game needs controller support, but only because some of the controls require rotations. I feel like some concessions could have been made for the keyboard crowd. Maybe changing the rotations to simple up and down movements with the keyboard.
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Low Points
Convoluted Controls – Since Harold is a game about basically recalling every piece of a level. It’s weird that the controls are all over the place. Instead of a simple structure to dash, the player has to tap the top buttons on the controller. Flick the trigger buttons to change between platform sections, pull back and push forward to break items, or do the same to pull bridges. There is actually more to learn as the stages progress, but that’s a lot to memorize while sabotaging other humans and watching Harold.
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Conclusion
Harold is a fun plat-former that clumsily steps on its own shoes with weird controls. If you’re into puzzle platforming you will have a blast directing Harold in and out of danger. Everyone else who isn’t into punishingly difficult games based off memory and precision… well you’re just going to be pissed off a lot. If you do ever get used to the controls this can be a fantastic game for practicing speed running. I recommend you wait for a sale on Harold. It features splendid graphics but for a game that requires precision timing, it doesn’t have a particularly functional control scheme.
*This title was given to us by the Publisher*
