Well who doesn’t like birds? No not the feminine kind, the cute little ones that fly. Well mix that with pink and fluffy, classical music and deadly notes and what do you get? Yes, you guessed it: Maestro! Green Groove, from French developer Neko Entertainment.
You are pulled in by the quirky music and an overwhelming purple background covering the screen and then given a short introduction on the storyline, showing us the cute pink birdy, his alter ego and their love interest Bella.
Now on to the training. As this game is a rhythm and action game I would advise you take the opportunity to do the training, as we are not all well versed experts of the rhythm/action genre. Through the training you realise you can gain little green friends, and you can see them as a sort of protection, but miss a note and you gain company in the shape of the not so nice red notes. If you proceed to gain too many, you will fail the round.
With all the excitement you are ready for the first round. You learn quickly that training was only a taster of things to come. By collecting each fruit and pinching the strings correctly you earn some green friends to protect you. You are given an option to sing, though you can whistle or just make noise. It can be fun if you’re alone, but maybe not on a bus… oops!!
As you progress the game gets that little bit harder and the red notes do not give you a break. You are scored at the end of each round, if you’ve done well you get an A, B+, C or lower, to the point that you never finished because of the little red demon notes. Before your next level you get small interludes and a description of what is to be expected of you. Unfortunately before you can go to the next level you have to pass with a B+ or higher, a B just won’t cut it in this game. This is a huge downside, that can turn it from enjoyable to wanting to destroy the song you have to repeat over and over until you beat your last score.
Further on from the last point, there are only three songs and they only get harder as you go along. Then there are the boss battles, which are not songs as such. There is only one tune for each boss battle, and you have to beat him by repeating the tune his cronies play.
As the levels get harder you are faced with spiders jumping at the screen, whereby you must tap the screen to knock them back at the right time, miss it and you have a little red demon friend and green goo on your screen. After many attempts and continuously hearing the songs that felt like they were on repeat I found it mildly entertaining, likable if not loveable for children.
There is not a great deal that will keep you coming back for more, but for its short life span it is an enjoyable and entertaining little game. More tracks would have improved the longevity as would variations on game modes as they are all the same really. Definitely not a game for the hardcore amongst us, but a very short and sweet introduction to the world of rhythm/action for younger audiences.
VideogameUK verdict: 6.5/10
