Rain on Your Parade Review: Cute Chaos

When you’re looking for free games on Steam, your options are often limited.

Sometimes, you’ll get a complete title that you can play from start to finish, but the game itself is usually pretty small. Other times, you’ll get a free multiplayer game, but usually, there are some pay-to-play components thrown in.

Another alternative is the demo or “prologue” options on Steam. These games technically only offer a snippet of the full game for your enjoyment. However, that’s usually more than enough to give you a sense of what the complete title is like.

Today, we’re going to be looking at one of the more eye-catching demos on the market today. Rain on Your Parade is an adorable free-to-play prologue, perfect for those dreary afternoons when you need something to perk you up.

Let’s take a look.

A Mischievous Cloud on a Mission

Designed by Unbound Creations, Rain on Your Parade is a beautiful, humorous, and entertaining game, currently available on a free-to-play demo. If you’re now stuck at home most evenings anyway, due to poor weather, then this is probably the game for you.

You start life as a playful rain cloud that earns points whenever you ruin someone’s day. Ultimately, this game is all about destruction and madness, with a hint of puzzle-solving thrown in too. There are tons of environments to explore, though you’ll unlock most of them in the paid version. As you strengthen your elemental powers, you also unlock new skills to help out with your tirade.

The first thing that I really loved about this game was the graphics. The fact that you’re a cardboard cut-out of a raincloud is adorable. I also love the fact that you seem to be attached by string to the sky above. It’s so wonderfully crafty and a great insight into the developers.

Another massive bonus is the story. You learn about your little cloud in a fairytale fashion, discovering how this little rain cloud wanted to strike out against the standard weather patterns. You’re a cloud with a big dream—you want to wander the world and rain however you like. After hearing whispers of a land where clouds can roam free (Seattle), you set off on an adventure.

The landscapes throughout this game are compelling, with a hand-made feel that reminds me of things like Yoshi’s Wooly World. There is knitted yarn for grass, and the human beings look a lot like little wooden dolls. The aesthetic ties back to the fairytale design of the story. In some places, the game feels a lot like the kind of stories you’d make up as a kid to keep yourself entertained.

You even get a surprising amount of customization options for your cloud. There’s the opportunity to draw a new face on the surface of the cloud with your mouse or touch-pad. You also get to wear hats if you unlock them on each level.

A Forecast packed with Fun

If you loved the shenanigans of Untitled Goose Game (and who didn’t), then you’re likely to enjoy this game too. As the cute, lighthearted music plays in the background, you zoom around unique landscapes, feeling as light and floaty as an actual cloud.

Dumping water on the little wooden figure below feels super satisfying (and hilarious). Although there’s not a tremendous amount of innovation in the game’s mechanics, you do discover a lot of different ways to play. Even on a one-hour prologue, you’ll discover tons of variety, which is pretty uncommon.

I was a huge fan of the diversity in the levels. For instance, there’s one environment where you’ll win points for dousing all the guests at a wedding with water. You also get the opportunity to experiment with challenges. For instance, there’s a part when you’ll need to water a garden without drenching the people nearby.

There’s a good balance, even in the demo, between moments when you can be as purely destructive as you like, and times when you need to be cautious. This tightrope walk of play styles gives the game a lot more depth, so you can really get lost in the experience. You’ll even develop new skills too, such as thunder for when you’re feeling extra dangerous.

There are still a few issues with this game of course. For instance, you can’t currently reset the levels so that you can go back and get a full 100% completion rate. That’s gonna be a real problem for the achievement hunters out there who are all about perfection.

Additionally, although you do get some guidance to help you understand certain mechanics, you’re left to figure out most things on your own. That’s not a huge problem when you consider how straightforward everything is, but it would be nice to have the option to see some informative clips if you need them.

Have Some Fun with Rain Clouds

Ultimately, Rain on Your Parade is a brilliant prologue and an excellent insight into a game I’d be keen to get my hands on. This title has some issues and may need to make some changes in the future. However, for the most part, everything is creative, playful, and packed with fun.

The raining mechanic is brilliant and satisfying, and I like the fact that your skills can evolve as you go. The Unbound Creations team seems to know what they’re doing here and it shows. Unfortunately, for now, we’re going to have to wait until next year before we get a complete version of the game. However, you can always add the title to your wish list as a reminder.

For now, I’d recommend exploring the prologue if you’re looking for a fun way to spend an hour. You’re probably going to be left wanting more but isn’t that the sign of a great demo, anyway?

Alternatively, consider something a little more complete, like Bomb Bots Arena.

You can play Rain on Your Parade for free here on Steam.