Thank you Plug In Digital for sending us this game to review!

Lost in Harmony was originally released on mobile platforms in 2016 and is free to play on Google Play with in app purchases. Steam and Nintendo eShop sell the game in its entirety for $6.99. There are two different stories with approximately twelve levels in each one. Kaito’s Adventure has thirteen dreams/levels with a story about his girlfriend Aya in between them. Aya is in pain and is sick and getting treatment for her illness. It’s not specified, but it sounds like she’s going through cancer. The other story, M.I.R.A.I's Escape is about a robot that is supposed to be decommissioned, but he escapes instead.

The gameplay is similar for both stories though M.I.R.A.I's Escape is more challenging. Both modes have a normal and hard level of difficulty. Each level has multiple orbs that can be acquired and these orbs are used for unlocking future levels. There are a total of seventy-two orbs to be collected in the game.

Along with collecting orbs, there are trails of stardust that rack up serious points for collecting it all. There are also rhythm moments where you have to press the X, Y, A, B buttons in time with their icons lining up with their goal on the right-hand of the screen. Depending on your timing you’ll be ranked as perfect, great, good, or miss. Combos are encouraged and boost your score if achieved. In order to complete a level you’ll need to meet a certain threshold. Levels can always be replayed to improve upon previous scores and to collect orbs missed in previous attempts.

Most of the gameplay revolves around dodging objects that are coming up ahead and behind you. For the unseen dangers there are arrows that will warn and tell you which direction to move to avoid a collision. Sometimes the threats are so big that your only course of action is to jump and avoid them.

There’s a wide variety of obstacles including cars, boats, sheep, birds, buffalo, asteroids, lightning, and plenty of others. An occasional boss-like creature will chase M.I.R.A.I and he’ll have to avoid his lunges. Most threats stay in their lanes, but some swerve and you’ll have to dodge them accordingly.

The art style is neat and I like it. My only nitpick with the visuals is that they are noticeably flat. This game ran really well on the Switch which isn’t too surprising given its mobile origins. As you progress in the game you will unlock customization options that let you personalize the characters a bit. You can change Kaito’s outfit and skateboard and M.I.R.A.I's facial color and patterns are changeable too.

I really enjoyed the music in this game and I bought the soundtrack which is available on Spotify and Amazon. Most of the music is dance style but there are some classical songs and plenty of others that I recognized as well. One of the levels has a Tetris theme and its theme song is playing in the background. Most of the songs are instrumental, but a couple of them have singing in them.

Morally, there’s not much to complain about. Aya’s shorts are shorter than I would allow my daughters to leave the house in. If you fail to move out of the way, your character will get smacked, but they don’t fall down or get seriously injured. There are references to death and dying though.

In the end, Lost in Harmony is a short but fun game. If you’re good at it, you can beat all of the levels in a couple of sittings. Fans of rhythm games should check this one out. If you have access to a mobile version you can try it before you buy it on an ad free platform.