Mad Rat Dead Review

If you’ve never heard of Mad Rat Dead, you’d be forgiven. However, this is not your typical “flown under the radar indie game”, as Mad Rat Dead was developed and published by Nippon Ichi Software, a massive company responsible – among other games – for the development and publishing of the Disgaea series.

Plot

You play as Mat Rat, a lab rat who dies as a consequence of an operation, and is then brought back to life by the Rat God to relive their final day. But this isn’t a sweet second chance – Mad Rat wants revenge on the human who experimented on and killed them. The Rat God gives Mad Rat the ability to rewind time, an ability that becomes part of gameplay as well, and cryptically instructs them to “follow the cheese”.

After breaking free from their cage, Mad Rat is guided – and often questioned – by their talkative heart. The heart challenges Mad Rat’s choices, trying to steer them away from blind rage. But Mad Rat’s set on vengeance, driven by their desire to kill the human, and so the journey continues. 

Mad Rat eventually reaches the lab and kills the human, even killing their own kind just to achieve the ultimate goal.… only to realize it was all a hallucination. The heart finally manages to snap Mad Rat out of their delusion, and just in time to prevent Mad Rat from being eaten by a cat. Plot twist: The Rat God had led Mad Rat into the cat’s lair, baited by cheese. Or at least, that’s how it seems for now. 

With new clarity, Mad Rat retraces their steps through the sewers, wanting to figure out what’s really going on. Their character evolves too – they go from a rage-fueled loner to someone capable of compassion. Mad Rat even defeats the cat that tried to devour them but then, in a moment of growth, rewinds time to save it from drowning. What follows is a beautiful, emotionally charged level where the cat, now a friend, helps Mad Rat by creating platforms with its paws and neck. The music, and this is something we’ll touch upon later, further enhances this magical moment of clarity and change of heart.  

Later, when a child is hit by a car, Mad Rat rewinds time again to save them, despite their hatred of humans. Compassion feels… kinda good? The cat showed gratitude, the kid gifts Mad Rat some cheese. With this shift, the Rat God’s grip loosens. When Mad Rat returns to the lab, they’re given the option to spare the human and give up their original goal (For the record, I did. At least the first time). 

But Mad Rat only had one day to live and fulfill their wish… so yeah, they’re gonna die. They try to find a peaceful spot to pass on – but the Rat God isn’t having it. They rewind time again, forcing Mad Rat to relive the day just to end up as cat food. 

Here comes the final twist: the Heart isn’t Mad Rat’s. Turns out Mad Rat had a heart transplant… from a cat. The surgery killed both the donor and recipient. And the Rat God? A parasite, spread via surgery, that reproduces by leading rats to cats. What follows is one last showdown with this twisted deity.

Music and Presentation

From the moment you boot up the game, Mad Rat Dead oozes with style. Music is the core – everything moves to the beat, in the main menu, during gameplay, the characters themselves. Even during cutscenes – short sequences that serve to present the game’s plot –  objects and characters bounce to the rhythm. 

Visually, it’s a clean, colorful cartoon world. Foreground elements like enemies and platforms are crisp and vivid. The layered backgrounds add depth without being distracting or confusing. 

But let’s be real: the music is the heart and soul of this game. As a rhythm-platformer, every move you make has to sync with the beat. And the tracks are fantastic, ranging from tense and aggressive to upbeat and emotional. 

The stage after saving the cat is a standout, with a celebratory track that perfectly matches the mood, yet keeps the urgency of the situation with a fast tempo as you escape rising floodwaters through the sewers. Later tracks are less cheerful, and mirror Mad Rat’s emotional growth and struggle. It’s not just a soundtrack – it’s a storytelling tool.

Gameplay and Fun Factor

The tutorial stage in Mat Rad Dead does a great job of teaching you pretty much everything you need to know about how the game plays. Mad Rat doesn’t just walk around – they dash, jump, and ground pound their way through platforming levels. You can even charge a dash (on the ground or in mid-air) to give it some extra reach. 

Here is where it gets interesting: all of these actions have to be performed in sync with the notes on the rhythmic chart that is visible at the bottom of the screen. Each level starts you off with a limited number of notes, and you’ll find green triangle collectibles throughout the stage that restore a few. Your goal is to reach  the end of the level before running out of notes. 

The levels themselves are packed with hazards – various enemy types (some of which you must bounce off to progress), spikes, water, bottomless pits… you name it. That’s where the time-rewind mechanic comes in. If you take damage or fall, you can rewind a few notes to try again. You don’t get those spent notes back, but you’re allowed to keep going from just before the mistake. What I didn’t realize (until I looked it up later on an external source) is that you can also trigger a rewind manually, without the need to take a hit or fall. That would’ve been super helpful to know from the start… 

In any case, I am not a huge fan of the rewind feature. It kinda kills the momentum – it interrupts both the platforming and the music, which is a bummer in a rhythm-based game. Personally, I think it would’ve worked better if you could make a few mistakes before needing to rewind. 

Another thing that bugged me: some level sections feel unfair on your first run. Enemies will just drop out of nowhere, giving you no time to react. Trial-and-error design like that is frustrating to me. I don’t mind a challenge, but I’d rather not have to memorize parts of a stage just to avoid cheap hits, and there were more of these moments than I would’ve liked. 

This ties into my biggest gripe with Mad Rat Dead, but before I get to that, we need to talk about Hard Mode. You might have noticed I’ve been saying “notes” instead of “beats”, and there’s a reason for it. On Normal difficulty, that doesn’t matter too much – they’re basically the same. The notes usually align with the straight beat, with just a few exceptions. But on Hard? That’s a whole different beast. 

In Hard Mode, the rhythm chart stops following the steady beat. Instead, you get double and triple notes that demand hitting all notes consecutively to execute the desired action. The charts are packed with syncopated notes, triplets, and more complex rhythms that actually match the music – meaning, if you don’t have at least a basic grasp of rhythm, reading them becomes a serious challenge. 

And it gets tougher. On Normal, the chart stays consistent throughout the level – with the aforementioned exceptions. On hard, though, tracks are broken into sections, each with its own rhythmic chart. So not only are you trying to dodge enemies and nail your platforming, but you’re also required to input your actions while reading a changing rhythm chart in real time. It’s not just about hitting one button to the rhythm – you have to choose the right move for the moment. Honestly, I never fully got used to juggling both the level and the rhythm chart at once. I even had to sit further back from my monitor just to get a better overview of everything happening on screen.

The Platinum Trophy

The trophy list for Mad Rat Dead is pretty straightforward. Aside from a few miscellaneous objectives, you’ll need to S-Rank all 35 stages on both Normal and Hard. That may sound brutal, given what I’ve described above… But the requirements are surprisingly forgiving:

• Hit a 100-note combo at any point during the level
• Finish the stage with at least 150 notes to spare

The consequence is that for the most difficult charts – and also the easier ones –  you can get a 100-note combo at the start of the stage, and play sloppily afterward and still snag an S-Rank. This makes earning those S-Ranks very doable – even on Hard – for all but the final three stages.These provide a significant difficulty spike, given their platforming layout, their fast tempo, and rhythmic complexity. 

The last level is a huge difficulty spike: inconsistent tempo, weird time signatures, abrupt changes, rhythmic chaos. It fits narratively, but it’s a nightmare to replay given the audial chaos. The challenge isn’t just in earning the combo – it’s also the tightest stage in the game to finish on time. 

As a final tip, before tackling any level for real, I highly recommend using the Sound Check mode. It lets you study the rhythm chart without worrying about platforming. Super helpful, and something I relied on a lot.

Final Thoughts

Mad Rat Dead is one of those rare games that wears its heart (pun intended) on its sleeve. It’s stylish, creative, and packed with emotion—and yeah, it’s got some rough edges. But it’s a rhythm-platformer with soul, and I’m really glad I played it.