Hiragana Pixel Party

Hiragana Pixel Party's main issue is that it is just merely an okay rhythm game on the Switch eShop. Even as somebody who doesn't play a lot of rhythm games I have a hard time believing that there are not better games in the genre available for the Switch. If you're interested in learning Japanese, the game might be a solid investment but otherwise the repetitive nature makes it difficult to recommend to anyone who isn't both a fan of rhythm games and interested in learning Japanese.

Hiragana Pixel Party is a simple rhythm game that sets out to teach you how to read and pronounce Japanese characters. It could benefit from some more variety in gameplay, but if you fancy something that you can potentially benefit from, the challenge and the educational value could keep you engaged through its many missions.

Hiragana Pixel Party may be a rhythm game but it's not on this side that its qualities stand out the most - its rhythm component is too simplistic and shallow, it's rather the game's educational side that allows it to best display its assets. Featuring a surprisingly fun mechanic that teaches its players to learn a series of Japanese characters, Hiragana Pixel Party achieves a satisfactory balance between educational content and fun.

Hiragana Pixel Party is a game with an identity crisis – it’s too shallow to be a serious learning tool but it’s too serious about learning to be just fun. It’s on a console with more than a few proper rhythm games which feel more intuitive to play, and honestly you’ll pick up about as much Japanese from this game as you would while playing Project Diva with dual language subtitles on. I would have loved it to be more ambitious, and to find more ways to be a useful language acquisition tool, but as of now it’s only useful to players who want to learn just hiragana and katakana.