While I’m clearing my backlog of aquatic games, why not this charming rhythm game I Kickstarted years ago?

This game is primarily the work of Matthew Taranto and his brother Michael. I know Matthew through his webcomic Brawl in the Family, a gag comic ostensibly centred around the characters in Smash Bros Brawl, and which is full of love, heart, and good jokes. Tadpole Treble too is a passion project, and seeing the artistic and musical talent that I recognised directed into making this lovely little world was pleasing.

The game is about the adventure of the newly born tadpole Baton, who is whisked away from her fellow spawn and must find her way back home. It takes the form of a series of autoscrolling musical stages. It’s a clever setup: the “lanes” that you swap between are the lines of a musical stave, and obstacles scattered throughout are notes that play in the soundtrack of that level. You don’t have to time all your inputs to the music exactly, but if you want a good score and all the collectibles then you really do have to harmonise with the song/level.

To keep things fresh each level is a different musical style, from crooning ballads to boppy chiptunes. Some are even vocal songs, which I don’t particularly care for myself but I don’t mind experiencing them once or twice… the final boss did get on my nerves a bit though as I had to cycle through several times before figuring out the necessary actions. The difficulty ramps up but you can sort of decide for yourself how hard you’ll find it by which optional objectives you go for, and these levels are intended for repeat plays where familiarity will help.

Either way it plays very well as you zip up and down the stave, smacking interactables with your tail and navigating the various setpieces. Of course, all along you have the softly vibrant artwork accompanying you, with many memorable backgrounds and colour palettes, and lots of cute wildlife that still seems intimidating to a tiny tadpole.

I backed the game back when it was being developed in 2014 out of loyalty to Taranto, hoping to play it on my Wii U through the promised port. Although this did eventuate, unfortunately it was only published on the North American eShop and I was provided a consolation Steam key. It was Mac-capable at least. I’m glad I finally got around to it, as it’s just delightful, even if you don’t engage with replays, extra challenges, or the robust level creation tools. And how many games let you play as a tadpole!?