Mad Rat Dead

Mad Rat Dead is a rhythm-based platform game in which players control Mad Rat in time to the beat of the music, with the goal of making it safely to the end of each stage. Mad Rat is able to dash forward, jump, drop downwards, and perform a dance to charge up a super dash, as well as perform homing attacks on enemies known as Nightmares. If Mad Rat dies by colliding with an enemy or deadly obstacle, the player can rewind time to restart at a chosen point before death (players can also rewind time on command). However, the game will end if the player fails to reach the end of the stage before a timer runs out.

Stages that are cleared in story mode can be replayed with any unlocked music tracks, allowing them to be played at different speeds depending on the music. Additionally, stages can be played in Hard Mode, which adds additional beats that need to be hit.

The story follows a lab rat who has just died after being experimented on by a human scientist. Approached by an entity called the Rat God, the rat is given the ability to rewind time and relive his last 24 hours to fulfil his dream to get revenge on the scientist who killed him. After going back in time and escaping his cage, the rat discovers he has a talking heart named Heart, who dubs him "Mad Rat" upon hearing his goal. As Mad Rat follows the Rat God's advice to "follow the cheese", Mad Rat finds the scientist and seemingly kills him.

However, this is all revealed to be a delusion, which Heart snaps Mad Rat out of just before he can be killed by a cat. Finding themselves in the woods, Mad Rat and Heart head back towards the city, learning that other rats are being led to their death by the supposed Rat God, before the pair is rescued from the cat by a little girl.

Mad Rat Dead was designed by Yu Mizokami, creator of the 2015 survival horror game Yomawari: Night Alone, and its sequels. According to her, the project was conceived before the release of Yomawari, but was shelved for a while. Nippon Ichi Software first revealed the game in June 2020 with October 29, 2020 release date. Participating composers were also announced, alongside the first images of the upcoming title. The worldwide release through NIS America was confirmed later that day, with plans to publish the game on October 30, 2020 in North America and Europe, and on November 6, 2020 in Oceania.

The game's soundtrack was composed and performed by several artists: a_hisa, Dyes Iwasaki, Camellia, ZIZZ STUDIO (You Ooyama, Kouichi Sakita / xaki, Yoshihiro Kawagoe), and Nippon Ichi Software's sound director Kazuya Takasu. The soundtrack is included on CD with the Japanese special edition of the game, while the Western special edition featured the soundtrack in digital format, as well as on a cassette tape. The soundtracks Volume One and Two were released on the "Nippon1.jpショップ" (Shop) site as stand alone soundtracks; a 3-CD set and 1-CD set, respectively.

Upon release, Mad Rat Dead received "generally favorable" reviews for Nintendo Switch version, and "mixed or average" reviews for PlayStation 4 version, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Nintendo Life praised the game for its soundtrack and visual design, while Hardcore Gamer noted that the game "controls like a dream and uses your hands, ears and eyes to their fullest." However, aspects such as the game's story and gameplay received more mixed reviews. While Nintendo Life praised the satisfying gameplay loop, PlayStation Lifestyle found the game's regular levels to be quite repetitive. PlayStation Lifestyle additionally calls the story dull and states that it "loses momentum quite quickly".