There’s this one game on the showfloor of Indie Jam 2026 that my media peers were raving about, and but we struggle to remember the name. “The rat game.””The one rhythm game bullet heaven one.” Something along those lines is what most people I talk to remember it by.
But that should be the least of the problems Philippines-based indie devs Basika should be worried about, because Strik9 Rat Rhythm Rampage delivers what it sets out to be: a blend between rhythm games and bullet heaven. And from our hands-on time with it, this game’s ready for the spotlight it deserves.
Rat Rhythm Rampage is primarily a bullet heaven (reverse bullet hell, survivors-like) game. An overwhelming number of enemies will fill your screen, but you should be able to clear them out like an overpowered character in a game of Diablo, or, well, Vampire Survivors. But you are not mowing a lawn of grass here. You must press buttons to do any action whether that be firing a linear shot or burst an AOE attack, or dodge. The twist? You are encouraged to press those face buttons on the beat of the music.
My first thoughts of Rat Rhythm Rampage is that it’s akin to Crypt Of The Necrodancer, but it’s not quite like that. Crypt Of The Necrodancer demands you to input any movement to the beat. You can move around freely in Rat Rhythm Rampage, just that the face-button actions, which would’ve been on auto if it’s a pure bullet heaven, must be on beat. So it’s actually closer to Hi-Fi Rush, or the recent indie beat-based beat-’em-up Dead As Disco. Shoot, attack, and dodge to the beat, with a visualiser available if you prefer that than playing by ear.
But Rat Rhythm Rampage isn’t exactly like Hi-Fi Rush, in that the metronomic beat you are supposed to be in sync in can fluctuate. The BPM of the original songs change and you need to adapt to that, which opens up opportunities for some insidious soundtrack/level design. Enemy waves are pre-determined, designed around the track, but if the music is able to be dynamic in its BPM range, that could lead to some interesting encounters. In fact, it did in the two levels/tracks I sampled. And there will more difficult ones in the recently released public demo ahead of its full release later this year.
The only nitpick I had is that the tutorial led me to believe you need to press two face buttons at once to do some special trick (there was a “+” symbol), only to learn while playing that you actually do so by doing the corresponding button presses. Like a combo in fighting games. There’s a visual indicator of what button presses you need to do to activate them, and it highlights what the available special attacks you can do based one what button you just pressed. That’s a neat way of explaining how that works, compared to the large mural on the floor that lead me to the wrong conclusion.
What really stood out about Rat Rhythm Rampage is how it has that sheen to it. It’s polished. It already feels good in the hands. The audio/visual feedback has that oomph you need to be pumped at playing this sort of games. It can visually overwhelming—and that’s the point—but I never felt disoriented. I can still tell my rat where they’re at on the screen at any time. Controls are tight as a rhythm game needs to be. While I couldn’t hear much of the music during my hands-on session as I would want it to, all I needed was to count the beat internally, like one would do when they’re marching, and that was enough for to hold a decently high score on the event leaderboards throughout the day.
Rat Rhythm Rampage is set to release later this year, and it’s looking ready to rock the world with its take on this genre blend. The game will be out on PC (Steam). A free demo is available.