#One hand clapping gameplay full#

Every time you turn around, it seems like a new platformer introduces an interesting fresh spin on the heritage genre.One Hand Clapping is a 2D platformer that invites you to sing into your microphone to solve musical puzzles and discover the power of your voice as it changes the world. So it shouldn’t be all that surprising to see a simple concept like voice activation implemented in to the genre, right? Right - so why does One Hand Clapping feel like a completely revolutionary idea in the space when the technology has seemingly been there for years? Ah well, better late than never! Whether it be time manipulation, dimensional changes, or something else entirely, platformers are seemingly well-equipped to handle new mechanics to reinvigorate the 40+ year old game type. One Hand Clapping, developed by Bad Dream Games and published by HandyGames, may look really familiar to many popularized a few years ago by big names like Markiplier, JackSepticEye, and even PewDiePie, One Hand Clapping has an interesting development story.

#One hand clapping gameplay full#

First created as a demo project back in 2018 by a handful of students at the University of Southern California, One Hand Clapping evolved from its humble roots to a full game available on pretty much any current platform you can think of. You have a lil guy who needs to get from point A to point B in standard platforming fashion however, there are puzzles scattered throughout the levels that are voice-activated/controlled, making for some pretty unique gameplay.Īnd while a microphone is required to play, a beautiful singing voice isn’t - in fact, sometimes the sillier you sound, the more entertaining it is.Īs a concept, One Hand Clapping is extremely cool. At first it’s fairly simplistic, such as sustaining a note or singing a high note to force an elevator to go up or a low note to descend. As the levels progress, the puzzles get increasingly more complex, with portions requiring players to hit specific keys at specific times, sing to the beat, and so on. There are music games, there are rhythm games, and then there is One Hand Clapping - something altogether new. One Hand Clapping does a lot of things right, from its beautifully crafted world that convey a variety of moods and emotions to its difficulty scaling that allows anyone to play even if they can’t carry a tune in a bucket with a lid on it. Even its music, which would normally be a pretty prominent and powerful force in music games, takes a backseat to allow the player’s voice to shine through, which was an extremely smart move on the developers’ part. On paper, One Hand Clapping is nothing short of genius: a simple concept with a surprise novelty that entertains no matter how good the player is at singing. With that being said, I couldn’t shrug off one aspect of One Hand Clapping, and that was… well, the platforming part. Worth repeating, the voice controls are nothing short of spectacular as a sucker for novelty in games, picking up this game based on concept alone was a no-brainer. But should that mechanic be taken out, One Hand Clapping goes from a neat, quirky idea to an average and slow platformer. It wasn’t just in the fact that gameplay takes some time getting used to (there’s a lot of milling about as you slooooowly figure out the right notes to press buttons, move objects, etc.), but that character movement is relaxed at best and sluggish at worst. It’s not necessarily a deal-breaker, but it’s worth mentioning that the selling point isn’t excitement.Įven in the occasional chase scenes that provide the rare boost of adrenaline, you’ll be ambling along at the normal pace you were without danger present. Of course, if you were interested in One Hand Clapping, you knew what the selling point was: voice controls.