Hi! I may not recommend the game, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad one.

The animation for one is absolutely gorgeous, as is the art direction. I also liked the lighthearted story before my gamepad died on me (gamepad required, so, wasn't able to experience more). However...As well made as various segments are, none of them felt cohesive during my time with the game and I didn't end up really enjoying more than a part here or there. Let me explain:

In Harold, you play as a guardian angel in training. You're at top of your class but through some cruel twist of fate, in the final exam needed to become a guardian, you're assigned to protect/guide a lovable klutz named Harold through a series of races. It's a simple, innocent story that provides a nice framework for your job of zapping Harold to make him go faster and launching opponents into pits of spikes.

Actual gameplay consists of going through a level a number of times in several modes. The first is "Practice" and can not be skipped. Ostensibly, you're supposed to be learning how to best navigate the actual race to come by making Harold collect stars in bite-sized stages. However by the time you're fifteen or twenty stages in you want to simply get things over with and it begins to feel like unnecessary padding.

After getting through Practice, you can enter "Race" mode (the meat of the game). In this, you attempt to, again, help Harold get through the level as efficiently as possible. This time, though, you also have to make sure Harold places third in a race against opponents more fit and smart than our reluctant hero. You do this by affecting his environment (bridges, platforms, obstacles, etc.) and "encouraging" him with bolts of lightning gained by using "Puff Power." You also directly control the timing of Harold's jumps. This is where the gamepad-based controls and animation come into play.

You always feel like you both 1) Never have enough control and 2) Have too much. This seems contradictory, but in practice this feeling dominated my time with the game. Every obstacle and platform, etc. can be used both to help Harold and hinder his opponents. So, despite Harold's sedate pace, you're constantly in a state of information overload unless relying on rote memorization based on constant failure.

You can't point at an object and affect it with a mouse--you have to use the triggers to switch between objects, and the analog stick to conduct whatever changes you will. However, in the midst of the lavish animation, the cues for what object you're affecting can get lost. Even as early as the second stage, that one lapsed second of attention can mean failure and a trip back to the starting line. The animation and focus on beautiful artwork also affect collision accuracy in a number of ways--a case of game design fitting art, rather than the other way around.

My typical thought process during a race:

"Okay, a pit. Need to move it so that dude falls in and Harold gets across. Just swing across the gap and..."
*Death*
"...Shoot. It LOOKED like I'd make that jump. Wait, why am I controlling his jumps and not just the environment?"
*Death*
"Dang, got distracted. Okay, encourage, encourage..."
*Death*
"Man, I was moving too fast and couldn't put down the bridge fast enough. Okay, what if I move slower and take out my opponent before going across myself..."
*Death*
"Wasn't able to move the bridge back correctly in time. Okay, what if I..."
*Death*
"Too fast."
*Death*
"Too slow."
*Death*
"Couldn't see."
*Death*
"Got confused."
*Death*
"Mistimed jump"
*Death*
"Mistimed environmental change."
*Death*
"Wrong."
*Death*
"Wrong again."
*Death*
*Death*
*Death*

You can get used to this over time and enjoy the game, sure. As I said, it's not necessarily bad, and there is significant content here including another mode focused on moving through an entire level perfectly, but without the pressure of opponents to race against. However, in a time where we're left with too many games and too little time to play them, to have to dig and dig for that kernel of fun is disappointing.

*In full disclosure, I received a copy of this game for review.

***Written using a key provided by the Developer for review purposes***

Harold is a very challenging, action-packed, platformer running/racing game which is currently available through Early Access on Steam. You take control of a guardian angel in training and you have to watch over Harold, the underdog of the competition, as he takes part in practices, races and challenges while making sure he stays ahead of the competition. Taking place across 12 stages you must first complete a practice mode where you familiarise yourself with the stage, then you take part in a race against five other competitors each controlled by another angel in training and after the race you can take part in an incredibly difficult challenge mode where you have to run the whole course without dying while collecting stars.

+Absolutely beautiful design, in particular the background scenery
+A very likeable main character (Harold) who is also well designed, as are the other competitors
+Despite only having 12 stages the different game modes, and the difficulty of the game, Harold provides hours of entertainment
+Great story behind the game
+Entertaining cartoon style cutscenes
+Great humour, I laughed out loud a fair few times while playing
+Wonderful voice acting
+Interaction with the level itself is well thought out, fun and at times challenging
+You only need to finish in third place to unlock the next event which makes it great for all players
+Each stage introduces a new mechanic/obstacle
+Great animation
+Great soundtrack
+Very nice special effects

+/-You fail a lot in this game, personally I enjoyed retrying certain sections until I got it just right but some people may find it irritating, it really just depends on how much failing numerous times bothers you

-It doesn't have keyboard and mouse controls so the only way to play is with a controller which seems strange for a PC only game
-The controls for interacting with the environment are quite difficult to get used to in my opinion

Verdict:
9

An outstanding platform racing game with wonderful design and challenging gameplay, I cannot recommend this game enough especially to those who like a challenge.

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El K.

Harold is a challenging, high quality hand-drawn 2D platforming racing game where you play as a guardian angel in learning, trying to graduate from school into a prestige academy, you have to at least win 3rd place in all (I think all) races. The twist is, you mainly control the environment of the race, with only a jump action you can do with the character that's in the race.

The hand drawn graphics are really high quality, and it looks gorgeous along side the animations and the music too. At first glance one could say it's a game that came out of a Disney movie, the 2D classic kind, not the CGI kind.

The story is cheerful one, and the characters are nice and likable, accompanied with great voice acting. And just the whole presentation of the game is almost spotless, with the right fine touches being applied. The music is just damn awesome and 'magical' if one could say, it reminded me the awesome music from Lilo & Stitch.

The gameplay is you racing with having control mainly of the environment rather than the character, where you have to interact with certain parts of the environment, and little character control, which is only jumping and enabling a speed bost, to be able to finish a race.

The game itself is really challenging, even from the beginning, which is why they always have a practice session before every new race in a new level for you to get an idea of how you manage and finish the level. It was also a good thing for me that they didn't make it mandatory that you have to finish first place, and they made it where you have to finish at least at third place.

Along the way you will learn new techniques every now and then regarding a level, that will introduce something new you will have to cope with, in order to finish the level in most cases, or learn how to better use them and finishing the level in the fastest possible way at first place.

There's a decent amount of content for you to go through and finish, with a challenge mode for each level that's even changed up a bit in a different way where you have to finish the race with speed bost on and not failing once, and that mode helps add more replayability.

The bad thing is that it's sometimes it's hard to tell where the character you play as is standing, especially in speed mode, which results in fuzzy knowledge of when to jump. The other problem is on PC, there's no keyboard and mouse support, only controller support, and that's not a good thing. To those who say that it isn't a big deal, sure, but imagine for a moment that a game on console gets released, and it only has keyboard and mouse support, no controller support. Bad right?

The game's presentation is just spot on amazing, with the art, animations, special effects, voice acting, the beginning to the ending, the story, all of which one would think they developers hired a director from Disney movies. That plus the good challenging and different type of gameplay. I went to have another look, and actually the game is inspired by classic Disney animation, with Hollywood animation veterans that have worked on it, so no wonder this game looks great.

Shameless link to original post.

A game that I initially thought would be cheaply made mobile inspired knock-off racing game is actually filled with charm, artistically beautiful, and has a very well tuned difficulty curve and difficulty cap. You'll find yourself making 3rd place (required for progression) with some ease, but trying to get 1st bends your dexterity, awareness, and reaction time to a peak.

Harold is a 2d-sidescrolling runner, in which you have to manipulate obstacles to your advantage.

The video review can be found here: http://youtu.be/dCKExUgesIg

The game is segmented into 4 zones with 3 levels each. It's a little bit lackluster when it comes to variety, in my opinion, but it's not too bad either.
Each level has a practice mode, a race and a challenge mode. Each mode has to be unlocked in that particular order.
In practice mode you play each obstacle combination on its own and the faster you are, the more stars you get.
You have to complete each practice level to unlock race mode and when you get the maximum amount of stars, which is 3 per segment, you get a bonus puff power.

A puff power can be used in a race to get a burst of speed for a short period of time. At the same time the amount of puff powers represents the amount of lives you have.
Puff powers can be regained by collecting two winged halos that are floating around in the level or by interfering with your opponent by manipulating obstacles to their dissatvantage.
After completing a race at third place or better, the challenge mode is unlocked. It is basically like race mode, but without opponents. You are also constantly running at max speed,
you have to collect stars and you are not allowed to die even once. Additionally all side paths are closed, which somewhat makes sense, since you can't really collect all the stars in one run.

One little thing I have to complain about gameplaywise is the fact that you are forced to complete everything at least once in practice mode, in order to unlock race mode.
I get it, each zone has its own hazards and obstacles, but forcing this linearity, especially when you are on the second level in the zone, is not so great in my opinion.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that in the game you have to do lot of flicking and twisting with the analog stick. So if you are not really used to playing with the controller a lot, the game might become difficult relatively fast.

In race mode each level has a secret shortcut that is somewhat required to be found when you want to get a good time. Getting a good time also ranks you higher on the global leaderboard, so there is some competition to be had.

Sound- and artdesignwise the game looks really good. The soundtrack is somewhat unique, and for some reason it reminds me of the Lion King, which was a bit confusing the first time I've heard it.
It might also be due to the fact that I don't hear a gospel choir singing in the background of a game that often.
The general art diretion of the game is inspired by disney movies and to me the game in terms of artdesign is somehow reminiscent of SNES games like Aladdin or Asterix and Obelix.

Conclusions: It has been a great experience so far(about 50% through the game) and there wasn't that much I had to complain about, so I'd recommend it.
However the game is 20€ or your regional equivalent. A little bit pricey, but worth the money, especially when it goes on a sale.

As much as we love it, we can at least admit that Harold isn’t necessarily for everyone. Loris said himself that each person’s tolerance for failure varies quite a bit so it’s difficult to say whether or not everyone can deal with the game's challenges. That said, we don’t especially enjoy indie games focused solely on difficult platforming, but in the case of Harold, we just couldn’t put it down. What is certain is that, for 15 Euro, you’ll never feel robbed by the game or the developers, who are truly committed to pleasing players. Visually stunning, musically brilliant, Gamersyde strongly advise you to jump on this one rather than waiting for the “inevitable Steam sale in a few months”. We can’t wait to see what this ten person team can accomplish in the future and we’ll be eagerly awaiting their next projects whatever they may be. In the meantime, we’re heading back to the races.

Full review here:

http://www.gamersyde.com/news_gamersyde_review_harold-16260_en.html

----

Emballés et dithyrambiques que nous sommes, il faut comprendre qu'un jeu comme Harold ne s'adresse pas à tout le monde. Loris le disait lui-même, le seuil de tolérance à l'échec étant très différent d'une personne à l'autre, difficile de vous promettre que vous garderez un calme olympien en toutes circonstances en jouant au titre de Moon Spider. Ceci étant dit, n'étant pas spécialement des hardcore gamers prêts à passer des heures et des heures sur certains jeux indépendants reconnus pour leur difficulté, nous avons énormément de mal à décrocher de ce jeu de plateforme à l'envers. La marge de progression est impressionnante, la profondeur de jeu beaucoup plus grande qu'il n'y paraît lorsqu'on le regarde en vidéo, et c'est réellement en l'essayant que vous pourrez savoir de quoi il retourne. Ce qui est certain, c'est que pour 15€, vous en aurez pour votre argent si vous accrochez au concept, et que vous ne vous sentirez jamais volé, ni par le jeu, ni les développeurs qui se sont vraiment attachés à nous faire plaisir. Visuellement superbe, musicalement génial, Gamersyde vous conseille fortement de vous y mettre et de ne surtout pas ranger Harold dans la catégorie des "jeux à prendre en soldes sur Steam d'ici quelques mois". Quand on voit ce qu'a réussi à accomplir ce petit studio de 10 personnes, on se prend à rêver de leurs prochains projets, qu'il s'agisse d'une probable suite ou de courses supplémentaires à ce premier épisode. On croise les doigts pour eux donc, et en attendant, on y retourne !

Test complet ici :

French: http://www.gamersyde.com/news_review_harold-16260_fr.html

I just received Harold as a present and I didn't know the game at all.
But I have to say that I am really impressed by the gameplay, the graphics and the music at the same time!
The gameplay is really unique. It's quiet hard but they give you all the tools to succeed! So if you fail a race you wil be angry after you but not the game.
The animation is like a Disney cartoon, have just a look at the waves in the background of the beach level and you will understand what I am talking about.
The music is discret at the begining of the race but get more loud when you increase the speed of Harold. And it's a great idea because you feel like having a crowd encouraging you and it's a great feeling.
You should try it if you like challenges!
Harold is a great indie game!

One of my favorite game! The gameplay is fresh, creative. The 2D graphics is nice, like Rayman. Music is nice, also in in-game sound. Harold is about a school in heaven, where students have their own human racer, and they have to compete to other students with their racers. They use the tablets on heaven to control them! Funny!

Harold has 10 stages taking place in various locations, like the beach or desert, etc.... Each stage has 3 sections: Practice, Race and Challenge. In Practice, you will play some levels to improve your skills (collect 3 stars each level) and then you will race in "Race", with 5 others opponents. After finishing the race, you will be able to play "Challenge", which is collecting as many stars as you can during the racetrack. This is a like a race game so you have to be very quick to make ways for your buddy to run and set traps to another racers.

To sum up. this is a must-buy game!

Harold in its self is a very cute game. The character Harold' adorable, the storyline's silly, and is a very bright game. I've only played the few first levels, but I can see myself playing more in the future. The only complaint I have so far is it is a strictly controller based game, and for a person who uses a keyboard most the time playing games, it is something I have to get used to. Other than that, it's a lovely game, with a very cutesty personality. So worth the $20.

To go along with the review, Footage and First Impressions here: http://youtu.be/mNTmB12cD-4

Summary:
A game that does well in its basic concept of helping a runner win a race while being his guardian angel, but could have been a lot better if there were detailed that were shored up. While the experience was enjoyable, those little frustrations will wear on the player, but not enough to not have fun messing with other racers, and the concept in a whole. Those who like repeating to shave seconds off their time and improving themselves will most likely like Harold. I personally would wait for the game to drop down in price, but it is a game worth playing.

Pros:
-Interesting Gameplay design, and engaging.
-Varied paths in tracks, and interactive items sometimes are good not to use, which makes you question things.
-Background story is actually interesting. Like the idea of being a guardian angle.
-Controls are spot on.
-Smart use of practice mode to help the player in the races.
-Races are challenging yet fun.

Cons:
-No keyboard support: this is only controller gameplay. And no way to rebind (I hate using LB AND RB to hit the bumpers). Definitely shows its console roots.
-Challenge mode just doesn't change enough to make it feel different from the regular race.
-Lack of retry button on practice. This means if you screw up, you HAVE to finish the portion in order to retry, which is really really annoying. Some obstacles just slow you down, and with trying to go for speed, that's really freaking annoying.
-Sometimes, messing with other racers or jumping into a pit seems to be a benefit. While use lose a "puff", the spawn time really makes it so that sometimes it actually helps in terms of time to race. Which is annoying.
-Early on, protagonist is hard to relate to, in fact, he seems like the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in question. On the other hand, they are setting up for a character building moment down the road, so only slight against it.
-No sound sliders. Really annoying in a modern PC release.

For real gamers who like challenge!
You think you are an hardcore gamer, the king of the joystick, so this game is for you! The challenge here makes me remember the games when I was a kid in the 80's! I just finished Harold (all tracks but not all in 1st place and I need 4 more secret passages to discover), and you need to train a lot, remember the level design...like old game! To deserve each of your victory, you need to be a real good player. But when you get it you feel that you're the King of the world! ( untilyou watch the leaderboard and you understand that you can improve much more cause some guys here have 15 second less than your own record! How possible is that! I wanna see a video of that race!) Nevertheless you can finish the game without beeing first at all race, so if you just wanna enjoy the game even if your are not an hardcore gamer, that's possible, you just need to practice the race a bit (thanks for the practice mode -first time that I really need it as much)! The graphics as you can see are awesome (espescially for someone who like anime or cartoon), the music is beautiful and interact with your way of playing (when you get a better rank the choir cheers you up). The game is fun and will make you crazy as well......

Pro
design
fun
a real challenge
durability

really worth it!

Wow, so where do I begin? The Gameplay? The Artstyle? The Animation? THE GLORIOUS MUSIC?

At 14.99, Harold is completely worth it, with hours of entertaning gameplay that is really amazingly accompanied by the game's excellent music which has been composed by the immensely talented Olivier Deriviere. The better you do, the more the music evolves. The Lyrics are really catchy.

The gameplay itself is exciting, and you have to cleverly use flicks and drags to get Harold to the finish line. The animations are absolutely amusing and make the game quite humorous.

The cutscenes are very well animated, and the game overall features a strong narrative about guardian angels in training.

So please check out the game if you are looking for an innovative and cheerful experience, and especially if you are a disney music fan as Olivier has outdone himself with the score. Go to his bandcamp page to get the soundtrack at such a cheap price.

The game is definitely worth it, enjoying it immensely.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=391431464

Gabriel is a bit of a prankster and a jerk, but he’s also the best Angel at Guardian school. Everything comes naturally to Gabriel, so he doesn't even have to study for his tests. He’s basically been gliding his way through school without a single problem. That all changed when he learned that his final exam involves protecting humans in a series of races. As a lesson to Gabriel for being a bit too confident in his training, he is tasked with guarding a rather clumsy human named, Harold. Now Gabriel must help Harold place third in every race or he won’t obtain his scholarship to Archangel Academy.

High Points

Fun Story – Gabe is a brash and confident Angel-in-Training trying to get his wings. Saraphel Malakh has a rich family history to live up to, but she’s not in the same league as the rest of her family. She watches Gabe earning his accolades and gets bitten by the green eyed monster. Needless to say, watching the both of them come to terms with their own failings is worth helping the uncoordinated, Harold.

Great Animation – The cinematics are flash animated but they boast a nice art style and a Saturday morning cartoon aesthetics. The animations during the gameplay are astounding to say the least. It is fun to watch Harold go full sonic the hedgehog, or be wowed by the smooth transition of one of the many boost cinematics during a race. The backgrounds could be a bit more dynamic, but the shifting level scheme more than makes up for it.

Awesome Soundtrack – The music during a race escalates depending on what place Harold is in during the race. Since this game is all about heavenly miracles the music is filled with the gospel sung by a choir. As Harold advances in a race the hymn will begin and start a song about his exploits.

Hard And Fun – Harold is an endless runner with a few tricks up its sleeve. As a god like being you control the environment around Harold and his fellow racers. You’ll move objects so that he can continue at his pace, and strike down lightning with FURIOUS anger to bring out his inner speedster. It’s a challenging process to keep him dashing at optimal speed, and also sabotage his opponents by moving platforms out of their way.

That’s probably the best part of the game, sabotaging the other angel’s racers by trapping them or pulling the rug out from under their feet. Every stage is based on remembering where to jump, or what to move in a certain stage. This gradually makes the platforming more difficult as Harold proceeds through the various races. Like a game of Rock Band - you’ll have a chance to practice areas of the course so that Harold can move through it faster. The game is layered with alternate course routes and constant boosts to keep Harold moving act optimal speed. It’s a ton of fun if you get used to the control scheme.

Average Points

Controller Support Only – It makes sense that the game needs controller support, but only because some of the controls require rotations. I feel like some concessions could have been made for the keyboard crowd. Maybe changing the rotations to simple up and down movements with the keyboard.

Low Points

Convoluted Controls – Since Harold is a game about basically recalling every piece of a level. It’s weird that the controls are all over the place. Instead of a simple structure to dash, the player has to tap the top buttons on the controller. Flick the trigger buttons to change between platform sections, pull back and push forward to break items, or do the same to pull bridges. There is actually more to learn as the stages progress, but that’s a lot to memorize while sabotaging other humans and watching Harold.

Conclusion

Harold is a fun plat-former that clumsily steps on its own shoes with weird controls. If you’re into puzzle platforming you will have a blast directing Harold in and out of danger. Everyone else who isn't into punishingly difficult games based off memory and precision… well you’re just going to be pissed off a lot. If you do ever get used to the controls this can be a fantastic game for practicing speed running. I recommend you wait for a sale on Harold. It features splendid graphics but for a game that requires precision timing, it doesn't have a particularly functional control scheme.

*This title was given to us by the Publisher*

Visual quality on this game is incredibly good... game play is incredibly hard... but that's what makes this better than any other platformer I have played, this one actually makes you work for it instead of making you just go through the motions... awesome game!