Video Game / Raindrop: The Battle Of Connecting Hallway

Show me your brave, tabby cat!

Raindrop: The Battle of Connecting Hallway by Shuhei Miyazawa is a late 2020 freeware PC game where the player must repeatedly run across the screen while avoiding an increasingly heavier rain. Bouncing stars and nonstop runs raise a score multiplier, and there's a few hidden rules to figure out. The ultimate goal is to clear five laps after the rain's speed maxes out.

The game is available on Itch.io.

A commercial sequel/remake titled Raindrop Sprinters: The Battle of Connecting Hallway was released for Nintendo Switch on August 3, 2023 in Japan and September 7, 2023 internationally, and for Windows PC via Steam on December 20, 2023^note Or December 19, depending on region. It adds three gameplay modes on top of the original one, such as one that lets players place hazards on the corridor for bonus points.

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Show me your tropes, tabby cat!

• Achievement System: Seven badges can be unlocked by performing certain tasks, and they enable certain perks. Getting all of them nets a Star Fever bonus that turns all the stars red.
• All There in the Manual: The protagonist is seen in-game as a disembodied paw, with his full appearance only showing up in the remake version when you run a lap. Official art on the game's Twitter account fully depicts the cat and names him "Taisho".
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • You can wait by the start door for as long as you need, even if it wastes scoring opportunities. You also won't lose the Nonstop Goal bonus if you then hesitate before crossing the line next to the door.
  • You don't need to get the Nonstop Goal bonus four times in a row to earn the first badge.
  • The second badge will still be unlocked even if the fifth star on the screen has barely formed right after you've already cleared a lap.
  • There's a counter by the exit door that illustrates how many stars can be on the screen at once, so you know when the two associated badges can be earned.
• Arrange Mode: In Sprinters, there are alternate modes unlocked by accumulating points over all your play sessions:
  • Customize mode allows you to apply modifiers to make the game easier or harder. Mods that make the game easier reduce your goal bonus, while mods that make the game harder increase the bonus.
    "Show me your skill, tabby cat!"
  • Onrun mode changes the game into a Timed Mission and additionally gives you points for using your power. The timer begins at 15 seconds, you gain 1.5 seconds for reaching the goal, and 2 seconds for reaching the goal without stopping or turning back towards the start. Stars are replaced with 'E' icons that refill your energy meter.
    "Show me your power, tabby cat!"
  • Maverick mode makes you collect the raindrops for points instead of dodging them. The mode lasts a fixed 30 seconds and while collecting raindrops is the main objective, doing so will also cause the player's body temperature to decrease, resulting in a premature Game Over if the gauge empties out; the player can raise their temperature back up by entering the goal or collecting heart items.
    "I love getting soaked..."^note Previously: "There's nothing more exciting than being pelted by the rain!"
  • All four modes have some additional options that can be accessed by pressing left or right on the menu:
    • Standard, Customize, and Onrun normally end after you complete five laps at the maximum level of 29, but there is also Endless mode for each of these modes, in which the level cap is raised to 59 and the game only ends when you are hit by a raindrop.
    • The same three modes also have Cats & Dogs mode, which immediately start you at maximum level so you only need to reach the goal five times to win. However, your scores will not be recorded.
    • Maverick has Thunder mode, which introduces the thundercloud from Customize. It will occasionally fire orbs of lightning; if you are hit by one, you are stunned and have to press left and right rapidly to recover. Fortunately, doing this also recovers your body temperature and power meter.
• Bullet Hell: What the gameplay eventually turns into. The fourth badge requires the player to wander around the rain at Level 20+ for over 5 seconds. The sixth one requires outright grazing some raindrops for more than 30 frames. Then on the Final Laps, the game spawns a set number of red stars for each one and dares the player to collect them all for more points instead of simply crossing the screen.
• Cap: The limit of the ESP Gauge can be broken once upon collecting the fourth badge which normally recovers a third of it.
• Cats Hate Water:
  • So much that if the cat is struck by a single raindrop, Game Over!
  • Averted by the cat that stars in the Maverick variant in Sprinters, who enjoys being pelted by rain, even if it can still be harmful to them.
• Cheat Code: By holding Up on the title screen, the speed will instantly be set to 29.
• Critical Existence Failure: In Maverick mode, the cat is perfectly fine as long as they have at least one pixel of body temperature gauge left. Once that's gone, they get knocked out.
• Cute Kitten: You play as a tabby cat with a childlike fascination for stars, although in-game they're represented only by a paw icon. The promotional artwork and one of the screen borders in Sprinters does show the cat in full, though.
• Death Throws: In Sprinters, the Cat will bounce off the screen if it is hit by the rain.
• Difficulty by Acceleration: The rain grows denser with time until reaching speed level 29. At this point the challenge is running 5 more laps to end the game.
• Difficulty Levels: Customize Mode in Sprinters lets you play with gimmicks. Things like setting a wide tent in the middle of the corridor or shrinking your hitbox lower your bonus points, while making the cat bounce as it runs or adding obstacles to the field raise them instead.
• End-Game Results Screen: Sprinters adds a Complete Bonus for clearing the game, depending on the number of goals crossed and how many stars and pink stars were collected.
• Endless Game: By default, the Standard, Customize, and Onrush modes are finished after you complete five laps at the maximum level, however they can also have Endless variants that going indefinitely until you get hit, which also raises the maximum level from 29 to 59.
• Gratuitous English: "Show me your brave(ry), tabby cat!" opens the game's normal mode. The "brave" part is changed to "bravely" and "courage" in Sprinters depending of the version. The alternate modes get different messages instead.
• Guide Dang It!: Downplayed; the badge requirements originally weren't explained in-game but are also nothing that players can't figure out with intuition. A manual was later released to help players out, and Sprinters spells out each required task on the sides of the screen.
• Have a Nice Death: If hit by a raindrop, the tabby cat yells "It's cooooooooold!" while flashing blue.
• Japanese Ranguage: The greeting at the start of the game reads "Show me your bravely, tabby cat!", clearly intended to read "bravery". Averted in the international localizations, which replace the word entirely with "courage".
• Luck-Based Mission: The raindrops fall at random and as such are very difficult to avoid later in a run. The Star Fever bonus is only earned at level 29, so even if there's now a bunch of red stars on the field, you won't be able to reliably collect them.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Both the original and the sequel have the same "Battle of Connecting Hallway" subtitle. Then you play either of them and see the "battle" is just a cat running across a rainy corridor.
• No Ending: Maverick mode in Sprinters is the only non-endless variant of the game where there is no "win" state and thus a proper ending. Whether the clock hits 30 seconds or the body temperature gauge reaches zero, the game will end in the cat screaming that it's too cold.
• No Plot? No Problem!: The game has no story at all.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Touch a single raindrop and back to square zero you go. Averted in Maverick mode in Sprinters, where you have a body temperature meter that drops slowly as you collect raindrops, due to the game mode being based around collecting them in rapid succession for big points; naturally, letting the temperature gauge empty out ends the game prematurely. Collecting a heart will restore a little bit of temperature, while entering the goal refills it completely (at the expense of breaking any bonus-point chain you had).
• Player Character: The protagonist is a white cat represented in-game as a disembodied paw.
• Retraux: Raindrop is designed after old-school single screen arcade games.
• Score Multiplier: Clearing a lap without stopping gives 1.5 times more points. Yellow and red stars also raise the multiplier.
• Scoring Points: Which are recorded on a table along with the badges earned for the run and the number of laps cleared at speed level 29. Clearing all five last laps gives a special mark on the score.
• Thrill Seeker: In the Maverick Arrange Mode of Sprinters, the cat is excited to be pelted by raindrops, even if they are still hazardous to their health. Sadly it doesn't end well for them, because whether the 30-second timer runs out or their body temperature drops too low, they scream that it's too cold and the game ends.
• Time Master: The tabby cat can slow down time by spending meter, and running a lap will recover a bit of energy for it.
• Timed Mission: In Sprinters:
  • Onrush mode starts with a 15-second timer. Reaching the goal awards an extra 1.5 seconds, and reaching the goal with a nonstop run awards an extra 2 seconds instead.
  • Maverick mode lasts a fixed 30 seconds.
• A Winner Is You: Upon finishing the game the weather clears up, allowing the player to run around as they please until quitting to the high score screen. Their score will have a "!" mark as proof of clearing the game.
  The weather is clearing up now!
  You are outstanding!

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"It's cooooooooold!"
Game Over

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