Quick Critique: Runbow (Patreon)

We finish off the Nintendo Humble Bundle reviews on a low note!

Quick Critique: Runbow

Runbow is fundamentally not fun from the ground up. The sole nice thing I can say about is that the villain has a really neat look. That's kind of all she has because there's no story, but hey, she has cool hair. Runbow is set up like a fast-paced platformer, but there's a delay from when you push a button to when you act, you don't hit the ground smoothly when landing (there's a short stutter that throws you off), and the screen doesn't even scroll smoothly. You have to double tap the attack button to dash so there's a baked-in delay on the move and you don't jump high enough, forcing you to constantly do these rising attacks and dashes to get extra height or distance but they both execute poorly and aren't fun. Levels have no checkpoints and there's a loading screen every time you die. A game like this NEEDS to have Super Meat Boy style loading where you die and you're instantly back in the game for another round. It also insults you on the loading screens. No, game, I didn't die because I suck, I died because the screen bugged and stopped scrolling so I was playing blind. There's always a tedious section in side-scrollers where you're waiting for platforms to align or move up and down so you can get across. That is what Runbow is. It's an entire game made up of those moments. Even the music is incredibly annoying and there's only one song per world. Buuut, they sell new music DLC for real money, which is a level of insidious IAPs that I've yet to see even the lowest of free to play mobile games reach.

You can only play 2 of the 6 modes in single player and if all you want to do is take the most efficient route, you can blow through the adventure mode in a single sitting if you wanted to do that to yourself. The other mode is some new stages played in a row but you can't save your progress so it's not really worth playing. If you paid more than the Humble Bundle price and don't have a group of friends that will come over any time you want to play the game, it's kind of a rip-off. Even if you do have friends willing to be subjected this to, it's still not fun, but that seems like the only way to get enjoyment out of Runbow. Misery loves company.