Grade: A
Tap your feet to some catchy tunes while running, dancing, sliding, leaping like a pro.
In perfect time to catchy music, CommanderVideo, our perspicacious parkouring protagonist, runs, jumps, kicks, and slides their way through thickets of obstacles. Runner 3 is a unique world chock full of puns, alliterations, and goofball charming animations. Each scene is set and narrated by the epic Charles Martinet (voice of Mario), who sells the wacky appeal of this universe that Choice Provisions studio has created.
The 3rd installment of the Runner game is a worthy addition to the BIT.TRIP series, and there’s quite a lot to do. Beyond the basic rhythm runner game, you can collect gems to give swag to your character, perfect your runs for the achievements, reveal special retro levels, and unlock a whole cast of characters and animated shorts.
Integration of music into gameplay
At the core of the game, the camera follows along as the hero runs through the level. As you run, your actions (slam, kick, slide, jump) need to be timed in perfect harmony with the music. The beat in the music gives you clues about how to get through the level. I found myself counting out the beat and sub-divisions and finding the right rhythm combo that would get me through the most complicated parts.
For each run, you can collect gold bars as you go whenever you nab a gold bar, a part of a melody pings out amidst the catchy tunes. The ping that rings out as you nab the gold bars makes it feel like you’re playing music on an instrument.
Also, as you progress through a run, you catch boom boxes that are scattered. Each boom box adds a track to the music mix. For example, the beginning of a level might start with just a little bass and guitar, but by the end, after collecting 5 boom boxes, you hear a cacophony of tracks mixed. The mix swells to a crescendo that ends in a toe-tapping, head-bobbing, absolutely slapping dance beat at the end.
My favorite track is the one that plays while jumping through the gear and cog Machinland.
Over the top characters
Runner 3 did all of this with ridiculous animation stylings. The evil guys included Sausage Santa, which is a robot Santa who fires sausages at you. To defeat him, you need to grind up the sausages into meatballs and fire them back at robot Santa.
Topping Sausage Santa was the Reverse Mermech, who had a fish head and a mech bottom and belched water out the front and oil out the back as an attack. You have to time your jumps perfectly to slam onto the creature’s head.
Thoughtful Design
The ongoing level design had engaging visuals, including vantage point changes. Sometimes you were behind the action, sometimes you were beside, and sometimes in front. This gave each run constant visual interest and excitement.
Particularly, my favorite scenery was in Machineland, where you’re running through a factory, and the world is being constructed and changing as you run through it.
Lastly, the difficulty ramp for the game was pretty perfect. The casual gamer succeeds with practice, while a more hardcore gamer had plenty of extra challenges to work towards. In the dev-insights blog, the designers had a purposeful approach and strategy to the overall feel, which was impressive.
There’s a lot I like about Runner 3 game, and it surpassed any expectations I had going in. I hadn’t heard of the BIT.TRIP series before playing this latest installment. I’m glad I was able to connect with this callback to a famous piece of gaming lore. Runner 3 was one of the best surprises of the bundle thus far.
BONUS! Click the spoiler tag for a look at the in-game advertisements.
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