Villordsutch reviews RunGunJumpGun on the PC…
It’s been a long time since I’ve truthfully swore at a computer game, and I’m talking really cursed the pixelated screen to damnation swearing here. Yes, I perhaps let slip the occasional rude word here and there at other games but I don’t think a game like RunGunJumpGun has made me really vent anger at my own failing reflexes – that and the game of course.
Don’t get me wrong, RunGunJumpGun in truth is at no way a bad game – far from it, but I’ll get to that further down the line, – but this new “simple to pick up, but difficult to master” twitch platformer from ThirtyThree & Gambitious Digital Entertainment is so amazingly unforgiving as you constantly meet your fate over and over again that if this was any normal game you’d put the controller or keyboard into the wall and pack up. Here though the developers have eradicated your option to “Click ‘X’ to Respawn”, meaning they just throw you back to the start of the level (or last checkpoint) and you secretly love this masochistic challenge they’ve set before you.
Currently only available on Steam for both PC and Mac, the story goes like this: The galactic civilisation has collapsed and you’re the only true hero/survivor within this mess of a post-apocalyptic solar system, who can walk in with just your wits and a rather large gun to steer you through a constantly moving maze of death. Searching for Atomiks through whatever screaming Hell you find yourself in, the only chance for survival is to get out alive as death is no escape.
RunGunJumpGun is insanely frantic! It even comes with a warning at the beginning of the game cautioning those with issues around flashing images and it really isn’t kidding as after dealing with three worlds spanning 120 levels of pure, unrelentless action you better have set aside some calm down time! The look of the game sings back to a love of the Megadrive/Genesis era – along with other 16-Bit gaming classics – mixed with a wash of Sci-Fi adoration, though you’ve now got to imagine this whole thing wired up to a crate of Red Bull and you’ll be getting close to the speed of it all.
The controls, as said above, are simple to pick up as the Left Bumper (or shift) is fire down to give you lift, while the Right Bumper (or shift) is to Fire forwards, using the gun as a gun; it’s not that difficult. The level design however shows you that a sadist has been at work in the background, as grabbing the final Atomik you will find on occasion you’ll be sitting pixels from a spinning blade, with spikes above and below, along with barrels blocking the path, plus spinning blades of death shooting from numerous gaps in the roof and the floor…as your world rapidly moves to the right…whilst under fire from plasma cannons! You can of course skip a level if it gets to difficult, but do you want to admit defeat?
There are a couple of extremely minor negatives that personally I’d like to see introduced to the game, these don’t hugely impact RunGunJumpGun (if it all) but to break up the flow it would have been great to see the odd “Power Up” – perhaps an Atomiks Magnet or three-second invincibility. Also on the subject of Atomiks, although these are mainly used to taunt the completionists in the gaming world, it would be rather splendid to see these perhaps introduced as pointless decorative currency somewhere down the line, instead of just unlocking the next world.
Here we have an excellent, intense, frantic, bad-language inducing game from Canada that you need to add to your Steam library. RunGunJumpGun is truly a game that will have you apologising to members of your family for the colourful language you’ll be screaming, but at the same time you really won’t care as you’ve just made it past “Labsynth” and that level was utterly rock solid!
Pros
- Amazingly simple to learn
- Unbelievably addictive
- Truly bargain price for such and fantastic game!
Cons
- No room for mistakes – ever!
- A touch of mid-level variety would have been nice
Rating: 8/10
RunGunJumpGun is available now on Steam (for both PC and Mac) and if you purchase it before the 7th September you get a 15% discount.
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Originally published September 1, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
