Mr Runner has very strong shades of a classic game called Meat Boy. This was a challenging platformer that was as hard as a diamond bastard with lightning-fast gameplay that could prove very frustrating for the casual gamer.
Like Meat Boy, Mr Runner features deadly lava, tiny platforms, wall jumping and the need for pixel-perfect accuracy.
The differences are what makes this game worth playing in its own right.
The first and most important difference is the addition of momentum. It’s slight, but Mr Runner needs half a second to reach top speed and this makes all the difference when you’re timing your jumps, especially on the later levels. It also gives your jumps a nice feeling of weight.
Get running, Mr Runner!
There are also ice patches, which seem to defy all logic. Take one step on them and suddenly you’ll be skidding along at twice your top speed.
It’s when you’re skidding towards almost certain disaster that your skill of ducking will come in very handy.
Limbo! How low can you go?
There are also gravity pockets – these areas of the level don’t turn gravity off completely, but extend your momentum to allow you to jump higher or fly sideways.
So how does it play?
Well, it starts off easy enough but soon gets incredibly tough. There are some sections where you’ll die over and over again, but the game does sweeten this bitter pill by having checkpoints dotted all over the place.
This was a very wise decision by the game maker as it prevents you from having to start over right from the start but retains the challenge of trying to finish each level in the best possible time. Die too often (sometimes just once will ruin you) and there’s no way you’re getting gold.
It’s all perfect pick up and play fun, except for one mechanic I just couldn’t get used to – wall jumping. It just feels far too slippery and imprecise for me.
There are sections where you have to make your way up past overhanging platforms, where you must leap out then quickly head back onto the wall.
Trickier than it looks.
Hit your head on the overhang and you’ll probably fall to your doom. Quite a few players complained about this, but it isn’t the thing that got me.
I couldn’t get past the bit in the final level where you have to jump up a wall which has three pixels of lava embedded in it. It just felt like luck to me, and I guess my luck ran out here because I couldn’t finish it.
It’s a shame because I’d kinda like to know if there’s an ending…
See if you can finish it and let me know what it is: Mr Runner
Written by: Richard Wilson
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