The world of indies is something scary, but at the same time fascinating. It can be a bed of raw potential that developers of great passion and questionable skills reshape, giving tangible shape to their imagination between a crowdfunding campaign here and a graphics engine license there. Unfortunately, it can turn out to be a dark night full of the terrors of incomplete and deceptive products up to real scams. RunGunJumpGun ranks happily in the first category, but like many other products it is not easy to classify it: the three developers of ThirtyThree Games have brought to the PC a genre, that of the 2D horizontal scrolling platformers, which in recent times has depopulated on mobile. This is certainly not an unprecedented wager, as evidenced by the exquisite Ori and the Blind Forest that last year took home a Game of the Year Award; as the product of Moon Studios, it can be said that too RunGunJumpGun you bet on a high difficulty, but it would be an offense to the developers of ThirtyThree Games: RunGunJumpGun is much more like a Jetpack Joyride under LSD and with the aim of ruining the player's eyesight!
When the Sun has something to say
The game's storyline isn't particularly original, but it has that pinch of mystery that can make it interesting. The levels of RunGunJumpGun are set in a galactic system that is collapsing on itself: Apparently, local war lords have recently taken the longest step and the Sun, which appears to be a sentient entity here, has decided to put them back in line. How? By wiping out all life in the system and burning the surface of the planets for good measure. This and much more is explained to us level by level and area by area thanks to the name of the same, but above all by the numerous characters who will follow the adventures of our protagonist: from alien jackal reporters to warlords in love with the Sun up to ironic Artificial Intelligences. , our protagonist will be chased and taunted by an entire cast of personalities that are somewhat reminiscent of Undertale.
So who is the protagonist, and what is his purpose? It will be largely up to us, the player, to answer these questions. RunGunJumpGun offers us several interpretations: Could we be a jackal, ready to raid the remains of dying worlds, as many often accuse us? Are we astronauts in pursuit of a hope of salvation in a last ditch attempt to abandon the collapsing star system? Or are we heroes who have embarked on a suicide mission in order to collect a votive offering to the Sun, as the short animated strip on the game's official website seems to suggest?
Addictive masochism
RunGunJumpGun is a fast paced, fast paced game, aware of it, and makes this aspect its greatest strength (and frustration). The commands are really tight to the minimum and revolve around the weapon that we will drag behind us from the beginning of the game: pressing left Shift, or Shift if you prefer, we will shoot downwards and we will move vertically; pressing the right, the weapon will fire in front of us, destroying obstacles and opponents without distinction. Quite simple in theory, but already from the tutorial levels the player will notice how this does not translate on a practical level: the screen scrolls wildly and the number of obstacles placed between us and the end of the level will require a good familiarity with the controllers right awayi, as well as increasing skill as you progress through the game. Here, however, a sore point is touched: the keyboard does not have the same sensitivity as a touch screen and this often leads to inaccuracy in the input or tiny delays in changing the direction of focus. In a game where the levels last a few seconds and the difference between life and death is only a few pixels, however, this is a not negligible flaw. On the other hand, tackling the density of obstacles that the game throws at us on a smartphone screen would add another level of difficulty to a game that already has no qualms about punishing its players even hundreds of times before. overcome particularly difficult levels.
The obstacles will increase in number and variety, arranged in often repetitive combinations but just as often renewed by the inclusion of one or more new elements. These increase and yes vary the quality of the challenge, ma what will keep you anchored to the screen until a nervous breakdown - or saints on the calendar - it's how the developers will constantly tease your ego and sense of challenge. Each of the 120 levels of RunGunJumpGun, by extension and by the speed with which we cross them, they are designed in theory to be overcome in a matter of seconds each: there are no checkpoints, except in the tutorial levels, but above all there is no restart button! With each inevitable death, our pixelated character will turn into a beam of light and will be catapulted at the beginning of the level, departing from the blocks to face another round in the slaughterhouse. Sure, it is possible to skip each level in the pause menu, but even if the game encouraged this behavior - and it doesn't - which player would shy away from a seemingly "short" challenge when his failures are waved under his nose?
Completeness is only a pixel away
The challenge offered by RunGunJumpGun is stratified with the inclusion of the Atomiks, fluorescent energy balls and game currency. Each level offers a variable number, but the collection is not necessary to complete the levels themselves: what the Atomiks are indispensable for is progressing to the next stages of the game. The 120 levels of RunGunJumpGun are in fact divided into three different stages: the first is already unlocked and we are already there at the beginning of the tutorial, while the next two will require a large number of Atomiks to be unlocked. Put like this and combined with the obvious difficulty of the game, collecting the energy balls might seem like a burden or overkill; playing, on the other hand, even a novice player should be able to reach the necessary quota once he has collected just over half of the Atomiks present in the stage in which he is.
The disposition of the Atomiks is however, on a more careful analysis, fundamental in the growth of the player, especially during the first internship. Many of these first levels in fact offer the player two or more obvious "paths" to reach the other end of the screen: one of these will often require only a minimum of effort on our part, but will lead us away from the coveted Atomiks if not for a number. minimum left at the beginning of almost every level to wet our lips. The rest are often found in addition to crossfire mazes and rotating blades, but the more we progress, the more we will find ourselves throwing ourselves and dying repeatedly in these killzones, even just to get an extra Atomik. This behavior, encouraged by the game, will lead even the most inexperienced player to develop that familiarity that will be necessary in the most advanced stages of the title, when this multiplicity of paths will diminish and the margin of error will be reduced to a minimum. Those who are looking for 100% therefore prepare for a hellish experience and very long trial & error sessions: sometimes the missing Atomik will really be a single pixel away from having to restart the level and obtaining it will require a maniacal study of timing and of the optimal path, as well as perfect control.
A pixelated world of psychedelic music
As for the art department, RunGunJumpGun it doesn't shine but it certainly offers a very appropriate background and outline for the proposed gaming experience. The graphics, as already mentioned, are deliberately pixelated and minimalistic, with very bright colors that highlight the multiple elements on the screen. Often, however, these elements are really too luminescent, and combined with the high speed at which the game moves can turn out to be a tough and unpleasant frill that undermines the overall good quality of the product. The developers immediately warn us of this complication, intentional or not, in an initial screen that warns epileptic subjects, but the visual load can be such, even for players without health complications, as to make it necessary to move away from the computer at short intervals. to rest your eyes. The soundtrack is pleasant and unobtrusive, but it follows the hectic nature of the game with pieces of short duration and which tend to repeat themselves after a short time: all in all a good accompaniment to the gameplay, with unique songs from area to area in order to reflect the different mood that each of the areas brings with it.
Summing up, RunGunJumpGun is a very respectable title and able to carve out its own niche on a platform that does not expressly favor this type of games, unlike mobile devices. The minimalist gameplay makes it easily accessible, despite not exactly perfect controls and the difficulty curve is designed in such a way as not to discourage even those novice players of the genre, but at the same time it offers a respectable challenge even for the most veterans. The story is mostly a pleasant side element, as is often the case with these games, but at the same time it will often make you laugh or smile. For those looking for a game that does not require a large investment of time but offers a really tough challenge at an affordable price, RunGunJumpGun is the game for you.
