➤ Yellow is beautiful 🎮

The Free Game of the Week is the appointment of Resources4Gaming.com which, every Saturday, puts in the spotlight a downloadable iPhone app at no cost. Not necessarily new titles or leading labels but rather, simply, products that deserve to be taken into consideration. All the more so if you don't have to shell out even a penny.

Let's face it: the real protagonist of "Despicable Me" is not Gru, but the small and very nice Minions, creatures who live to serve their master by carrying out the most varied tasks.

The incipit of Despicable Me: Minion Rush is the assignment of the prestigious "Minion of the Year" award, which is definitely tempting to the character we will play in our games. The little yellow man gives himself momentum, jumps on a trampoline, hangs on to his companions as if he were part of a close-knit group of trapeze artists and then off, he runs in an endless context that is divided between two different scenarios: that of the underground , in this case the infinite metal tunnels of Gru's base, and the surface one, where you move around avoiding cars and buses. By resorting to this particular videogame genre, which is popular on mobile devices (see the well-known Temple Run) and adopting the equally well-known freemium model, Gameloft has in short performed an infallible operation on paper, but which in fact did not start in no way benefited. The reason is obvious: the running game trend has now said it all and the risk of running into a deja vu was very high. To overcome this drawback, the French house has played its cards to the best, first of all taking a cue from one of the best endless runners in circulation, namely Subway Surfers, and therefore using different mechanics than the Imangi Studios blockbuster, thanks to the three well-defined "lanes" and a control system that uses the touch screen almost exclusively.

A racing Minion

The password for Despicable Me: Minion Rush was therefore only one: innovate. Or at least try to do so, within the limits allowed by a heavily inflated trend, as we have said. The developers have therefore opted in the first place for a reasoned gameplay, with the speed that does not increase in a few seconds but rather gives us the possibility to go far,

face the boss fights (yes, there are those too and it is an absolute novelty for the endless runner genre) and change the scenario again. The world of the subsoil and the surface world are therefore placed as two sides of the same coin, but the action is much more varied thanks to this alternation, although in our opinion the dynamics that characterize the surface are more captivating. In fact, our Minion will be able to run on the street, avoid cars, jump on the roof of buses, slide under strong jets of water and even enter houses, jump out of the window and descend a slide back to the asphalt. In some situations, see precisely the slide or the special bonuses of the rocket and the "maxi Minion", the control system switches to the accelerometer and therefore our task becomes to tilt the device to collect as many bananas as possible (the game currency, at least the virtual one, which allows you to enhance bonuses and unlock items). Again with regard to the variations on the theme, in some moments the view passes from the traditional third person to a lateral overview. This is also new, but we found it too "accessory" and even annoying compared to touch controls. We then come to the element that stands out most of all: the technical sector. Despicable Me: Minion Rush is in fact, without a doubt, the best endless runner around as far as graphics are concerned, which is really rich in elements and has style to spare. The character we control moves in a world full of objects and things to see, very colorful and with many surprises. The downside is represented by a frame rate that often shows the side to some uncertainty, at least on the test device, but we are sure that with some updates we will be able to work on the fluidity of the experience.

Comment

Version tested: iOS (1.0.0) Terminal used: iPhone 4S Price: Free Link App Store Link Google Play Resources4Gaming.com

8.3

Readers (10)

7.3

Your vote

Gameloft's work on Despicable Me: Minion Rush is flawless. The French house found itself having to face an inflated genre such as that of the endless runners, but was able to draw inspiration from the right models (Subway Surfers) and tried to introduce as many innovations as possible with respect to the trend, such as the two parallel scenarios, the boss fights and the variations also on the theme of controls. The experience turns out to be quite easy, obviously calibrated for a very young user, but nevertheless very enjoyable and fun, especially for a game every now and then. Finally, the technical sector is really excellent: the amount of stuff that moves on the screen is incredible, the scenarios are literally alive and the occasional slowdowns do not affect the extraordinary result obtained.