Runner3 on the Switch
Previous days' entries can be read HERE
If you've been paying attention to the number at the start of these posts you may have noticed that occasionally it doesn't change when it should, and sometimes it even goes in the wrong direction.
This is because I'm an idiot and I can't stop buying games. One arrived yesterday, there's one in the post to me as we speak and last week I couldn't resist this at 90% off in the eShop sale.
Back when the Wii was a 'current gen' machine I spent more time than I should have defending it online. These were the days when self-proclaimed ‘hard core gamers’ were in mortal fear that their butch and manly hobby would be over-run by old people or worse, girls! The Wii was the front line of this war, Nintendo was the enemy and everything released on it's underpowered machine was deemed 'for casuals'.
It was into this environment that a lot of excellent games were released and, not given the press or the exposure they deserved, promptly disappeared without a trace. This was especially true of games on the WiiWare service, The console’s online shop, which was so badly designed it felt like the games were actively being hidden from the potential consumer.
One notable exception was the Bit Trip. series; six challenging, lo-fi games with a very rhythm based chip-tune vibe at their core. The whole series was collated as ‘Bit Trip. Complete’ on the Wii and later as ‘Bit Trip. Saga’ on the 3DS.
Bit Trip. Runner was the Beyonce to the other games... err... the rest of Destiny’s Child.. I want to say Hayley? Was there a Carol? Anyway, Runner was the break-out success and by 2013 a sequel was released digitally for the other 7th generation consoles and Steam. It ditched the original’s voxels for an art style somewhere between Ren and Stimpy and Saul Bass. It added boss battles and mid level checkpoints as a concession to the original’s occasionally extreme level of difficulty.
It was a further success, enough so that in mid 2018, 8 years after it started as a hidden gem of WiiWare, Bit.Trip Runner became a trilogy with the launch of Runner3 for Switch and PC.
As soon as the intro plays for part 3 you can tell they've doubled-down on the ‘wacky’. Gone are the clean voxels, there's no more mid-century styling, and in there place is a gaudy design ethos best described as ‘Rick and Morty’ by way of ‘Clayfighters’ - all rendered oh-so-obviously in Unity.
The script, too, has been turned up to 11 on the we're-so-crazy dial. Charles Martinet returns as narrator but the Mighty Mouse overtones of Runner 2 are replaced by various nonsensical babblings - there was always a surreal edge to the Runner series’ goings on, but by this third game it's front and centre with nowhere to hide.
I would have less of an issue if this was a simple change in graphical style. But unfortunately the over-the-top-ness of it all bleeds into the meat of the game in more profound ways.
‘Bit.Trip Runner’ and ‘Bit.Trip Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien’ (to give them both their full titles) were, in essence, rhythm action games. Your character (principly ‘Commander Video’) auto runs from left to right leaving the player to select the correct input to navigate obstacles in their path. You can slide under certain obstacles, jump over others, some must be kicked, and others deflected away. Each action is accompanied by a sound effect that layers into each game's music perfectly. The level of challenge was extremely high and timing and dexterity key.
In Runner3, however, rather than add content or difficulty through developing or evolving this kind of carefully honed gameplay, the developers have chosen to frustrate the player by devising countless ways to obscure their view of the action.
There are changes in camera angle, ultra close-ups, fog effects, dark areas, and giant creatures passing by in the foreground. There are technical issues two - not something that I'm ever overly concerned with, but the Runner series is built on precision, and when you're clipping through the environment, or sound cues are missing, it affects the players ability to perform - and that makes a genuine difference to the quality of the experience.
In Runner and Runner2, you knew every mistake was your own fault, the curses uttered as you blasted back to the start of a level were done so through a broad smile. In Runner3 this is no longer true. Even though each level now has multiple checkpoints, it's far too often the case that you are thrown back to them because of some horrible design choice or technical glitch.
I'm as aware as the next aging gamer of the perils of nostalgia, so, having played 6 or 7 levels of Runner3 I grabbed my 3DS and loaded up the original to see if I was being overly harsh.
The music hits you right out of the gate even without earphones - the incredible layered electro chip-tunes, each building upon themselves with the players in game actions, are absolutely breathtaking. I then fired up Runner2 on Steam, just to be sure, and although it is clearly closer in looks to part three than it is to it's forebear, there can be no doubt that in terms of gameplay it's almost as crisp and focused as the Original.
Somewhere along an almost decade long path Commander Video lost his way. It would be easy to peg my feelings as disappointment but it’s more complex than that.
Were you ever a fan of a band before they became famous? Maybe you loved a book series long before the TV show or Movie came out that propelled those beloved characters into the mainstream?
Do you remember how almost every fibre of your being told you to be happy for the success, that it was well earned and should be enjoyed - but if you were honest with yourself it was a feeling of being let down that most resonated, of disappointment, resentment, even treachery.
As a 40-something hipster, I don't experience these feelings as strongly as I once did, but there's the nucleus of them in what I've taken away from Runner3. In a nutshell, I guess I feel like this franchise has sold out, that what made it so special in 2010 has been completely eradicated in 2020. So yeah; disappointment, resentment, treachery…
If you've been paying attention to the number at the start of these posts you may have noticed that occasionally it doesn't change when it should, and sometimes it even goes in the wrong direction.
This is because I'm an idiot and I can't stop buying games. One arrived yesterday, there's one in the post to me as we speak and last week I couldn't resist this at 90% off in the eShop sale.
Back when the Wii was a 'current gen' machine I spent more time than I should have defending it online. These were the days when self-proclaimed ‘hard core gamers’ were in mortal fear that their butch and manly hobby would be over-run by old people or worse, girls! The Wii was the front line of this war, Nintendo was the enemy and everything released on it's underpowered machine was deemed 'for casuals'.
It was into this environment that a lot of excellent games were released and, not given the press or the exposure they deserved, promptly disappeared without a trace. This was especially true of games on the WiiWare service, The console’s online shop, which was so badly designed it felt like the games were actively being hidden from the potential consumer.
One notable exception was the Bit Trip. series; six challenging, lo-fi games with a very rhythm based chip-tune vibe at their core. The whole series was collated as ‘Bit Trip. Complete’ on the Wii and later as ‘Bit Trip. Saga’ on the 3DS.
Bit Trip. Runner was the Beyonce to the other games... err... the rest of Destiny’s Child.. I want to say Hayley? Was there a Carol? Anyway, Runner was the break-out success and by 2013 a sequel was released digitally for the other 7th generation consoles and Steam. It ditched the original’s voxels for an art style somewhere between Ren and Stimpy and Saul Bass. It added boss battles and mid level checkpoints as a concession to the original’s occasionally extreme level of difficulty.
It was a further success, enough so that in mid 2018, 8 years after it started as a hidden gem of WiiWare, Bit.Trip Runner became a trilogy with the launch of Runner3 for Switch and PC.
As soon as the intro plays for part 3 you can tell they've doubled-down on the ‘wacky’. Gone are the clean voxels, there's no more mid-century styling, and in there place is a gaudy design ethos best described as ‘Rick and Morty’ by way of ‘Clayfighters’ - all rendered oh-so-obviously in Unity.
The script, too, has been turned up to 11 on the we're-so-crazy dial. Charles Martinet returns as narrator but the Mighty Mouse overtones of Runner 2 are replaced by various nonsensical babblings - there was always a surreal edge to the Runner series’ goings on, but by this third game it's front and centre with nowhere to hide.
I would have less of an issue if this was a simple change in graphical style. But unfortunately the over-the-top-ness of it all bleeds into the meat of the game in more profound ways.
‘Bit.Trip Runner’ and ‘Bit.Trip Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien’ (to give them both their full titles) were, in essence, rhythm action games. Your character (principly ‘Commander Video’) auto runs from left to right leaving the player to select the correct input to navigate obstacles in their path. You can slide under certain obstacles, jump over others, some must be kicked, and others deflected away. Each action is accompanied by a sound effect that layers into each game's music perfectly. The level of challenge was extremely high and timing and dexterity key.
In Runner3, however, rather than add content or difficulty through developing or evolving this kind of carefully honed gameplay, the developers have chosen to frustrate the player by devising countless ways to obscure their view of the action.
There are changes in camera angle, ultra close-ups, fog effects, dark areas, and giant creatures passing by in the foreground. There are technical issues two - not something that I'm ever overly concerned with, but the Runner series is built on precision, and when you're clipping through the environment, or sound cues are missing, it affects the players ability to perform - and that makes a genuine difference to the quality of the experience.
In Runner and Runner2, you knew every mistake was your own fault, the curses uttered as you blasted back to the start of a level were done so through a broad smile. In Runner3 this is no longer true. Even though each level now has multiple checkpoints, it's far too often the case that you are thrown back to them because of some horrible design choice or technical glitch.
I'm as aware as the next aging gamer of the perils of nostalgia, so, having played 6 or 7 levels of Runner3 I grabbed my 3DS and loaded up the original to see if I was being overly harsh.
The music hits you right out of the gate even without earphones - the incredible layered electro chip-tunes, each building upon themselves with the players in game actions, are absolutely breathtaking. I then fired up Runner2 on Steam, just to be sure, and although it is clearly closer in looks to part three than it is to it's forebear, there can be no doubt that in terms of gameplay it's almost as crisp and focused as the Original.
Somewhere along an almost decade long path Commander Video lost his way. It would be easy to peg my feelings as disappointment but it’s more complex than that.
Were you ever a fan of a band before they became famous? Maybe you loved a book series long before the TV show or Movie came out that propelled those beloved characters into the mainstream?
Do you remember how almost every fibre of your being told you to be happy for the success, that it was well earned and should be enjoyed - but if you were honest with yourself it was a feeling of being let down that most resonated, of disappointment, resentment, even treachery.
As a 40-something hipster, I don't experience these feelings as strongly as I once did, but there's the nucleus of them in what I've taken away from Runner3. In a nutshell, I guess I feel like this franchise has sold out, that what made it so special in 2010 has been completely eradicated in 2020. So yeah; disappointment, resentment, treachery…
Runner3 - I liked you before you were famous
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