Review: Relic Rush (iOS)

Auto-runners can be a deceptive bunch of games can’t they?  I mean, on the face of it you only really have to worry about a single button and everything just seems so trite and simple.  One button, that’s it and yet, despite the obvious simplicity of it all, these games are sodding hard.  Examples of the genre at its apex, such as Ubisoft‘s tremendous Rayman Jungle Run or Hello Games superlative Joe Danger Touch! throw in their own little nuances to augment the experience but even the progenitors of the genre, such as Canabalt still retain their addictive qualities purely on the virtue of the single-button mechanic alone.

Relic Rush is another such title that wholly embraces a similarly minimalist approach to the auto-runner genre and like Canabalt before it, that streamlined approach is felt keenly through its pixel-hugging aesthetics with big ‘n’ blocky, barely defined visuals and 8-bit homage ridden chiptunes.  Its certainly not the most flashy or most varied entry in the auto-runner genre, but Relic Rush is perilously addictive and like any good mobile gaming experience worth its salt; its gameplay morsels are conveniently bite-sized and presents an intelligently designed incremental challenge to keep its pixellated hooks in you.

Genre: Platformer| Developer: Josh Presseisen | Publisher: Forest Moon Games
Platform: iPhone (Reviewed), iPad Players: 1| Rating: ESRB: E (for Everyone)/ PEGI: 3+

Those bastard snowmen are annoying; the trajectories of their snowballs have to be continually planned for.

Set across a number of different themed worlds, the objective is elegant and simple; you have to avoid all the monsters and obstacles in your path to reach the exit door and complete the stage.  The rub is that your character will automatically run until you depress a finger on the screen; freezing him in mid-motion and allowing you to time the avoidance of things that will kill you dead.  Complete a large enough subset of stages within a particular world and you’ll get a chance to grab a relic on that final stage; allowing you to complete an entire world should you succeed in grasping it in your blocky digits.

Every stage has a themed set of creatures for you to die to evade and they’re not just different cosmetically; each one has a unique timed attack pattern which requires pixel-perfect timing on your part to avoid.  By themselves, single enemies can be thwarted fairly easily, but when they’re lined up in different orders or combined with other enemy types on the same level, you find yourself having to adapt your timings on the fly to get past them safely and trundle onward to your goal.

Other elements such as ladders, automatic jump points and increasing number of environment hazards throw in additional considerations that you have to be mindful of and when in conjunction with different enemy types, each small stage can often turn into a rock hard challenge all by itself.  The other wrinkle here is that while you can die as many times as your incompetence allows, a gradually depleting meter at the top of the screen reminds you that only have so long to complete all stages within the world and fetch the relic, before you’re cast back to start with only wounded pride and possibly damaged smartphone to show for your troubles.

Relic Rush is satisfying, unambitious and taxing exercise in pixel-perfect planning and timing; while it doesn’t demand that you learn any funky thumb gymnastics or attempt to wow you with lushly rendered 2D artistic visuals, it remains a steadfastly entertaining prospect that seeks to test the mettle of your planning, timing and reflexes.

Retailing at a wallet-friendly 69p/$0.99, if you’ve long since exhausted the many charms of Rayman and Joe Danger and you’re on the lookout for a new platformer to hurry your commute along, you could certainly do far worse than the modestly unassuming and staunchly challenging Relic Rush.

Disclaimer: A copy of this game for the iPhone 5 was independently acquired by the reviewer.  

[7]

Review: Relic Rush (iOS)