Years ago, me and several friends made it practically a daily thing to hang out and play games on the couch or across multiple consoles in a LAN. It was a blast, and I have fond memories of those times. Similar to how there’s no experience quite like going to a real arcade, you simply can’t reproduce the laughter and good times of local play. Problem is, for many of us that’s really hard to setup anymore what with the ‘gang’ having full time jobs and personal lives, not to mention living in different cities. But, that doesn’t mean getting together is impossible and something you shouldn’t strive for. Having now spent some time with 13AM’s Runbow, I could see this being a title that we might add to our rotation next time.
In the interim, I have spent most of my time with Runbow in single player, and while it’s clearly designed to be a multiplayer party game, there is still a significant amount of content for single player gaming, although it’s more about quantity than quality. The game as a whole offers several modes and support for up to nine players, which is kinda crazy if you’re ever able to pull that off locally. I have managed to get some three player games going with my limited number of interested people and controllers, but due to its accessible controls and concepts, Runbow is the type of game that’s easy to pick up, not really hard to master, and has a lot to do with luck and the actions of those you’re playing with. You can also take the action directly online, with the typical caveats (perhaps amplified a bit by Nintendo’s own online shortcomings) to contend with, including waiting to find enough players to start up a game, rage quitters, possible connection issues, etc.
That aside, the core experience of Runbow is 2D platforming, and by default, or in the main Run mode, your objective is to simply be the first character to reach the end of the level. Enemies can slow you down, but not outright kill you, although seeing as how this is a race, any slowdown is a potential game-ending event anyway. One of Runbow’s primary design elements is that the background color changes, and any platform that is the same color as the background suddenly disappears. These background changes can occur rapidly and on short notice, making for some hilarious, and indeed potentially frustrating events. Other modes include King of the Hill in which you’re trying to stake and hold your claim to a part of the screen, The Arena in which basic melee attacks are used to go on the offense against other players, and ColourMaster which makes the player using the Wii U Gamepad control things like bomb drops and when the background color changes.
While the single player offerings provide some 140 stages to go through, often with their own various objectives to work towards along the way, I think it’s obvious that this isn’t likely to be compelling for long. It helps justify the purchase and it does add value, absolutely, but anyone looking to pick up Runbow should be prepared to take this online or have some friends over. Played this way, it can be as frantic and laugh-inducing as a good Smash Bros fest or Towerfall. For Wii U owners, it’s a much-needed and welcomed spark to the library.
To the summary…
To the summary…