RunGunJumpGun

The title says just about everything: the player's character runs automatically, two buttons with which to play, one to jump, one to shoot. RunGunJumpGun is a frenetic game; the levels are short, the automatic horizontal scrolling goes fast, one dies (very) often but it does not matter, the recurrence is done quickly, history of not cutting the rhythm of the game. The levels are well "designed" (understanding difficult and vicious, of the kind to put an element to atrapper to 2 pixels of a deadly spike), provided that they are not allergic to die & retry and know how to be self-sacrificing. Without spoiler, the gameplay ideas are renewed enough to want to go to the end of the 120 (+ hidden) levels. The pixel-art graphics are simple and functional, somewhat any, but this defect is ratrated by the soundtrack, surprisingly quiet in comparison to the frenzy of the game but sticky yet perfectly well to the experience, as well as by the few lines of texts between each level, used wisely to allow the player to blow, while introducing a certain atmosphere to the title (and an embryo of history not unruly). A good game, in the immediate genre, without endless dialogues or cutscenes, perfect for those looking for the challenge, with an arcade feeling. It does not revolutionate anything, the influences assumed are perhaps too visible (Super meat boy and VVVVVVVVV in the lead), which does not prevent to spend some good hours on it, and to want to come back as long as the 100% is not picked up...

How to introduce RunGunJumpGun... you take flappy bird, you Flash the screen, you add the difficulty of the last levels of Super meat boy, and BAM, no chocapics, but a little indie game that is only played with 2 buttons and that will still make you scream. The gameplay is simple, you are in a spacesuit and you are constantly advancing with a big cannon. With a button you pull underneath you, and the recoil makes you jump/fly, with the other button you pull in front of you to unpack the stuff that you want evil. You have only one Cannon, so you have to choose at any moment between pulling underneath you to keep you in the air (and avoid rows of peaks, in General) and shoot in front of you to clear the path. All the satisfaction of the game comes from a very good level design that pulls the maximum of this simplistic gameplay through 3 campaigns of 40 levels. We are quickly thrown into the bath, and if the presence of flags "checkpoints" in the first few levels suggests that things will be well, their sudden disappearance (never to return) will confirm that you are going to shit. Adding new gameplay mechanics regularly, the game goes from difficult but tentable in the first campaign, to absolutely vile in the last campaign, with levels that guarantee you many deaths. At the technical level, not much to add, it's 8-bit with maybe a very slight resemblance with hotline Miami in psychedelic colors, the perso responds to the hair of the butt which is well the minimum given what you are asked to do with , sprinkle with a handful of challenges and achievements, and fill the levels of collectibles to be recovered (with a level "ULTRA" perfectly foul for each campaign once all the atomiks recovered), and you get a game completed by 0.7% of its player-base, which is itself not very large (~ 4000 players, the game has never been set in bundle) short a game to recommend only to those who like to die and the difficulty in a die & retry retro, which will be recommended for its level design carefully worked, which still provides much greater satisfaction than equivalents such as cloudberry Kingdom that abuse the procedural generation.