SpeedRunners : Run ! Jump! Explode !

SpeedRunners is a game all about running as the name implies . Its a fast paced 2D runner/platformer/racer with high octane music . As the description on Steam will have you know ” In a city filled with superheroes, getting to crimes becomes a competition on its own. Fortunately there are enough rockets, bombs, grappling hooks, spikes, and other goodies lying around — to make the competition fun and fast. Welcome to SpeedRunners. ” It has been developed by DoubleDutch Games and published by tinyBuild( Also the publishers for Party Hard ) . 

The game  starts the player off with the eponymous SpeedRunner who is then challenged to races around the city by various characters.  As the player wins more and more races they unlock new levels and new playable characters .

The game pits the player against 3 other AI controlled or actual players if one is playing multi player . The 4 racers then race around the map in a high octane chase . Use traps to slow down your opponents , use boosts to speed up , use the grapple hook to latch onto ceilings and avoid traps . Some of the traps that the player can use is a grappling hook to pull their opponents back , freeze ray that freezes the opponent temporarily and even remote controlled bombs and rockets.  The aim of every race is to put your opponents outside of the screen , literally . The camera zooms in on you when you are running . And if no other players are in sight and you are ahead then you win but if you fall behind then you lose . Also when there are only two players left in the race the screen slowly starts closing in creating another challenge.  So its basically an elimination race . But all this is easier said than done . The game is VERY fast paced and the player is bound to have trouble at first unless they are very used to platformers and games like these . I for one had trouble in the tutorial level itself . The game does have a tutorial mode to show the controls to the player but that’s pretty much it . The game is of the kind where intense practice is required to play well at higher difficulty levels.

The game has four difficulty levels : Easy,Normal,Medium and Hard .  All the levels have to be individually unlocked on each difficulty level that is  levels unlocked on Easy are not unlocked on Normal automatically and so on.   The Story mode consists of chapters . In each chapter a new superhero challenges the player . There area set of preliminary races where the player must race against the hero and 2 other characters. After winning those races there is a 1v1 face off against the hero.  When that is won the hero is unlocked as a playable character and also a short comic is unlocked showing the backstory and motivations of the hero you just beat.

Apart from the Story mode there is the Practice mode where you can choose any level , any difficulty , any opponent and just run . There is also the Solo Run mode where the player races against there own ghost in a time lap race . Then there is Online Multi-Player , the reason most people will buy this game . It is recommended to be of a moderately high level to get matches faster.   There are Quick Matches where you can just play casually with a bunch of people . There are also Ranked matches for players who feel competitive. Also the game has Local Multi-Player too.  SpeedRunners also has a Level Editor and with Steam Workshop support you can download hundreds of player created maps or just create your own . This ensures a huge amount of replay-ability.

The graphics of the game are pretty well done. The colors are bright and the textures are clean . Frame-rate is smooth too .   Also worthy of mention is the soundtrack which is just awesome . It puts you in  the right mood for the game .

[review_bank review_id=13]