Rat On The Run: Stay Away From This Fugitive Rat
Written: Oct 31 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: simple platformer, polished, three different modes, simple controls
Cons: few gameplay dynamics, not much replay value, no online scoreboards
The Bottom Line: A simple game that just doesn't do it for me.
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| kjell1979's Full Review: Rat On The Run for iPhone |
The other weekend Donut Games had a sale of three different titles. Rat On The Run was one of the titles they offered for free. After looking at some of the gameplay videos the game looked pretty polished and fun so I picked it up. I'm glad that it was free because if I had paid money for this title, I probably would have been pretty disappointed.
Gameplay
Rat On The Run is at its core a platformer. Your goal is to pick up all the pieces of cheese without hitting traps or enemies. Enemies and traps include fires, blades, spiders, spikes, or poison blobs among other things. When you eat a piece of cheese your fullness inches closer to 100%. However at all other times that fullness slowly decreases. When you hit a trap or enemy it decreases by a full 50%. Whenever your fullness is below 50% and you hit a trap or enemy you lose a life or the game is over. It's a pretty basic premise and the levels are setup in such a way that there's a puzzle game feel to the way the game is presented.
Arcade mode is the most basic of modes. You play through 8 different stages where you must collect all the pieces of cheese as fast as you can without dying. You have a certain amount of lives where if you run out, the game ends. At the end of the 8th stage, your score is calculated and placed on the high score list. The arcade mode can be really difficult to complete let alone beat your high score. When I first started playing I could barely get through half the stages before I ran out of lives. For the seasoned gamer, this mode should provide a decent challenge to get through.
Challenge mode has probably the most content in it. Challenge mode allows you to play through one of a few dozen levels where your goal is to pick up all the pieces of cheese as fast as you can. Your score is based on your speed as well as your ability to avoid traps and enemies. There are three different score plateaus to reach for a given stage. The first one is simply what you get for getting all the pieces of cheese without your rat dying. The second and third tiers reward speed and accuracy above all else. In fact the third score tier can be so hard in some levels that I can't imagine how you could play a level more precisely to reach that score.
One of my most favorite minigames is Rat on a Scooter. The object is simple: your rat is driving a scooter and you must prevent him from falling into the abyss. Random platforms of varying sizes start appearing and your score is based on your ability to pick up cheese doodles sitting in the middle of the platform. All you have to worry about is jumping and hitting the different platforms while trying to pick up the cheese doodles. If you hit the edge of the platform your scooter slides along the edge and you have to recover by jumping yet again. The longer you touch the screen the higher the jump. After 5 to 10 seconds your scooter speeds up a little bit and the platforms space out just a little more. Part of the challenge to this mode is not only hitting jumps perfectly to pick up the cheese doodles, but also your ability to recognize speed ups so you don't under jump the next platform. This is one of the hardest parts of this minigame. Despite the simplistic dynamics, I found this minigame to be really fun and one of the modes I end up playing most often.
Overall the gameplay is that of a simple platformer. But with that simplicity there is the perception that you aren't in control. Often I find myself having a lot of difficulty timing when to start my rat's movement again in order to avoid traps because I cannot change direction. Part of the charm of Mario or Sonic is your ability to fully control your character and its movements. In Rat On The Run, it's almost like Lemmings with a single character to watch out for. In this sense Rat On The Run just doesn't do it for me in the gameplay department.
Controls
The controls in Rat On The Run focus on simplicity. You touch the screen to make your rat jump. When he starts out or reaches a stop sign you can touch one of the two halves of the screen to indicate which direction you want the rat to go. The simplistic nature of the controls serves to illustrate not only just how basic the game is to learn but also just how shallow the gameplay is. The controls despite being basic are also responsive. So while this game does have issues with the gameplay, the controls are implemented well.
Graphics
The graphics in Rat On The Run are very polished and clearly one of the best aspects of the game. The rat takes on a very cartoonish form and the graphics are presented in an arcade type manner. The bright color palette really is striking and the arcade and puzzle modes no not suffer from any slowdown whatsoever. The only graphical glitch is the game can get choppy during the Rat on a Scooter minigame. This is especially true when the scooter speeds up a tad. But overall this is a minor graphical glitch in a very polished game.
Sound
Like the graphics, the sounds are very polished as well. The rat squeaks when it hits a trap or enemy and even the scooter makes a soft putting sound as it motors along in the Rat on a Scooter minigame. The sound effects merge well into the arcade nature of the game and are not shrill like some other arcade games.
The music is also really well done. There are a few different themes that play during the game. It's kind of an upbeat contemporary theme which I find really catchy. Sure one of the themes does kind of get annoying after a while, but the music is very original and polished like the sound effects.
Replay Value
There isn't much replay value in Rat On The Run. The three different modes does mix things up a little bit and the desire to beat your best score is another good incentive to play more. The problem is that there's no online leaderboards, and more importantly there's not enough dynamic gameplay characteristics in the game which define the experience. Simply having the ability to occasionally jump and change your direction at a stop sign just seems rather hollow in the end. While the Rat on a Scooter minigame does add some randomness to the game, it still has quite a bit of shallow gameplay.
Overall like other Donut Games titles, Rat On The Run is a polished game with shallow gameplay and limited replay value. Still, this game is tough to recommend because while the premise is simple, this game is pretty hard. You really have to time your moves and jumps precisely or else your rat will run into some sort of trap. So the simple premise will be a plus for casual gamers, but those same casual gamers will probably be turned off by how hard it is. The difficulty on the other hand is great for more seasoned gamers, but the lack of gameplay dynamics will leave them feeling as if they're not quite in control. Just about the only thing going for the game is the polished graphics and sound. There will be a few people who will buy the game because the rat is wearing a cute little helmet when he's riding the scooter. To everyone else, this is a pretty solid stay-away game. If you think it might interest you, the 99 cent price tag is enticing. For all others, you might want to give it a flyer only if it's available for free.
Recommended:
No
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kjell1979
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