Random Runners Review

It seems like endless runners are everywhere nowadays, and many of them are the exact same game with a different skin slapped on top of it. Ravenous Games, Inc. has thrown their hat into the ring with Random Runners, which leads us to wonder whether this runner is worth your time, or if you should just run from it?

As with most endless runners, Random Runners pits players against the limits of their own reflexes and endurance. You’ll make your way through each run by jumping over hazards, sliding under obstacles, and gunning down all that would oppose you. You can wall-bounce from wall to wall, which is neat, but not especially responsive. In fact, the controls for Random Runners can be summed up in the exact same way; the virtual buttons are responsive, in theory, but they’re missing that final bit of tuning to make things feel really tight and intuitive. There are times where you’ll fail a jump you swore you should’ve made, or slide under something just a little too late. The game also likes to present you with obstacles that don’t mesh together, leaving you to awkwardly flail around to survive. This feels less like a design/difficulty choice, and more like poor game design.

Random Runners has two delicious flavors for players to choose from, campaign and endless. Campaign mode presents a variety of different, pre-determined levels, complete with a scoring system based on the number of stars you collect during each run. These levels present the basics of Random Runners in the form of a rudimentary story, so players are recommended to check out the campaign to get their feet wet before diving in to the endless mode.

Retro, 16-bit inspired games are almost passé at this point, and Random Runners’ use of a pseudo-Super Nintendo graphics style is unlikely to impress. The sound effects and music do their job, but won’t wow you.

If you’re familiar with the pricing model of most iOS games, you’ll know what to expect from Random Runners’ shop. There are a nice variety of characters to unlock and weapons to wield, but there’s always a catch to them. Throughout the course of the game you’ll acquire gold and the rare gem, both of which can be used to make purchases. Though the early unlocks aren’t prohibitively expensive, later items require a lot of coin, and the game does a not-so-subtle job of steering you towards buying gems to ease the purchasing.

Random Runners isn’t the best endless runner out there, nor is it the worst. This running, gunning title manages to be average in virtually every area, making it neither a good purchase, nor a terrible one.

App Store Link: Random Runners for iPhone & iPad | By Ravenous Games, Inc | Price: $0.99 | Version: 1.0 | 35.6 MB | Rating 9+