Grilly the Cheese Review

Grilly The Cheese is a cute infinite runner that has a retro appeal. The main character is an adorable grilled cheese sandwich who travels through an obstacle-filled world to collect fortunes and coins. It sounds silly on the surface, but it is actually quite challenging to master.

The pixel artwork and old school style makes this game really appealing. It’s a standard endless runner game on the surface; with power-ups, coins, and missions to complete. At the start of the game, players must tap to jump once or double-tap to jump twice. As players jump, they will collect coins and power-ups all while avoiding obstacles like squirrels, bird baths, turtles, and rocks. There are also enemies to defeat like an evil apple tree and a dangerous storm cloud. Accidentally hit an obstacle and Grilly goes tumbling to his death.

At the end of the game, players must tap on one of the fortune cookies that they collected to earn the prize inside. They then can spend their coins on costume accessories such as top hats and clown hair to dress up Grilly. Furthermore, there are power-ups like cannons, coin magnets, and extra lives to help them climb the Game Center leaderboards and complete over 40 missions.

There are two power-ups in the game for those who need help along the way: a bubble and umbrella. With the bubble, players can tap and hold to fly through a level all while avoiding flocks of birds. The umbrella helps gamers keep enemies away and it guides Grilly down to the ground safely.

Grilly the Cheese is fun for all ages, but it doesn’t exactly bring anything revolutionary to the endless runner category. I found it to be quite frustrating at times because the obstacles often blend in too much with the background, so Grilly would go tumbling after a few hundred meters. Furthermore, there are too many obstacles that instantly kill Grilly. It would be nice to be able to jump off some objects like rocks and picnic tables. Lastly, the game requires some serious skills to earn enough coins for power-ups, which is why there are in-app purchases for additional coins for those who do get frustrated.

The charming art style and upbeat retro music make this game appealing to all types of gamers. The controls are easy to learn,  there are plenty of missions to complete, and the randomized adventure helps keep the gameplay from going stale quickly. Thanks to its addicting elements and retro appeal, it’s definitely worth adding to one's endless runner collection. Hopefully a few future tweaks will make Grilly the Cheese even better.