INFINIROOM review
:: TICKET TO RUNPrice: Free
Version: 1.2
App Reviewed on: iPhone SE
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Infinite runners have been a mainstay of mobile gaming for just about as long as the App Store has existed. Although many are legitimately fun, or at least competent, their ubiquity generally makes them pretty hard to get excited about. With a game like INFINIROOM though, the basic tenants of runners get all mixed up in a way that give some fresh legs to a tired genre.
Flip the script
INFINIROOM is an auto-runner, meaning that you control a character who is automatically progressing forward, while you control things like jumping and special abilities to avoid obstacles for as long as possible. The main twist here though is that INFINIROOM takes place in a constantly evolving, rectangular room that your character is running around the outside of. Instead of going for a specific distance, your goal is to last as long as possible without hitting anything.
This makes INFINIROOM's action feel almost more akin to something like Super Hexagon rather than a typical runner. To further mix things up, the start of the game puts you in control of a character named Flip, who has the ability to flip over to the other side of the room. This power unlocks a pretty high skill ceiling to the game, and proving your skill with Flip also grants access to other characters with their own unique powers.
Hero cruiser
If you manage to last 30 seconds playing as Flip in INFINIROOM, you unlock a character named Bullet, who can charge through objects, and completing another unique objective with him grants access to yet another character. This cycle continues up to four separate characters, all of whom have powers that put a unique spin on the basic gameplay and have their own leaderboards to boot.
When you unlock these characters, you also earn Tickets. Tickets are a a currency that you must use to play as any characters besides Flip, the default character. This puts quite a bit of pressure on each run with a new character unless you opt to unlock infinite Tickets for an in-app purchase of $2.99.
Running ad infinitum
Without paying for INFINIROOM, it operates a lot like a typical free-to-play game. It has a limited currency (Tickets) that can be earned by either playing well or watching ads, and other ads appear on screen between runs. This isn't entirely bothersome, but it can get annoying when ads interrupt you starting a new run or you run out of Tickets and don't have a data connection to launch an ad to earn more.
INFINIROOM tries to not be too stingy with its Tickets, but it can be frustrating when you lose out because some of the room randomization puts you in an impossible situation that you can't avoid. That said, if you like the game, shelling out the $3 to avoid all of these issues seems like a no-brainer.
The bottom line
INFINIROOM is a creative take on the runner genre that is absolutely worth checking out. Its hero system makes it so running inside the same box over and over again feels fresh on run after run.