Running Wild HD Review

Apparently this little creature named Marv loves to run. He also likes to endlessly blurt out not so witty one-liners, but for all his faults he is still a likable little chap. The point of Running Wild is, of course, to run wild until Marv hits the goal at the end of each level. There are all sorts of orange colored obstacles (dinosaurs, rockets, spiked balls, moving blocks) that need to be tapped at or slid away to keep Marv free from harm, and if enough stars are collected then more levels are unlocked. It is all pretty standard procedure for a game of the type, but Running Wild HD manages to shine in a few areas and falter in others.

I liked the vector based graphics and the background themes for the various stages. The music and sound effects were mostly forgettable, but Marv has some very repetitive banter that's almost cringe worthy at times. I tried to chuckle, but the attempted humor just wasn't to my tastes. The gameplay in Running Wild is decent, and the difficulty curve seemed fair. I also liked how new objects were slowly introduced as I unlocked new levels, but I did have some trouble with the collision detection on a few stages. I would move a block out of Marv's way, but he would still manage to die even though he didn't actually touch the object. This only happened a couple of times, but after experiencing it, I found myself over compensating every move. The level design was pretty intuitive and creative on most stages, but the replayability is limited by the lack of a scoring system. After mastering a level by collecting all of its stars there's no reason to go back to it.

Running Wild HD is entertaining enough to warrant a play through, but it doesn't offer much of an incentive to return to it after beating the initial 50 stages. The game offers up a nice casual experience, and it does have a fair amount of content for the asking price. It is a pity that the humor was lackluster, but I'm sure a few players will enjoy Marv's clever quips. For now, Running Wild HD is just a casual runner, but with a few solid updates it could manage to compete with the big dogs of the genre.

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