I've been playing Runner 2 (Future Legend of Rhythm Alien) for the past few days and have been enjoying it a great deal. A hybrid of an auto runner platformer and a rhythm game, each jump, duck and item collected adds a tone to the music playing during the level, which builds as they progress. Controls are snappy which is good because some levels require extreme precision.
Levels often have alternate paths which can lead to unlockables and alternate exits to bonus levels on the world maps. Many levels feature keys which are not revealed - and thus collectable - until a Key Vault level is beaten late in the current overworld map, which adds replayability to levels, encouraging you to go back and explore those locked away alternate paths.
The gameplay is challenging but not brutal, with the hardest paths left optional and a mid level checkpoint offering some forgiveness. I find myself replaying sections a dozen times or more without getting frustrated, just slowly learning the beats of the obstacles. For perfectionists there are a lot of ways to add to your score over the course of a level, from collecting every pile of gold, playing on harder difficulties, nailing a bonus "perfect plus" shot at the end, to squeezing in extra dance moves between actions. A long list of achievements, unlockables and additional goals round out the package.
The art has a pleasant surrealism to it and overall it maintains a whimsical feeling that adds to the lack of frustration. Playing it is a really soothing yet focused experience.
However.
The game makes a few mistakes along the way. There's an object introduced that you have to kick to break down, and they have one of the parts of the object fly away directly "out" of the screen, taking up a sizable amount of screen space for a few moments. There are many places in some levels where these bits cover up obstacles you need to dodge at exactly the wrong time, and I found myself crashing into as a result. Not a huge issue, but it added a number of trial and error moments to some levels.
The third level is themed with one color - I think brown? - which was unfortunate as it sucked all the joy out of the absurdest artwork. One of the loading screen messages mocks games that are all brown as well, so it was a particularly unfortunate direciton for that world.
And then comes the 4th over world, where I am at. I've hit a wall, so to speak, The Mounting Sadds. The designers opted for a monochromatic orange filter to the levels, and that's made it extremely hard for me to distinguish and even see obstacles. After a few levels, I've found I can't make any progress. Just now I spent a fair amount of time and can't even get to the first checkpoint, as I keep hitting objects I literally can't see until after I collide with them.
I don't know if this is a common problem or something exacerbated by my red/green colorblindness, but it's put a hard stop to what had been my largely unimpeded progress through the game. I fear I may not be able to make any more progress. And to be clear, it's not because the game is hard - I've been sailing through levels and taking mostly the most challenging paths. I just can't see through the color filter bit.trip applied to the levels.
I might be able to brute force it after a while, but the last two play sessions have been really wearying. I'll be pretty bummed if this is where my time with the game ends, but I don't see much of an alternative.