3-D WorldRunner

"Excuse me, what the hell is this?"

Ok, let me start of by saying this has to be one of personal favorite games ever. From the seizure inducing color flashes to the anti-Mario hints. Now you may be asking yourself, ''how could anybody like something like that?'' Well, I'm here to tell you why.

Gameplay Alrighty, the gameplay. The game plays very similar to the game it ripped off so nicely - Space Harrier (heck, you even get to fight a dragon as a level boss). This means B button jumps, the A button shoots a projectile at your enemies (the dreaded blue sphere and the evil toaster type-appliance!). The start button pauses the game (who saw that coming?) and unlike Space Harrier, the select button starts 'fun' mode. This is where it gets scary. With 3-D glasses, the mode looks pretty good. Without, it becomes a visual brain-freeze of colors and flashing patterns. I could swear I had a few seizures playing with that mode. Anyway, the gameplay is good. Not great, not horrible, just great. And like Space Harrier, you are constantly moving forward. And as you are running, you may see green tubes of some sort just waiting to be ran into. And as you do, you receive items. The items are as follows: potion/beaker thing - makes you change colors and invincible for one hot by an enemy. Rocket - let's you shoot out those projectiles I was talking about earlier. Mushroom - the anti-Mario aspect.... it kills you. That's right, forget everything you learned from Mario, this game has new rules. The next few items cannot be obtained through running into things, rather they are found scattered around the crevasse ridden land you like to run about in: Heart - gives you one (1) extra life. Star - I'm not quite sure what these do. If you collect a lot of them I'm sure there's an extra life involved, but for the most part, they are for points. Balloons - get this thing and it will take you to some other messed up place where you are able to get a bunch of stars. I'll give it an 8/10.

Story I bought this game used as a cart only. As far as I know, there is no story. Truth be told, I can't see it having a very logical story... N/A

Graphics Yay! For it's time I'm guessing it was pretty good. Nowadays with real 3d games, the makeshift 3d mode looks kinda... crappy. But that's the fun part. I happen to like the graphics. The enemies are cheaply constructed of what looks to be recycled pixels. The main character appears to play a flute made of his own digits at the end of each level in masterful 8-bit glory. Graphics... 8/10

Sound The sound is awesome to say the least. The silly BGM. It's great! Allow me to explain it. The background sounds are like that of a 3 year old banging 2 controllers together. The lead beat sounds like something a homeless street musician with a keyboard would make. Pure gold! To sum it up, typical NES music. Some people like it (I sure do) while others despise it. In my opinion, this game deserves a 9/10 for music. What else could I say? I live for the midi ear candy.

Replayability Sadly, I think this is where the game lacks. If you are able to master your way through all of the levels, I really don't see a reason to put yourself through that again. Unless of course, you enjoy seeing frog/sheep/rabbit/dragon hybrid bosses now and then like I do. So I am forced to give this a 2/10.

Buy it? Rent it? With the fact renting the game from a store is impossible, I would say buy it. I mean don't pay more than $10 for it, but get it if you find it. A friend and I laughed for approximately 3 hours after booting this thing up. Then again, we find things funny that only people lacking a brain/good taste would find funny.

Overall score 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/12/02, Updated 08/12/02