If you haven’t played any of BIT.TRIP games previously, you’d think that Runner 3 is a wacky and out of this world platformer game. Commander Video and his pink lady friend counterpart both jump, kick, and slide their way through obstacle filled courses. So on the surface, it looks that way and through a certain pick up in occasional levels, this certainly becomes an aspect of the game. However, Runner3 is a rhythm game, and it should be treated that way. You can’t choose in which direction to run and aside from a pressing ‘L’ or ‘R’ to choose alternate paths while running, so there’s no freedom in movement. The Bit Trip series saw its humble beginnings on the Wii with the Wiiware series. The one that started it all was Bit Trip Runner. Now after several years and a sequel released on all mayor platforms, we have Runner 3, which contains the gameplay elements that made the Runner series stand proud as a unique rhythm runner.
Gameplay wise, Commander Video will take off from the start line in the first level and signposts let you know how to jump and even when. As the stages progress, more moves are added to your arsenal, and it’s not long before you’re sliding underneath blocks or fence posts, kicking obstacles, and even double-jumping to achieve more height or distance. There’s a handy checkpoint in the middle of each level, which helps when button juggling becomes harder. But if you ignore it, you’ll be rewarded. Collecting gold unlocks future levels, which happens to be ultra-hard challenges and allows personalization of the protagonist through new skins, accessories, and other cosmetic features.
Once a level has been cleared a second route opens up for additional playthroughs, which allow for gems to be collected. These act as a secondary currency for rarer items. While Commander Video runs on his own, each action must be timed guided by the soundtrack, which supplants effects into the arrangement as you collect stacks of gold or slide under an obstacle. Once you realize that your button presses are adding something to the track, the game clicks into place. And this is where Runner 3 truly shine. Then once you are into the beat, your jumps, slides, and kicks bring a harmony of sounds that totally makes sense, and each path you take is filled with obstacles and opportunities to aim for the highest score possible. But let me tell you, it can be sometimes frustrating because not all actions give feedback (so to say), so there are times that if you time your jump wrong, you can find yourself starting over again.
This is one of the things that makes me feel that Runner 3 is catering more to expert players instead of casuals. In the previous game, there were checkpoints, but they weren’t to separated from each other as in Runner 3. For example, there was a level in which I was around 60 pieces of gold collected and no checkpoint in sight. While I welcome the challenge and understand what the developer tried to do, I feel that potential new players could feel overwhelmed by the high level of difficulty even on the first levels. It could be fixed with some sort of patch, but the warning is there: Runner 3 is awesome, but it’s not a “Jog” in the park.
There are also retro levels. These add variety to the journey, but are quite clunky compared to the majority of the game. Where the usual levels rely on fluidity of movement and reaction, these retro levels expand the parameters and require you to use precision of placement using a control scheme that often has a little too much leeway, causing more fails than memorable situations. The idea here is to collect five coins spread throughout the levels, which further unlock stages ending in a boss fight. While this may not hinder progression, unless you are a collecting maniac, it does make the boss fights more awkward than need be. The main goal of the game follows a surreal and convoluted story narrated by Charles Martinet (the voice of Mario) and follows a simple blueprint. If you are only interested on beating the game, you can ignore some gold and beat each area to get to the end. This will be a challenge since later levels are tough, but if you are a masochist player (like me) the challenge goes all the way up trying to collect everything.
Bottom Line: Runner 3 brings rhythm runner goodness to the Nintendo Switch, boasting great and colorful visuals, a terrific sound track, and a complete challenge with retro and impossible levels. It has everything a completionist could hope for. While the difficulty level is high, the story and charm of the game gives you a mentality of one more time until you finish it. I definitely recommend it, and it is a must on your Nintendo Switch.