At first glance, Rush Bros. looks and plays a lot like many other great 2D platformers, such as Sonic, Mario or Super Meat Boy. The designs are simple, but fun, stylish and elegant. Our heroes are (theoretically) nimble and acrobatic, able to jump off of walls and perform a slide for a boost in speed. And the shifting environment, changing in time to the music, makes the choice of song actually an important gameplay tactic.
However, thanks to unimaginative key-lock challenges, extremely problematic controls, and challenges that fail to utilize the unique mechanic effectively, much of Rush Bros. is frustrating and feels strangely empty.
Visuals – 7/10
Rush Bros’s vibrant visual style is fun, but unfortunately a bit simplistic. The game’s neon visual cornucopia looks straight out of Tron. Every level is varied and colorful, has bright and distinctive visual cues, and a unique appearance. Not every level takes full advantage of the color wheel, but the wide color palette insures the player can quickly and easily know where to identify where to go.
Audio – 9/10
The soundtrack is one of the game’s strongest features: A mix of electronic, dub-step and techno songs, worth the price of admission on their own, help drive the fast-paced action forward. Players can freely select or change songs mid-level for significant gameplay effects. In addition, there is an option to import your own playlists, a neat but largely unnecessary feature.
Gameplay – 7/10
The concept is the same for every level: two DJs settle their differences by racing through forty-two separate obstacle courses to be crowned the better DJ, the loser being incinerated by a enormous laser. If you’re playing multiplayer, the goal is try to outrun your opponent, using power ups to slow them down. If you’re not playing multi-player, the goal is to beat your previous times and learn how to beat the increasingly complicated stage designs.
Our DJs face many staples of the platforming genre, like deadly spikes, lasers and bottomless pits, and keys (color-coded music notes) or other puzzles to move past barriers to their progress. Some of the more dangerous obstacles in each level react to the beat of the songs, a unique gimmick never really capitalized on in Rush Bros. Every course follows the same basic premise: players are placed in a course and are then forced to quickly learn to circumnavigate the gimmick of each course in order to reach the finish line.
Obstacles in each level respond to the beat of the soundtrack – opening and closing, expanding and retracting in time with the beats. This can actually help in timing your next jump, since you want to match the jumps to the beat. In a fast song, you might be forced to time your leaps more carefully than normal if you want to pass through an opening without running afoul of stray obstacles. A slower selection, meanwhile, may afford you more time to react, but that’s not always going to help, since the overall the goal is to reach the finish line as quickly as possible.
While this dynamic music mechanic is Rush Bros’ best idea, it’s also where the game starts to flounder. Although the notion of levels that change according to the musical accompaniment is clever, if you’re playing well you’ll never see the relatively subtle differences; most courses can be completed in less time than it takes to finish a single song. More importantly, most levels include so few obstacles that move in motion with the beat that the difference is largely meaningless.
Unfortunately, the game’s quality and difficulty are extremely uneven. Something like five really good levels are memorable amidst a host of lackluster counterparts.
Tech – 6/10
Like every other platformer before it Rush Bros. lives and dies by its controls. Unfortunately for Rush Bros, if you judge by just that standard, then it is already a complete failure.
Every level requires prefect movements in order for players to proceed and collision detection holds players to a harsh standard. To help with this, XYLA Entertainment advises players in one of the first information screens you see to use a controller as it provides the best degree of control.
However, I tried using both an Xbox 360 controller attachment and the standard keyboard controls and neither seemed any more responsive than the other. I experienced an at least half-a-second delay from buttons to the character performing the movement, at times rendering the game nigh-unplayable.
Collision detection is hilariously awful in places, while the wall jumping feels sloppy and pedantic. In later levels, attempting to navigate your way through obstacles that require perfect precision is nigh on impossible. What this means is that even if you do love speed-running games, you aren’t necessarily going to enjoy this one.
I suppose other players might be more willing to get used to the finicky controls, but they are definitely an enormous obstacle.
Intangibles – 8/10
Rush Bros. deserves some credit for its fun ideas, a good starting point for a somewhat flawed game. The dynamic music mechanic is a perfect match for the game’s DJ-competition concept, and it really deserves a more polished execution or more formidable set of obstacles to fully realize its merits.
Overall – 7.4/10
Once you look past its main hook, Rush Bros. has nothing to differentiate itself from the rest of its contemporaries. There’s no real story to drive player each level and there’s no impetus, (additional songs, collectables, achievements or a scoreboard), to encourage players to score a good time or replay any of the levels afterward.
Once you played through a level, you’re left with no real incentive beyond the pursuit of a better time. Speed running requires tight and responsive controls; Rush Bros. fails to deliver.
Zachary Trauben is a prematurely curmudgeonly college student attending the University of California, Santa Barbara. When not actively thwarting the world-threatening plans of his unholy sibling, he studies Statistics and insidious pop culture trivia.