The Running Man (and Woman)
Iridium Runners is a racing game where you don't actually drive anything, and that's only the start of the surprises.
Published: March 16, 2008
By all indicators, Iridium Runners should be one of those games that people mention with a kind of snide disdain, a bargain bin game that seeks neither to elevate nor redefine a genre and is meted out with the barest minimum of effort and competence. Thing is, though, that it's actually a decent game. No, it's not a great game, but it's a hell of a lot better than the $15 or so asking price ought to warrant, and in many ways it does what few bargain bin games can ever hope to accomplish: it hints at what could be an honest-to-god franchise.
I know, I know, one look at the screenshots will make you think I'm crazy. The visuals, while sporting effects like faked bloom and some decent track designs, don't really make one think of a big budget racing game. Indeed, Iridium Runners is not WipEout (though it does try a little to ape a bit of the futuristic setting, even going as far as to concoct fake ads for companies during the loading screens and whipping up the hilarious story of mankind falling into ruin without the benefit of organized sporting events), but as downright garish a concept as stripping out the karts from a glorified kart racer might sound, the execution isn't nearly as bad as you'd think.
I realize I'm using a lot of "it's not that bad, really!" qualifiers here, but that's probably because the first five minutes or so of the game seem laughably puerile; you've got a bunch of spandex-clad muscle men and buxom femmes all running (I know, with feet!) around a smattering of futurescapes while jumping over chasms and collecting the titular element that gives them speed boosts.
Ah, but here's the wrinkle that keeps the game somewhat interesting right from the start (not to mention aids a slowly building case of carpal-tunnel): to kick off those speed boosts, you have to mash the X Button, and it's not as simple as just hammering the button all the time; you have to build up reserves of iridium first above the normal operating levels, and then you can use it only until you're back to normal energy levels (these deplete too while you run by holding the X button, though obviously slower than the speed boosts). It creates an almost-constant need for fresh iridium -- particularly when trying to sprint to catch up with people after getting hit with weapons.
Said weapons aren't much to speak of, really; missiles, a shrink ray, shields... they're fairly standard stuff, and arguably the weak link the chain that pulls Iridium Runners out of the mire of usual bargain-priced pap. Luckily, it's almost possible to play the game entirely without caring about weapons (at least not the ones that you fire to hit people, though that Mario Kart-cloned shrink ray works just fine), especially if you resort to good ol' fashioned shoulder-slams (executed with the L2/R2 buttons to dash left/right). Not only are the hits great for slowing the other guys down, if timed right, they can kill enough momentum to keep someone from clearing a pit (normally done by tapping R1 at the right time).
This is one of the key parts of Iridium Runners' real draw: multiplayer. No real different than the single-player game, the simple addition of being able to talk trash with up to three other co-workers (or friends, if you prefer) and your basic kart racing mechanics makes the game quite a bit more fun with other people -- enough that we actually started considering the $15 cost of the game along with the usual alcohol that comes with an office game night into the equation for something outside of the office. There are single-player options, which revolve around picking up coins scattered around the track and other such nonsense, but they honestly aren't that interesting.
Nor is the rest of the presentation, really. Sure, the menus are clean and the visuals stream along at a decent clip, but the textures are nothing to write home about and the lighting as a whole isn't terribly pleasing. I will say that Italian developer Playstos did a hell of a job in designing futuristic, neon-lit courses that feature everything from criss-crossing ships to trips down into the bowels of a futuristic city without resorting to the dreaded overuse of colored lighting. In fact, despite not being terribly captivating, the art direction as a whole is commendably subdued to the point where I actually dug it a lot more than I thought I would -- particularly in the later levels in the game.
The audio, on the other hand, was a little less ambitious. Equally non-offensive, relegated to simple electronica loops (which made use of plenty of canned sequences, I might add), and the barest minimum of weapons and character effects, but again, no part of the audio actually ruffled my feathers, it just sort of sat there in the background, supporting the equally decent visuals without either doing anything other than convey their intended purposes. Yeah, it sounds a little lame, but again, it's surprisingly refreshing.
Iridium Runners is sort of the equivalent of a feel good movie. No, none of the characters are all that engrossing, there's not a whole lot to make you appreciate what went into the production, and yet... it just all works. Call it not biting of more than the developers could chew, but they made the most of what they had, and the result is an oddly pleasant little multiplayer-focused budget title that has little in the way of pretenses yet offers quite a bit of potential should they pull the trigger down the road.
I know, I know, one look at the screenshots will make you think I'm crazy. The visuals, while sporting effects like faked bloom and some decent track designs, don't really make one think of a big budget racing game. Indeed, Iridium Runners is not WipEout (though it does try a little to ape a bit of the futuristic setting, even going as far as to concoct fake ads for companies during the loading screens and whipping up the hilarious story of mankind falling into ruin without the benefit of organized sporting events), but as downright garish a concept as stripping out the karts from a glorified kart racer might sound, the execution isn't nearly as bad as you'd think.
I realize I'm using a lot of "it's not that bad, really!" qualifiers here, but that's probably because the first five minutes or so of the game seem laughably puerile; you've got a bunch of spandex-clad muscle men and buxom femmes all running (I know, with feet!) around a smattering of futurescapes while jumping over chasms and collecting the titular element that gives them speed boosts.
Ah, but here's the wrinkle that keeps the game somewhat interesting right from the start (not to mention aids a slowly building case of carpal-tunnel): to kick off those speed boosts, you have to mash the X Button, and it's not as simple as just hammering the button all the time; you have to build up reserves of iridium first above the normal operating levels, and then you can use it only until you're back to normal energy levels (these deplete too while you run by holding the X button, though obviously slower than the speed boosts). It creates an almost-constant need for fresh iridium -- particularly when trying to sprint to catch up with people after getting hit with weapons.
Said weapons aren't much to speak of, really; missiles, a shrink ray, shields... they're fairly standard stuff, and arguably the weak link the chain that pulls Iridium Runners out of the mire of usual bargain-priced pap. Luckily, it's almost possible to play the game entirely without caring about weapons (at least not the ones that you fire to hit people, though that Mario Kart-cloned shrink ray works just fine), especially if you resort to good ol' fashioned shoulder-slams (executed with the L2/R2 buttons to dash left/right). Not only are the hits great for slowing the other guys down, if timed right, they can kill enough momentum to keep someone from clearing a pit (normally done by tapping R1 at the right time).
This is one of the key parts of Iridium Runners' real draw: multiplayer. No real different than the single-player game, the simple addition of being able to talk trash with up to three other co-workers (or friends, if you prefer) and your basic kart racing mechanics makes the game quite a bit more fun with other people -- enough that we actually started considering the $15 cost of the game along with the usual alcohol that comes with an office game night into the equation for something outside of the office. There are single-player options, which revolve around picking up coins scattered around the track and other such nonsense, but they honestly aren't that interesting.
Nor is the rest of the presentation, really. Sure, the menus are clean and the visuals stream along at a decent clip, but the textures are nothing to write home about and the lighting as a whole isn't terribly pleasing. I will say that Italian developer Playstos did a hell of a job in designing futuristic, neon-lit courses that feature everything from criss-crossing ships to trips down into the bowels of a futuristic city without resorting to the dreaded overuse of colored lighting. In fact, despite not being terribly captivating, the art direction as a whole is commendably subdued to the point where I actually dug it a lot more than I thought I would -- particularly in the later levels in the game.
The audio, on the other hand, was a little less ambitious. Equally non-offensive, relegated to simple electronica loops (which made use of plenty of canned sequences, I might add), and the barest minimum of weapons and character effects, but again, no part of the audio actually ruffled my feathers, it just sort of sat there in the background, supporting the equally decent visuals without either doing anything other than convey their intended purposes. Yeah, it sounds a little lame, but again, it's surprisingly refreshing.
Iridium Runners is sort of the equivalent of a feel good movie. No, none of the characters are all that engrossing, there's not a whole lot to make you appreciate what went into the production, and yet... it just all works. Call it not biting of more than the developers could chew, but they made the most of what they had, and the result is an oddly pleasant little multiplayer-focused budget title that has little in the way of pretenses yet offers quite a bit of potential should they pull the trigger down the road.
