Despite being one of the most saturated and sometimes pedestrian genres in the gaming industry, platformers can house a lot of diversity. Some, introduce incredible new mechanics, that pave the ways for years to come. Others, while not revolutionary, have enough entertainment and replay value to cement themselves as an essential in a gamer’s collection. And the more middling results happen to be right in the middle, lacking inspiration, and also amusement. Now, Finnish developer Bitecore has attempted to craft a colorful yet intriguing platformer in their debut, Bounce Rescue. But unfortunately, it’s a game I can easily see getting lost in the fray of more forgettable titles this year.

Gameplay:

One of the few attack patterns is a simple bat, leaving much to be desired

While Bounce Rescue may be an unremarkable game, (and I’ll get into those reasons sooner than later) one of the few things it does right is how the jumping never feels floaty or too slow. This helps the player make precise jumps, instead of plummeting to their death ad nauseam. However, this is combined with a sense of limited and finicky combat, with little to no variations based off the enemy you are attacking. It’s a lack of proper fundamentals like these that really make Bounce Rescue a chore.

Design:

Levels have little variation, besides for a switched color pallete and background enviromemts

One of the ways Bounce Rescue could have redeemed itself was in it’s level design, but this never becomes the case. Every level is uninspired and contains nearly the same structure, besides for a couple of slight and unnoticeable changes. Thankfully a saving grace here is the interesting locations the collectibles were placed, but at the end of the day this doesn’t change much, and only serves as a distraction to the game’s arising mediocrity.

Presentation/ Visuals & Audio:

The game’s cast never becomes more than a backdrop, settling an unmeaningful state of affairs

Bounce Rescue might have been a good-looking game a couple years ago, or even if it was recently placed on mobile. But on a console, it’s bland and unimpressive, even with the color the game provides. Enemy designs are a bit better, but crowded with the sense of commonplaceness from not only the graphics, but also the basic presentation and boring music, none of the overall equation is subsided.

Conclusion:

Bounce Rescue could have been a good game, but it’s positives are too sparse and it’s negatives too wide. It’s a shame because there are a couple things here and there that could have made a difference, but either they aren’t implemented on, or compounded by the overwhelming pace of tediousness the game so willingly personifies.

Bounce Rescue gets a 4/10 (Bad)

We’d like to thank Bitecore for sending us a code!

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