RunGunJumpGun – a compelling retro side-scroller

In this small Review we will descend into the crazy and colourful universe of the new game RunGunJumpGun by the indie developer ThirtyThree.



When you start up RunGunJumpGun for the first time without knowing anything about the game, you will be surprised by the retro look of the screen and the loud electronic music in the background that immediately triggers the feeling of being back in Hotline Miami.

After the logos of the developer and the publisher you will see an animated menu which consists of three different planets who each have 41 levels that are connected. I this menu you can also chose between the standard story mode or a challenge mode without the small story parts.

But there you can’t change any options of the game, like the controls or the audio options. This is only possible inside a level which for my liking is a negative point as the player gets the feeling that he doesn’t have the whole control over the game.

When you then jump into the first level, you are welcomed by a bizarre character that explains the easy controls, which only consist of two buttons either on the keyboard or on the gamepad. With the first button, you shoot your gravity-defying gun downward and so your character will start to fly upwards like in the famous mobile game Flappy Bird and with the second button you can shoot in front of you to destroy obstacles but it also slows you down. You then get to try out slowly these learned functions and understand them better in each area of the colourful levels. Your character must then start to collect floating pickups which are counted and that are mostly important in the marathon mode.

You will face new obstacles in every level and you then have to study their characteristics to beat the area. But don’t worry if you die, this is totally normal and you always spawn at a checkpoint that is marked with a red flag near your last point of death. Only in the marathon mode you should try not to die and collect the pickups I already mentioned if you want to get into the global leaderboard in the game.

Altogether RunGunJumpGun is a fun game to kill your time, as it will suck you in and doesn’t let you go again when you try to beat the next level. The use of fast electronic music also helps you to stay in the mood to play the game and the Hotline Miami-esque look and the Geometry Dash-like level design just add up to a good but small game.

The game is available on Windows PC and Mac for €7.99 via Steam, The Humble Store, Green Man Gaming and the Mac App Store. Or you can get the special edition for €9.99 with the soundtrack and a desktop wallpaper.

Disclaimer: I got the key for the game from the developers, so keep that in mind when reading my article.