Surface Rush Review | TheXboxHub

Keep in mind these two-penny video games you used to play on lazy faculty lunchtimes? Push-rugby, penny-football, or no matter regional title you may need given it? The one package wanted was a mate, a couple of cash, a well-honed flick or knuckle-push, and a desk. Guidelines would possibly differ, however you have been both making an attempt to get a coin as shut as doable to the tip of a desk, otherwise you have been guiding cash between one another, earlier than spinning one and tossing it over a pal’s finger-goal. Good occasions.

Floor Rush feels prefer it was designed by somebody who spent far an excessive amount of time taking part in these video games. It captures their spirit: the awkward, barely ungainly motion of a coin on a cultured floor, as you tentatively attempt to attain an end-goal. There’s no jammy dodgers to win as bets, however it’s in the identical ball (coin?) park.

We needed to search for Floor Rush’s story to remind ourselves of it. It’s not precisely foregrounded. People have invaded the planet of the Pumpums, forcing you into the ocean in an try to survive and take your planet again. We would have butchered the synopsis, however story isn’t Floor Rush’s robust level. 

It’s an excuse handy you a Pumpum, a disc-based life-form who’s greater than prepared to allow you to nudge it across the sea. And like these penny video games we talked about, you’re maneuvering it in an very simple vogue. That is, kind of, a one-button sport, as you pull again on the analogue stick and hearth the Pumpum round a stage, ricocheting off partitions as you go. 

The one different button that will get a lot use is the A button. Must you want, you possibly can press A to halt the progress of your Pumpum, stopping it on a dime. Careening round a stage turns into an artwork of firing your disk at velocity, and jabbing the A button each time you’re dangerously near getting impaled on spikes or suckered by an octopus.

This very simple motion is utilized to an extremely beneficiant variety of ranges and sport modes. We stored referring again to the Xbox Retailer web page to examine the worth. £4.19 for 132 ranges and 4 sport modes is sufficient worth to make Martin Lewis nod his head in appreciation and advocate it in these making an attempt occasions. 

Every stage is sort of a simplistic pinball desk, with the goal to achieve the very prime of it. You possibly can take as many strikes as you need, however the limiting issue is the period of time you have got. Like Sonic within the Aquatic Spoil Zone, it’s a must to discover air to maintain your oxygen up, supplying you with extra time to navigate the pinball maze and attain the celebratory bunting that represents the extent’s finish. Flinging your Pumpum at oxygen tanks is sufficient to maintain you going.

Getting in the way in which are varied crabs, jellyfish and octopuses (octopi? Octopodes?) who will kill you in a single hit should you get too shut. Spike traps are a relentless hindrance, and there are numerous conveyor belts, cannons and exploding mines to both assist or ship you to a watery grave, relying on the place they’re aimed. Dying can have you scooting all the way in which again to the beginning as the degrees are too quick to trouble with issues like checkpoints. 

On the entire, it’s a successful formulation. Dinking your Pumpum round a pinball desk is very simple, and there’s a pleasant combination of ability and puzzling at play. You could be navigating around the tentacles of an octopus one second, earlier than understanding which warp-bubbles will take you to the required key, which is able to in flip unlock the gate to the exit. It tickles your mind and assessments your fingertips in a fairly ingenious method. 

It’s spiky like a sea urchin, although. One stage might be simple as something, whereas the following has you tearing out clumps of hair and letting them wash out on the tides. For us, and this can be a style factor, the issue lay with Floor Rush’s love for shock obstacles. You progress at a good previous pelt in Floor Rush, however that velocity means you might be teleporting throughout ranges and discovering new areas at a velocity that you may’t react to. You can be mounted on spikes or destroyed by landmines earlier than you would presumably press A to cease, and that makes ranges just a little too trial-and-error for our tastes. With no checkpoints, it usually turned a matter of memorising a stage after a number of irritating deaths. 

Reward be, then, for the generosity within the sport’s design, as a result of there’s all the time a approach out. You don’t must play Floor Rush’s ranges in any explicit order, so you possibly can skip the knotty ones should you fancy. And there’s doubtless a sport mode that fits you, as you seek for one of the best methods to build up stars and buy some fancy new skins on your Pumpum. ‘One Shot’ was our favorite, as you’re pushed to successfully hole-in-one a course, understanding the precise shot that may get you to the exit. However there’s additionally Timer, which slaps an extremely quick timeframe onto a stage, and Precision, which does the identical however with a set variety of strikes. All of that is added to the standard Traditional mode, which is available in three totally different problem ranges. 

For the standard value of £4.19, you get an entire lot of sport with Floor Rush. Contemplating there are three stars to realize on every of the 132 ranges, and there are 4 sport modes to discover as you do it, you will see a lot to do along with your Pumpum. The counter-argument right here is that it’s stretched just a little skinny. There may be solely a lot you are able to do with – successfully – a penny on a table-top, and the degrees begin re-using ideas. We discovered ourselves parking Floor Rush for a few days and returning to it, simply because it’s not the sport to maintain you entertained for greater than thirty-minutes at a time. 

Now we have a warmness of affection for Floor Rush, however nothing stronger than that. It proves that you may elevate the coin-pushing video games of your youth to a full-blown online game, and it doesn’t skimp on the degrees or sport modes. However there’s a saminess to the degrees that’s laborious to keep away from, and the spiky problem – each figuratively and actually – is even more durable to dodge. For the £4.19 value, although, Floor Rush just isn’t a lot of a danger, and should you play it in small, fifteen minute chunks, you’re going to get essentially the most out of this price range puzzler. 

You should purchase Floor Rush from the Xbox Retailer