SpeedRunners

SpeedRunners has been in the works for some time. In fact, it has been out on Steam Early Access for around three years. This has given its developers, DoubleDutch Games, plenty of time to tinker with the formula. What we've got after so many months of regular and public iteration is a polished and enjoyable competitive platformer.

The premise is simple. You control a bizarrely dressed superhero, and as fast as you can, you run through various levels while picking up weapons which you then use to slow the progress of up to three opponents. As the race continues one player will eventually drop behind and wander off screen, after that the window gets smaller and smaller until those remaining are running in a space akin to looking through a letterbox, and thus they have zero margin for error. The winner is the one who leaves all in their dust.

It's a simple enough setup, and it works a treat. There's local and online competitive modes, and it's when racing through the platform-filled levels against your friends that SpeedRunners really shines. It's a great party game, with a side-scrolling Mario Kart vibe that'll have you taking down your friends with a variety of quirky attacks and obstacles. The shrinking screen keeps matches quite short, and because there's rounds in each match and it's the first player to win three, there's opportunity for the odd comeback.

The characters you control are silly, spandex clad runners, but they're charming. As you progress you unlock additional characters, so dedicated players will be able to suit up in something a bit different once they've put in the extra hours (although we weren't too keen on the ones based on YouTube personalities: their inclusion had a whiff of gimmick). You can also add in 'trails', which activate when you run through a speed boost, thus offering additional personalisation.

The standard competitive mode is joined by ranked and custom playlists, as well as local modes for people who keep their friends closer to home. While there is certainly solo distractions outside of the PvP, it's the competitive modes that make the game.

Of course you can play against strangers online, but we preferred playing against people we know, whether locally or online. Competitive multiplayer is the beating heart of SpeedRunners, and it's simply not as fun playing against bots. Why? The main reason is because when you drop out of a match you're left watching on as others conclude their business and you have to wait for someone win. If you're not very good at the game - and we're not going to pretend that we are - you'll spend a fair amount of time playing as the audience. (You can, if there's just bots left, speed things up, which is something at least.) This is much less of an annoyance if you know the people you're competing with, and of course, stitching up a friend with a well aimed attack is much more fun that doing the same to either a faceless opponent over the internet or an AI controlled bot.

The toys you get to play with as you stride through the various obstacle courses are fun, and there's new additions that have been added since we last looked, but we'd still have liked a couple more. All told you can drill through the opposition at speed, freeze them, take them out with a giant flaming boulder, drop crates to make them stumble, grab them with a pincer (a handy trick as it pulls you forward while they drop back), let loose a shockwave, and even fire rockets and drop bombs. You're given a decent bag of tricks to work with, and landing a hit is always satisfying, especially if leads to an opponent bowing out, or even better, if it hands you the win. These abilities are picked up as you race and they augment the moves that you already have (running, jumping, sliding, swinging).

The tracks / levels are carefully balanced, but we've been playing on them on and off for a while now, and perhaps more would have been nice. There's some interesting backgrounds to change up the view, but the levels themselves all feel a little similar due to the overall aesthetic of the game. However, there's literally thousands of user-generated alternatives if you want more to run, jump and slide through. If you're after even more ways of entertaining yourself there's even a single-player story campaign, although the story is a bit thin and it doesn't take long before you start clicking through the exposition. It's a welcome addition that has characters challenging you to races in the various levels, but at the end of the day you're still racing against bots and there's much more fun to had competing with other players.

All told there's a lot of trimmings on offer, but the core game, the competitive platforming, is stronger than ever, and it's still the main reason to pick up the game. This is a very good multiplayer game that's at its best when played locally. The netcode seems strong, and we didn't encounter any issues on that front, so playing online with friends is certainly an option too. Going up against strangers isn't as personable but everything works as it should and there's potential for a thriving competitive scene to continue growing around the game. Racing against bots is certainly not where SpeedRunners' longterm appeal lies, although we did appreciate the option to play something built with the solo runner in mind. Don't pick this up for the single-player content, which is a nice distraction but not the main attraction, grab this one for the frantic local and online multiplayer, which at times can be exhilarating.