Rush Bros PC Review

I love a good indie game, there is something refreshing about a game that costs just a few pounds, but still packs a fair few hours of original entertainment, it reminds me of my youth and being able to visit the arcades for a few games on weird and wonderful titles that didn’t always make it to home consoles.

Rush Bros offers up an interesting take on the 2D racing genre, mixing together elements of many other popular titles that have hit upon similar gameplay elements, but none of them have had the same components in this combination before.

The game mixes fast paced side scrolling racing action, mixed up to the beat of the games own playlist, which is comprised of heavily electronic sounds, beats and rhythms, very dancy, very funky and just enough “cool”. However, you can browse your own computer for your own music collection, which after 20 minutes of sampling the games offerings, I did. The game music is good, but it’s not my style, but I quickly crafted a playlist of frantic heavy metal and a little old school drum and bass for good measure.

You play as a DJ, or one of two DJ’s in a head to head mix up battle. The objective is as simple as an A to B race, but with ever more complex obstacles in your path for you to navigate with ninja like reflexes by wall jumping and sliding your way around akin to a 2D parkour gameplay style.

The general navigation, obstacles and dangers of the game give me a nice reminder of games like Super Meat Boy and I would be surprised to find that this game wasn’t at least a little bit influenced by the meaty puzzler in some form or another. This is no bad thing of course and while Rush Bros is typically faster paced and ever moving throughout larger levels, the puzzle element isn’t lost as you hunt for colour coded keys to unlock routes and scramble to reach vital power ups such as double jump and speed boosts.

There are over 40 unique levels in Rush Bros all with a mixture of brightly colours, crazy themes and soundscapes that offer up a real visual treat. The game at times looks like a high end flash game but there are plenty of clean edges and some smooth animation to keep things flowing nicely and the game is far from hard on the eyes.

The game world reacts to your music and bass lines and sounds can cause traps to trigger, lights to flash and more, this helps the music feel connected to the game and this made me think of music based racer Audacity, although the two games have little resemblance beyond that.

Co-op is always a welcome feature in my opinion and Rush Bros gets extra points for having same screen vs races as well as online cross platform competition races between PC and Mac gamers. Giving us yet another excuse to argue and battle it out over who is best.

The gameplay doesn’t bare the best longevity though and things do feel a little tiring or repetitive after an hour or so, but the game does serve well as something to play on a coffee break or to just get away from work for 20 minutes as the core gameplay is a lot of fun, especially when you’ve got your own favourite tunes blasting through it.

You can beef things up by turning on “Fast Forward” mode to really test your metal or even just see how long you can last in survival mode, they’re nothing fancy in terms of extras but it does extend the gameplay and the value of the title a little, which is no bad thing.

Rush Bros is currently sitting on Steams Greenlight list for just £6.99 and that’s a tidy little bargain for a fun little game like this. If you’re looking for something a little different and need a break from hard-core shooters and actions games, then this is the perfect lunch time racing title and another welcome addition to the world of indie gaming.