Rush Bros. is a 2D side-scrolling platformer from XYLA Entertainment. Its unique feature involves using music (both in-game and from your own collection) to manipulate the level you are playing. As the beats of the soundtrack hammer your ear drums, the obstacles in front of you move in time with them. Is this enough to distinguish it from the competition or does it just strike a sour note?
• Developer: XYLA Entertainment
• Publisher: Digital Tribe Games
• Reviewed on: PC
• Also Available On: Mac OSX
• Release Date: Available Now
Unfunny idioms aside, Rush Bros. opens with a story cinematic detailing how Bass and Treble are two disc jockey brothers who despite dominating the world as a duo, decide to become unos. For some reason, they need to come together again because an evil silhouette asks them to… or something like that.
To be quite honest, as soon as the cinematic was over for the first time, I completely forgot what the story was about – and, if my experience is anything to go by, the game did too. Not only were the players never referred to as Bass or Treble again, but there seemed to be no mention whatsoever of the evil silhouetted guy, whose evilness must now be put in doubt. Not that this is a particularly bad thing – I prefer when a game jettisons a story if it has no intention of following through with it – but it is odd all the same.
Like Super Meat Boy before it, Rush Bros. lives and dies by its controls and its responsiveness. Unfortunately for XYLA’s latest, it is already six feet under. One of the first information screens you see advises you to use a controller as it provides the best experience. However, I tried using an Xbox 360 pad in addition to trying out the keyboard controls and neither seemed any more responsive than the other. There was a good half-a-second delay from me pressing the jump button to the character performing the movement. This is simply not good enough.
One area where the game does excel, though, is its soundtrack. A mix of wub-ly dubstep and techno beats help the fast-paced action tick over. With a large selection of tracks, some of the best being “Cities of the Future” and “I Am Fire”, each level’s many obstacles open, close, expand and retract in time with the beats. This actually helps in timing your next jump as you listen to the music for the beat it follows. As mentioned earlier, there is an option to use your own music, which works well, but is largely unnecessary due to the quality on offer.
Visually, the game is a neon-filled beauty. Levels are varied and colourful, with bright environments and distinct visual cues so you know what type of obstacle is ahead. For instance, gates are dotted around the place, requiring colour-coded pickups to pass through them. The wide colour palette removes any confusion when multiple gates crop up later in the game.
Multiplayer is also a focus in Rush Bros. and its integration in the game is well-executed. While playing a level, you may receive a challenge from another user. Jumping straight into that game is relatively seamless and once there, playing an opponent adds more urgency to the otherwise bland time trial-based game mechanics. Score-chasing can be fun but loses its appeal after a few runs – adding a tangible ‘challenge’ keeps things fresh.
In the end, Rush Bros. is an aesthetically enjoyable experience, hampered by limited game-play mechanics. Without collectibles or some other mechanic, levels become repetitive as you simply try to plough through the game. However, the unresponsive controls turn a mediocre game into an annoying one.
