G.G Series: Run & Strike

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

Run & Strike is an Arcade-style game released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2015, as well as being made available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop. This game has players controlling a tennis player hitting a ball against a wall. Players aim for targets that appear in one of three spots.

The presentation in this game is simple, but decent enough, using 2D pixel art for the visuals backed by a repetitive energetic theme. It’s nothing eye-catching, but it works well enough.

The core concept of the gameplay is fairly sound too, though once again it’s simple and repetitive. Players move around the bottom half of the screen to hit the ball and collect pickups, with players hitting the ball straight or at a 45-degree angle to the left or right. Miss the target enough times and you break the wall. If the ball goes off-screen three times, you lose.

For a simple Arcade game, this is a decent enough setup, but I think the big problem here is that the game’s digital controls are woefully inaccurate. If this game was made for the Nintendo 3DS instead of the Nintendo DSi, it would have made it easier to aim the ball more accurately using the circle pad. Alternately, the game could have made use of the touchscreen for aiming. Unfortunately, all you have here are the D-Pad and buttons to work with, and that results in a game with controls that just feel too restrictive for its gameplay.

I can still see some players getting a bit of fun out of Run & Strike as a time-waster between other things, and perhaps that’s enough to justify the tiny $2 price tag. However, I think that most players will quickly grow frustrated with the limitations of this game’s controls and move on to something else instead.

tl;dr – Run & Strike is an Arcade-style game where players control a tennis player hitting a ball to targets on a wall. The premise here is simple but sound, but it’s unfortunately made worse by this game’s limited controls. For $2, this may serve as a decent time-waster, but the control issues make it a game you’ll likely get exasperated with soon enough.

Grade: C

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