Miners Races

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Underground Bundle: Dungeon Adventure and Miners Races along with Dungeon Adventure)

Miners Races is an Arcade-style game released on Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game takes the basic core gameplay idea of a classic game, Boulder Dash, and adds an endless-scrolling mechanic, challenging players to see how long they’ll survive.

The presentation in this game is not at all appealing, with ugly, simple 2D graphics, energetic rock-inspired music that doesn’t suit the game well, and an interface that seems like it was designed with mobile devices in mind (though I can’t find a version of this game on mobile devices). Oddly, despite that this interface seems like it was designed with a touchscreen in mind, there is no touchscreen support in the game.

As for the gameplay, this is mind-numbingly simple – maneuver your character through the game’s endlessly-scrolling level, collecting diamonds and avoiding rocks and bombs. None of the puzzle elements of Boulder Dash are here, and a single mistake ends your run… and that’s it. There’s a 2-player competitive mode where you can race to see who outlasts the other, but… well, why would you want to subject another person to this?

There’s just not much more to it than that – Miners Races is a shallow, ugly game that you’ll grow bored of shortly after starting it. There’s just nothing compelling here to be worth playing. Even for the $3 price tag, you can do far better.

tl;dr – Miners Races is a game that seeks to combine the core gameplay of the classic game Boulder Dash with an endlessly-scrolling Arcade-style element. Unfortunately, this game is far too shallow and one-note to hold your attention. Even the bargain bin price doesn’t make this game worth trying.

Grade: D

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