Geki Yaba Runner Anniversary Edition

Genre: Auto-Runner

Players: 1

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Review:

Geki Yaba Runner is a family-friendly Auto-Runner first released on Nintendo 3DS in 2016, ported to PlayStation Vita in 2017, then brought to Nintendo Switch in 2019. In this game, players control a gnome running along a path and collecting socks while using a pair of boxer shorts to float.

While nothing this game does is particularly out of the norm for Auto-Runners, it does do a few things to make good use of its limited mechanics, such as having updrafts that lift you upward when floating.

Unfortunately, this game made the poor decision to map both your jump and float to the same button, which can make it so you do one when you intended to do the other when you press the button close to the ground. This is especially frustrating because Geki Yaba Runner seems to be one of those games where holding down the jump button as you hit the ground causes you to automatically jump again… even though you may be doing that simply because you’re trying to float as you land.

The presentation here isn’t terrible, but it reeks of a “mobile style” presentation, with simple cartoony 2D art, a goofy cartoonish soundtrack, and silly voices for the characters such as the gnome saying “hyuup” with every jump, and the end level character declaring your victory with an “Eep ba beep bap bohp”

In the end, Geki Yaba Runner would have been a decent Auto-Runner, but the control issues make this a pretty broken one instead. There are other, better options in this genre, don’t bother with this one.

tl;dr – Geki Yaba Runner is an Auto-Runner where players take the role of a gnome collecting socks. This game has a few decent design ideas, but these are far outweighed by the terrible controls. Skip this one.

Grade: C-

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