Earlier this week, we were given a chance to review a fun little game for Steam called RunGunJumpGun, by Canadian developer, ThirtyThree Games.

Now when I say fun, I mean “Oh man, this is fun OH MY GOD THIS IS FUCKING HARD YAY WHEEEE” type of fun.  I totally mean that in a good way.

RunGunJumpGun is a beautifully colored little 2D sidescroller shooter, that also comes with a nostalgic “Contra hard” level of difficulty.

The game is pretty simple, as there’s only two buttons to control it.  Tap Left Shift to shoot down/float upwards and tap Right shift to shoot and blast obstacles out of your way, all while navigating to gather atomicks.

Sounds simple, until you have to avoid the spikes and buzzsaws, as well as getting crushed as the screen scrolls forward.  So you only have a split second to decide if you need to be going up or down.

The story takes place in a part of space known as the Extax System, where sun has grown and has devoured several planets.  With most of the planets already destroyed, the remaining worlds have descended into madness and chaos.  Denizens from each planet  have their own ideas on why the sun is so angry, but they all hang onto the same element, which are Atomiks, the primary resource in the solar system.

You play as a scavenger from outside the solar system, who’s sole job is to hop from planet to planet, blasting your way through to gather these Atomiks.

I played the game for roughly 45 minutes or so upon first receiving the review code.  Right off the bat, I loved the music that accompanies the game.  A very nostalgic 80’s/early 90’s NES era of tunes come popping out when you load up the game, and I love it.  The game has 3 different worlds with different play styles, and over 120 levels, so it’ll take you a while to run out of steam with this one.

There’s a very quick little tutorial, and then you get right to blasting.  It’s 8bit-ish 2D platformer graphics at it’s best, but it still looks gorgeous, while keeping the simplicity of that retro style.

The game isn’t going to win any awards for graphics or story per-se, but it accomplishes it’s intentions:  A quick blast and run, anger management tool.  I got frustrated, but in a fun way.  I found it to be a pretty good stress reliever during my lunch break, and luckily, you get plenty of respawns to keep on going when you screw up (which you will do a lot).

Overall, I give the game 4 out of 5.  It’s a quick, fun way to break away from the every day stresses, and gets the blood pumping from fun frustrations.  It also has a pretty sick soundtrack and it’s pretty cheap.

RunGunJumpGun is currently available on Steam for $7.98 USD, or you can pay a couple bucks more to get the soundtrack.

The offical RunGunJumpGun website also has some pretty gnarly artwork there as well.