Rise & Shine Reviews
Regardless of its few flaws, Rise & Shine is a fun, vibrant arcade shooter that should please fans of the genre and remain accessible enough for newcomers. Its light-hearted approach, humour and gunplay make for a enjoyable fast paced experience that is filled with smirks.
Rise and Shine's awesome 2D art-style and references can't help the uneven shooting that pervades its shoddy gameplay.
Rise & Shine packs itself with references galore in a world it doesn’t quite explore. But its combat, puzzle design, art direction, and brutal difficulty make that largely irrelevant.
Rise & Shine makes an amazing first impression, but the game hiding underneath lacks the depth and replayability of the many SNES action games that it attempts to imitate.
Rise and Shine is a delightful title that pays homage to a lot of great franchises, and has solid gameplay. While the story elements could be better, this game is still entertaining until the end.
Rise & Shine won’t likely single-handedly propel Super Mega Team to Indie Stardom. But it will certainly put them on the radar for gamers who like something different. Much like Supergiant’s Bastion, it’s the beginning of a bold new voice in games. It’s not perfect, but Rise & Shine’s a fun and frenetic little game that seems wholly worth the $15 bucks it costs on Steam and XBL. Recommended for those who like unique and challenging action games, and don’t mind the lack of longevity.
The Digital Fix polish their firearms and stroll into an apocalyptic landscape to review Adult Swim's Xbone homage to gaming's golden age: Rise & Shine.
Rise & Shine's gameplay is fun and challenging, but the game has a really short length as well. Being a cheap indie game, it's definitely worth a try.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Rise & Shine is a fantastic adventure and a change of pace for the traditional 2D side-scroller. A great looking game that plays well and has a lot going for it. Great gameplay, interesting characters and a nice change of protagonist as well. Sadly, the game is a bit on the short side and can be beaten in 4-5 hours. The ride is definitely worth the time spent, yet once you beat the game the first time, there's nothing to do afterward.
Rise & Shine is an enjoyable side-scrolling action game that perfectly blends the run and gun gameplay of past games with puzzle elements that make you think. The artwork is nothing short of spectacular and the sheer amount of nods to other franchises in the game will make you smile. The game can be completed in a handful of hours unless you become stuck on the final boss like I was, which added a couple more hours to my total. Upon completion, you can go back and find missing collectibles or try your hand at the Ironman mode. Besides a couple of puzzles that bring the game’s pacing down to a crawl, I thoroughly enjoyed everything from the gameplay to the atmosphere in Rise & Shine.
Rise & Shine has all the markers of a hit indie game. The gun’s add-ons, a series of upgrades that include a special curve-the-bullet ability, give the game an individualistic “hook”, and the art style is funky and appealing. If you approach it with the expectation of being entertained, you probably will be. But if you’re looking for a game that will reinvigorate your passion for the innovation of the indie game scene, look elsewhere.
Rise & Shine has a lot of interesting ideas to keep players on their toes. It’s just a shame that some of the fun turns sour due to repeated puzzles and poor gun accuracy.
Although Rise & Shine may sometimes look like a more cartoonish version of Contra, it doesn't play like one...and the majority of battles ultimately play out as fast-paced puzzles that test how well a player can prioritize targets.
All in all, Rise & Shine isn’t a bad experience. It’s just one that has a lot of wasted potential. If the AAA barrage on indie games is real, then this game would not make a good soldier to fight in that battle. The gameplay is good and the game doesn’t overstay its welcome at 10-ish hours, but the sudden ramp up in difficulty plus the finicky aiming blemishes the experience. If you want a game that touches upon the horrors of military engagement, try This War of Mine. If you want a game that parodies/honors video game culture, try Super Meat Boy or Scott Pilgrim. If you want a weird mash-up of the two, I guess this experience was made for you.
If you want a game with lots of action, lots of fun and lots of references to the video game world, Rise & Shine is your game. But the aiming system and it's difficulty will drive you crazy.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
At its best, Rise and Shine is a marvelous reinvention of shooter mechanics wrapped up in puzzle-heavy stages that require some serious grey matter to think through. But most of the time? Rise and Shine’s charm can’t save it from its sadomasochistic formula.
Rise & Shine feels like a game that tries too hard to be too much, ultimately coming together in a fun package that could have been great. The action is tight and rewarding, the gameplay is varied, and the difficulty is satisfying, if a bit frustrating in some parts. Fans of old-school arcade shooters will find plenty to love here, even if the jokes don’t always hit home.
Rise & Shine reminds us of the visual style and of the gameplay of Metal Slug series. It's hard, fulfilling and funny, but it suffers also from a lack of game contents.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Rise & Shine isn’t the deepest action-platformer you’ll ever play, but the tongue-in-cheek nods to the gaming industry at large, along with its stunning art style, will push you to the finish line even when the gameplay starts to let you down.