Runner3 Reviews
The true heart of Runner3 once again comes down to how well its gameplay suits rhythm game and platforming fans with a knack for perfecting their craft. Getting a Perfect or a Perfect+ on a level involves learning the patterns for its various obstacles — and this is particularly true for the game's three different knight variants — but players truly driven toward perfect runs will have to use their ears to get a feel for when to execute different maneuvers. Every jump to a gold pile or slide beneath a box feels deliberately synced with the music, and finding the groove introduces sometimes-subtle, sometimes-obvious musical cues that help keep the player on track.
Runner3 is an old idea with a fresh coat of paint, but that idea still brings a lot of fun to the table.
Despite creating two other Runners, Choice Provisions has shown that they're not out of ideas quite yet. Bring on Runner4.
Runner3 adeptly balances pleasure and pain
Runner3 is an entrancing and demanding title but the repetitive structures force players to repeat the same stages.
Runner3 will tell you the truth about your gaming skills. Despite of its look that could make you think its a game made for kids, you will need all your reflexes and you will have to be hundred percent focused if you want to have a slight chance of getting to the goal.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Runner3 is an amazingly crafted arcade experience that’s perfect for short bursts of hair-pulling runny goodness. It sticks to the Runner formula and it doesn’t do that much to change things up, but it does push all the dials up to 11, and the result is a really layered arcade title.
My early impressions of Runner3 were that the original purity of gameplay had been sacrificed in the push for more sophisticated visuals and quirkiness. After a few deaths brought about by perspective transitions, I was starting to feel an unwelcome sense of disappointment. Fortunately, once I got used to these new additions and the classic flow of Runner's gameplay loop got its hooks in me, this initial reticence was forgotten. At its best, Runner3 is the epitome of pure twitch gaming and, as such, is a fantastic addition to the series.
Runner3 is a weird, funny game with lots of secrets. And some questionable new features and design choices.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Runner3 is reminiscent of the hard as nails games of old, and wants you to play the game over, but it will cause you to lose your temper
This isn't my preferred genre of game, but I had plenty of fun playing Runner3 and am confident it will provide a sufficient challenge to fans of the BIT.TRIP franchise and genre.
Runner3 is wonderfully creative and funny, relying on a style of play that belies the challenge at its heart. A few moments of unbalanced control or obstacle design can frustrate, but this will pass when Commander Video finally nails a sequence of movements and makes you feel like a fast-fingered expert.
As a fan of other rhythm games on Switch such as Thumper and Voez, Runner3 definitely takes the cake as one of the best that the console has to offer. Choice Provisions has done something special with Runner3; it's a game that might make you want to scream internally over and over again, but at the same time, will make you smile from ear to ear while jamming out when you finally overcome those pesky obstacles.
Few games can tout that their frustration, difficulty and somewhat teasing attitude is what makes them so enjoyable, but Choice Provisions prove once again that the only thing more palpable than failure is the inevitable triumph.
I would generally consider runner games to be a poor choice of port to pick up on a fully fledged console. After all, infinite runners practically choked mobile app stores at one time. Runner 3 is, however, an entirely different type of experience.
Runner3 is an excellent runner game, a good music-rhythm platformer, and a great challenge for those who dare to take it. It has an odd charm that you either love or hate, but if it resonates with you, it'll blow you away in a hurricane of music, sweat, and endless retries.
Overall, Runner3 represents a welcome return for Commander Video, especially in his best form. Runner 2 was one of the best rhythm games on the Wii U and, although there is much stiffer competition on the Switch, Choice Provisions have done it again. Providing a fun, personality-filled musical running experience, Runner3 is a no brainer for rhythm game fans. Its a pity there are only 3 worlds, and the extreme difficulty will not be for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. Even if I wanted to throw my controller out of the window a couple of times.
Truth be told, I loved Runner3. For $29.99, it’s offering a lot of value (though it’s 15% off for the next 4 days if you pre-order). Much as I enjoyed Runner2, this game provided a lot more incentive to keep on playing, and easily 10 hours of content just for beating the game, with plenty more required to 100% everything. The additional difficulty, though somewhat off-putting, also provides a great reason to keep on trying (especially the brutal Challenge stages). Best of all, there’s a ton of stuff to unlock, from new characters to diabolically well-hidden VHS tapes to snazzy new costumes. Runner3 is a celebration of platforming, and easily the best game I’ve played from Choice Provisions so far. If you want a fun challenge, look no further.
Even though it's the third game in the series, Runner3 is full of a surprising amount of variety and challenges to master.
Ultimately, if the difficulty doesn't bother you, there's a lot of fun to be had with Runner3.