Aron describes Rainbow Runner as an old school score attack arcade game in every aspect. The goal is to run through the level while shooting or avoiding enemies and obstacles and trying to get a better score.

Graphics and Sound:

Aron Deppert: The foreground graphics look pretty nice. The main, nameless character and his foes are composed of brightly colored pixels. Movement is all very fluid and the enemy designs are very reminiscent of old arcade games… However, beyond the foreground is a grayscale and very generic cityscape in the background. It looks like the same small set of buildings over and over again.

Jeremy: Rainbow Runner is full of bright colors and a fantastic soundtrack that you can change at will.

Gameplay:

Aron: Players can change the color of their character to red, yellow, blue, or green by pressing the button of the corresponding color on the Xbox 360 controller. The point is to match your color to the enemy, obstacle, or projectile you can’t avoid in order to cancel out any damage you may have taken if your color didn’t match. The problem with this is the pace at which you must simultaneously press the colored buttons while both jumping with either trigger and shooting baddies with the right thumb stick.

Jeremy: I did find that the controls limited my play style a little. On arcade mode, I almost never jumped (never a reason to except the bosses in the levels I played) instead focusing on changing colors to avoid the walls and firing at the flyers. Then on the bosses, I never changed colors because it was difficult to maintain firing while changing colors every few seconds. On bosses, it was all jumping and shooting.

Everything else:

Aron: If you pick up Rainbow Runner because the title and trailers make you think that playing this game will let you recapture some of the awe, fun, and emotional attachment to a blob of pixels that you got from playing BIT.TRIP RUNNER then you would be making a big mistake. However, if you are the type of game that loves constantly trying to best your own high score and loves looking at bright colors superimposed over bland backgrounds, then this may be the perfect game for you to check out.

Overall, [on a rating of good or bad] I would have to say Rainbow Runner was bad.

Jeremy: I found Rainbow Runner for XBLIG to be a fulfilling game that can grab your attention for hours. The game can be challenging even on beginner level, so people that love the challenge that came from the NES era games will love this. I really like that there is an option to just play the bosses. Overall, this a fun game well worth 80 MS points.