Round Invader Rush Review (PS4) – 30 Seconds To Martian Disappointment

A one trick pony with less than a minutes worth of content, Round Invader Rush is nothing but cheap trophy bait. The Finger Guns Review.

“Is that it?” I said out loud to myself when I finished my first round of Round Invader Rush. Less than a minute of game time and I’d already seen everything that this game had to offer. In less time time than it had taken to download the game, I’d heard the tell-tale chime of a Platinum trophy unlock. Is that really it?

I played it again. 45 seconds later and the game ended the same way. Nothing new happened but I did get a higher score. I’ve reviewed a lot of short, trophy bait games over the past few years but this is easily the shortest game I’ve every paid for on the PS4.

The original Round Invader was similar. It was short, had rough artwork and had an incredibly simple trophy list. The one benefit that the original game had was that it at least had an iota of originality. It essentially turned Space Invaders into a circular games. You shoot from the centre to destroy aliens that get close in. It was complete crap, but at least it was a twist on a classic.

Round Invader Rush… to delete the game

Round Invader Rush can’t claim that. Despite sharing a name with the previous title, Rush isn’t a twist on Space Invaders. Instead, it’s a really poor imitation of Coconut Dodge without the design nous, charm or quality content that made the latter so popular.

The aim of Round Invader Rush is simple. You control an alien and can move it left and right along a horizontal plane at the bottom of the screen. Descending from the sky are ice cream goods. To start, single scoop cones before later becoming triple scoop servings. As the player, you have to manoeuvre the alien to catch the ice creams before they hit the ground. You start each run at the game with 3 lives. Each time an ice cream hits the ground, you lose one of those lives. Once all 3 lives are lost, it’s “game over”.

The game is designed to get more challenging over time. The ice cream descends from the sky more quickly the longer you play and they start to descend at different speeds. For example, the triple scoop servings descend much faster than a cone so you’ll have to manage where to be to catch them.

Getting brain freeze

The game play of Round Invader Rush stays fresh for no longer than 2 minuets. After that, there’s really no reason to play. Every run at the game’s only game play mode ends in defeat because the games difficulty means it’s not meant to be played for long periods or with any progress. There’s no leader board, local or online, which could have been an incentive to play for longer. There’s no unlockables, no story or multiplayer. The game is desperately low on content.

The content that is in Round Invader Rush is rough. The art work is rudimentary at best. There’s no music in the game at all. The sound effects in the game don’t match the tone of art work or game play at all. While they carry a retro feel, they feel really downbeat which isn’t exactly what you expect to hear when an Alien is essentially catching ice cream.

To put it bluntly: Round Invader Rush is garbage. Even for the tiny price tag – £1.69 at launch – I feel like I’ve been ripped off. There’s no redeeming features to this game, but if you’re one of the digital cup hunting target audience, that won’t matter. There’s an easy Platinum trophy on offer. More than 700 people have bought and downloaded this game already according to PlayStationTrophies.net. You’ll already know if you’re going to join that number, no matter how hollow and so obviously turgid the experience is. If you’ve come to this review looking for an assessment on the game’s artistic merit however: I wouldn’t recommend this game to anyone.

Yet more PlayStation Trophy bait that deserves to be buried in a land fill, Round Invader Rush is barely more than a tech demo. There’s about 30 seconds of content to be found here and even that is uninspired. This game is just a Platinum trophy with a price tag with no redeeming features.

Round Invader Rush is available now on PS4 (review version).

Developer: Acyntha
Publisher: Acyntha

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we purchased a copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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