In the endless runner genre, there have been a lot of different plots and objectives that developers have come up with to try to bring some fresh competition and make their game that much more unique. A lot of endless runners are similar as far as gameplay goes but that’s where it stops, then presentation and graphics help differentiate it.
No matter how different or alike most runners are, they’re all addictive because there’s always one element that helps it stand out. Vellum Interactive’s latest game for iOS proves just that. DreamCat ($0.99, App Store Link) is an endless runner in which you have to guide Terrence in his dream world while collecting cheeseburgers, because as we all know, cats love cheeseburgers.
Overview
In DreamCat, you’re in Terrence the cat’s dream, where all he has his mind set on is getting his paws on cheeseburgers. To do this, you must be alert of the environment, which features randomly generated and infinite terrain.
As with most runners, I like that the environment and gameplay aren’t repetitive in the sense that you don’t know what’s coming. It just makes the game that much more challenging. It would have been nice for the game to include some kind of enemy or boundary to make the game more interesting and entertaining than it already is.
Gameplay
As you collect cheeseburgers, you rack up points. The cheeseburgers that Terrence collects throughout the game can be used to give him a speed boost. It only last about 2 or 3 seconds and it has little effect, if any.
If you sense you’re about to fall or aren’t going to make the jump, it might help you out of you use it in that case. Throughout the game are also small symbols scattered, which can add to the amount of cheeseburgers you can pick up. This will last until the game’s over, when Terrence wakes up.
The more cheeseburgers you collect, the more you can buy from the in-built store. There are three different items you can buy from the store. The first two are backgrounds that are 500 cheeseburgers each. The third item you can unlock is another character, an orange cat named Lasagna, which you need 2000 cheeseburgers to collect. It may take a while to get any of these items, but the game is so addictive that you’ll collect plenty in no time.
Graphics
From a visual aspect, DreamCat is very well done. The backgrounds look very nice. They stick out well because everything is so colorful and bright. I think the graphics are a big part of DreamCat and it seems the developers took a lot of time to make sure of it. Although it doesn’t seem like DreamCat takes advantage of iPhone or the new iPad’s retina display, hopefully it will in a future update. Nevertheless, the graphics are great and unique just as they currently are.
Controls
Just as with most runners, the controls are so simple to learn, that casual users will have no problem and will pick it up with ease. There are only two buttons within DreamCat. The left button is used to jump once and twice to double jump. If you hold the jump button down, you can stay in the air longer. The right button is used for the burger dash. Once you fill up your meter, you have a few seconds of a speed burst, which somewhat helps you along the way.
Overall
DreamCat is one of the more addictive runners, which recently hit the app store. It offers hours of gameplay that any user can get into. DreamCat is certainly one of those games that’s easy to learn, but difficult to master.
To even make DreamCat that much more entertaining, it would have been nice if the developers included a list of different challenges like most endless runners offer. Besides that, the addition of more obstacles to the environment or different enemies would have been welcoming.
Price: ($0.99, App Store Link)
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Note: This is a sponsored review via Review Roster.