I always find that January time tends to be full of ID games. We see so many developers veer away from releasing their titles with the big hitters in the last quarter of the year, that they push back until the first quarter of the next. I`ve seen ID games fall when released alongside the big hitters at the end of the year, and I`ve seen them release earlier in the year and do well. Now developers and publishers may tell you otherwise, but from what I`ve seen and in my opinion, they always tend to do better early on in the year.
This week, I`ve had the chance to get my hands on a new ID title to the Xbox family, and that is one of Rise and Shine by Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team. Try saying that quickly. It was actually nearly a year ago that I had the chance to sit down with the developers and speak with them about Rise and Shine in it`s development stage to find out about the game. A year later and we`ve finally seen its release on Xbox One. Is it a game though that will make you grab it? Is it a game that`s going to start the year well? Or is it a game that`s going to be a disappointment? Well, I`d say it`s going to be a mix of both.
Rise and Shine tells the story of a young boy, Rise, who arrives back in his home town of Gamearth to find everything destroyed. He comes into the hand of a gun, called Shine, and together, Rise and Shine travel their way through the city and swarms of enemies, and seek to defeat what caused the town to crumble.
Now, before I start on the gameplay, I must say the artistic and graphics with the game are stunning. Hand drawn precision and it`s spectacular and superb. It really, really is, and mixed with a fluid gameplay system, it really does make for a beautiful game. It truly is, and the developers can be proud of their artistic designer, as it`s going to stand out just for how beautiful the illustration is throughout the game.
We move onto the Gameplay, and if you`ve played other ID platformers, Rise and Shine keeps very much within the lines of control configuration you find. It`s easy to pick up and although it may take a few attempts to fully master, it`s not something that`s going to be incredibly challenging from your first attempt. However, the controls are not going to be what frustrates you and makes it difficult for you. It`s the difficulty of the game that`s going to frustrate you.
I must have had a few breaks while playing through this, as I cannot begin to tell you how frustrating this gets after a while. You need to make sure you hit your targets and don’t miss too much, and especially be able to duck and weave your way out of gun fire. The difficulty seems to be quite high from the off, which gamers that like a challenge won`t see a problem with, but the problem is that it appears to be the only difficulty that you can play at. It`s going to be a game that you`re going to need to be patient with and keep trying when you fail, and that`s going to be a lot. So be warned. I find sometimes that the difficulty of a game, and especially more so with ID games when you don’t have much choice when it comes to a difficulty setting, it gets rather offputting for a gamer, and when they can`t do something or feel that something`s too difficult from the off, they`ll give up with it very quickly. And that is one of my fears with Rise and Shine. I fear that people will offput with it very quickly.
There`s no elements of Online gameplay to Rise and Shine, and is designed for the single player entirely. The developers did say in our Q&A that they would look at DLC which would be free, if the game was to do well. I`d be very intrigued to see where they take the game from here.
Artistically, Rise and Shine is beautiful and wonderful game. It`s graphics are precise and excel in something a bit different and a different approach than we have seen before. But I cant say the same for the gameplay. It`s a game that some people will love, and some people will hate. I love aspects of it, but I hate the fact that you don’t have a choice over certain aspects of the game. It`s a game that I want to see do well, but I fear, it`s going to fall away.
A huge thank you to EVOLVE for supplying us with a review copy of Rise and Shine
Game: Rise and Shine
Developers: Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team
Publishers: Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team
Genre: Platformer
Price: £11.99 (From Xbox Store)