If you haven’t played BIT.TRIP Presents… Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien (for the sake of my fingers and your time, we’ll just call this Runner 2 henceforth), then please check out our review of the game- I mean, then please, play it. It’s more fun than a good game of Catch the Dragon.
Anyway, Gaijin Games recently went all “DLC” on us and released a character pack. For $3 ($2 as of right now’s Steam sale), you can play as 7 new characters in Runner 2:
- Raz (Psychonauts)
- Quote (Cave Story)
- Atlas (Portal 2)
- Josef (Machinarium)
- Spelunky Guy (Spelunky)
- Dr. Fetus (Super Meat Boy)
- Invisible CommanderVideo (BIT.TRIP… everything)
After playing extensively with each character, I definitely have my favorites. Raz is a pretty neat character if you’ve ever played Psychonauts. He uses his psychic abilities to attack and block, which I was hoping to see. Dr. Fetus uses Super Meat Boy’s girlfriend, Bandage Girl, as a shield, like any good villain should. Likewise, Portal 2′s Atlas robot uses a Companion Cube as his shield. Josef, the robot star of Machinarium tucks his legs into his body to slide under obstacles- like a friggin’ Ninja Turtle.
I was less enamored with Quote and Spelunky Guy but they’ve both got the Latin charm Ricky Ricardo was known for.
Invisible CommanderVideo exists mostly as a torture device for yourself. If you’ve ever thought to yourself: “I don’t curse enough when I play this game,” then Invisible CommanderVideo is the character for you! Technically you can see a faint white outline of parts of his body but he’s still pretty hard to see. I’d say his inclusion is more for bragging rights than anything else.
Now this is pretty much a skin pack. Because as far as I can tell, every character still plays exactly the same. And in a game that’s focused on rhythm, that’s a good thing. You’re pretty much paying for aesthetic changes here. Now for the question: is it worth it? I can’t answer that for you. It depends on what you value (other characters are unlockable in the main game, after all). But I’ve seen individual characters sold in other games for more than this whole pack provides (It was 7, remember?). Add on top of this the fact that most of these characters are from IP’s of other companies and the price tag seems to make more sense. There’s a lot of people to pay here (unless of course these guys are all just great friends and put the car keys in a bowl before the party starts).
If you’ve played any of these other games, you’ll probably get a kick out of using them in Runner 2. The Runner 2 bundle is currently on sale on Steam for $13.39. It includes the Good Friends pack as well as Runner 2′s soundtrack (which is great, but you knew that). So you could currently pay for the whole caboodle for less than buying the full game when it’s not on sale. It’s a great way to trick yourself into buying DLC!