Rise and shine is a 2D arcade twin stick shooter developed by Super Awesome Hyper Dimensional Mega Team (Really that’s what they’re called!) And published by Adult Swim games for the PC and Xbox One. Adult Swim is the same company that’s responsible for shows such as Black Jesus, Rick and Morty, American Dad and The Boondocks. Rise&Shine was released on the January 13th 2017.
In Rise&Shine you play as a kid called Rise when his planet of Gamerath is attacked by an invading alien fleet and the Legendary Warrior hands him a sentient Revolver by the name of Shine, with Shine Rise sets of and tries to find the King of Gamerath to stop the invasion. The game doesn’t take itself seriously evident by the sarcastic comments of your gun Shine that’s able to revive you from death and with his deprecating fourth wall breaking comments about the logic of video games he never fails to remind you of the ridiculousness of him having the ability to revive you every time you die, this is a game filled with video game references whether from character clone the dog from duck hunt or the Link look alike at the beginning of the game. This is a twin stick precision shooter with puzzle solving elements.
This game is not easy, playing it on normal I was dying every other step as the game forces you to learn the enemy’s patterns and beat them accordingly, you have one weapon in the game in Shine that has multiple add-ons. You use the left trigger on the Xbox one controller to draw your weapon and the right trigger to shoot, you aim with the right stick and move with the left. This is an ammo heavy game as you will be trying to doge enemy bullets that are coming from mainly two different sets, the first are called the Grunts. Bulky human soldiers in heavy armour that are trying to invade Gamerath and their Robotic accomplices are the second. You use the gun’s add-ons to help you defeat certain enemies and solve puzzles in the game. There are two different bullet types, one is your generic bullet type and the other is an electric bullet, both of these have the RC bullet add-on which allows you to remote control a bullet after its fired and a Grenade add-on which lets you fire grenades that are remotely detonated by the right trigger and have the option to be sticky. The first half of the game is where you are going to find most of the challenge as you get familiar with enemy patterns but after a certain point no new enemies of any significance appear other than the boss battles at the end of levels that basically require you to put into action all the skills you learned till that point. The game play after the first half becomes predictable and consequently easier. At the end level is where the difficulty spikes up again not because of new enemy types but of the sheer volume of baddies you are having to take down at one go which requires incredible dexterity with the thumb sticks.
The game is flat out gorgeous, it reminds me of the popular cartoon show Adventure Time with its colour palette. Essentially each level is one continues art piece that you are playing through, whether jumping , taking cover , strafing or firing your gun the animations are fluid and fit Rise’s characterisation. The same thing applies to your enemies which have a great look to them as well.
The narrative in the game is basic but serves the purpose of this game well as it gives you enough motivation to keep going forward to its resolution. The music soundtrack was fitting and added a sombre atmosphere that complements the city sections and devastated areas you are playing through and as the buzz of electricity and various sound effects of guns being fired and enemy’s being destroyed mixes and matches with the soundtrack and level art the game truly stands out as an audio visual medium.
I played this game on the Xbox One and for the most part it ran flawlessly other than a few frame drops here and there but nothing really to complain about.
The game is not that long and might last you between 5 to 7 hours from start to finish.
Final verdict is a buy as the game has outstanding visuals, enjoyable game play and great humour sprinkled throughout the experience.