SWARMRIDERS

Endless runners are a relatively new type of games, and it’s obviously a genre sustained by indie developers. They may not be big or complex, but they have the potential to keep you engaged for quite some time if you enjoy a challenge. Not only that, but the genre is still young, which means that developers can come up with a variety of interesting ideas.

SWARMRIDERS is an arcade endless runner in which you only have one purpose: survive for as long as possible. In order to do that, you must keep shooting the enemy ships that keep coming toward you, which is easier said than done. It may require a little practice and a bit more patience than your average runner, but it’s just as much fun to play after you figure everything out.

The first thing you’ll notice about SWARMRIDERS is just how simple everything about it is. The background is black, the ships are very low-detail, and there’s nothing else to distract you. This may be a problem in other games, but you’ll barely have time to notice the lack of detail here. Even so, there’s a chance you’ll get bored after a while, especially since there’s no way to improve your ship or advance to new levels.

The gameplay is just as simple as everything else from a conceptual point of view, in the sense that you don’t have to do much, other than steer and aim. The ship moves on its own, which means that you only have to steer in order to avoid enemy contact and pick a better path. Even the aiming is simple, but since everything moves incredibly fast, you need some practice before you get the hang of it.

As mentioned before, there’s nothing exciting about the graphics, since the game is designed to be as basic as possible in this regard as well. The retro style is even simpler than in most games, especially when it comes to the background art. On the other hand, the soundtrack is pretty electric, at least until you start to get bored of hearing the same tracks.

All things considered, SWARMRIDERS is the perfect cure for slow afternoons, especially since you can pick it up and play right away. However, it needs more variety to be the kind of game that deserves more than a few minutes of game time.