High Rise

Overcoming obstacles is a quintessential part of video games, especially in the case of platformers. Difficult levels make for a memorable experience, but the difficulty must come from the level design, not the mechanics, because no one likes to struggle with the controls or deal with bugs that hurt the overall experience and promote frustration.

High Rise is a retro platformer with 2D graphics and straightforward gameplay mechanics, in which your only goal is to make it to the end of each level unscathed. There are no role-playing elements and no intricate story to put your mind through hell. Instead, the traps give you plenty to worry about, not to mention the enemies that patrol the levels.

The environment is the only tool at your disposal, because your character has no superpowers or special abilities to help him along. On the other hand, you can throw boxes and barrels at the enemies, and it’s usually enough to hit your target once in order to bring it down. However, not all the dangers can be destroyed, because some of the traps need to be avoided entirely.

It’s important to know that you can only take three hits from enemies or bullets before you have to restart the level, so it’s important to keep an eye on your health in order to avoid losing the progress you make. Granted, three strikes should be more than enough after a bit of trial and error, but some of the traps kill you instantly, so it’s not as simple as it sounds.

The retro graphics go pretty well with the general mood of the game, even if the colors are a bit dull. However, the most annoying flaw in this regard is the fact that the levels are very repetitive, since everything looks more or less the same. A bit more variety would have helped a lot with the atmosphere, especially since the environments are pretty dull to begin with.

Even if High Rise fails to make any significant contribution to the genre, the mechanics are fairly fun and entertaining over short periods of time. Hence, it can keep you busy for a while if you are not overly pretentious when it comes to level design and gameplay complexity.