Runner3

Runner 3 is a fun, challenging experience with a weird, charming aesthetic brought down by out-of-date graphics.

Runner 3 is the most ambitious in the series yet--and also the toughest.

Despite creating two other Runners, Choice Provisions has shown that they're not out of ideas quite yet. Bring on Runner4.

Runner3 is wonderfully creative and funny, relying on a style of play that belies the challenge at its heart. A few moments of unbalanced control or obstacle design can frustrate, but this will pass when Commander Video finally nails a sequence of movements and makes you feel like a fast-fingered expert.

The true heart of Runner3 once again comes down to how well its gameplay suits rhythm game and platforming fans with a knack for perfecting their craft. Getting a Perfect or a Perfect+ on a level involves learning the patterns for its various obstacles — and this is particularly true for the game's three different knight variants — but players truly driven toward perfect runs will have to use their ears to get a feel for when to execute different maneuvers. Every jump to a gold pile or slide beneath a box feels deliberately synced with the music, and finding the groove introduces sometimes-subtle, sometimes-obvious musical cues that help keep the player on track.

Few games can tout that their frustration, difficulty and somewhat teasing attitude is what makes them so enjoyable, but Choice Provisions prove once again that the only thing more palpable than failure is the inevitable triumph.

Runner3 brings some fresh air to the formula built by past titles in the series, but it frustrates players a bit more than its predecessors.

Runner3 is a game that, in many ways, has taken one step forward while taking two back. One of its biggest alterations was an area that needed none, difficulty. Many of its newer additions have left me feeling rather indifferent. Still, I commend Choice Provisions for not resting on their laurels. Runner3 is still entertaining with its brand of frustrating (at times discouraging) fun. It'll keep me playing to improve my stats and unlock more goodies. Still, I do recommend playing the prior games first, if you haven't already. Get a feel for them, and you might be tempted to grab the cool physical edition from Nicalis with neat extras.

My early impressions of Runner3 were that the original purity of gameplay had been sacrificed in the push for more sophisticated visuals and quirkiness. After a few deaths brought about by perspective transitions, I was starting to feel an unwelcome sense of disappointment. Fortunately, once I got used to these new additions and the classic flow of Runner's gameplay loop got its hooks in me, this initial reticence was forgotten. At its best, Runner3 is the epitome of pure twitch gaming and, as such, is a fantastic addition to the series.

Runner3 is a very well done addition to the series. The new dynamic camera, combined with more visually interesting environments, makes for some memorable locales, which are bolstered by the distinct level design. The new move-set abilities provide some freshness, and there's plenty of optional content to test your skills. It's a shame that said optional content is usually tedious to deal with, and as nice as the dynamic camera is, it can also sometimes lead to a few cheap deaths. Despite that, Runner3 is an addictive (albeit short) experience that platforming fans should look into, if they are up for the challenge.