Review: Canabalt

BeatShapers bring us Canabalt, a run for your life, jump gaps and obstacles and avoid traps kind of game. Can you run for your life?

Pros:

• Simple game play mechanic, you just keep running.
• Simple controls as in every button is jump!
• Music score is cool and keeps the adrenalin pumping.
• Great graphics with some nice touches thrown in for good measure, such as birds flying around, smashing through windows. Really good animations.
• Levels randomly generate so you never get the same game twice.
• Game gets progressively faster the further you go.
• Perfect for handheld play and a perfect example of the dreaded “just one more go” genre.
• Obstacles in your way such as bombs dropping down, boxes in your way, air vents and big jumps do a really good job of messing up your run.

Cons:

• With a game such as this, there is only so many times you can play it without getting bored.
• When speeding up it sometimes does a blur effect which can disorient you, usually resulting in a death.
• The music while good can get repetitive.
• Later in the game ledges can be hard to make out and luck plays a huge part.

In summary, for a quick pick up and play title, this ticks all the boxes. I would have liked to have an online leaderboard on the Minis version to entice players to keep plugging away. But for what it is I really enjoyed it. It’s a small game with a lot of playability.