Bit.Trip Presents...Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 165 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 126 out of 165
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 165
  3. Negative: 15 out of 165

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  1. Reuk
    Feb 27, 2013
    10
    The best word to describe this game would have to be "Fun". The game looks gorgeous, controls flawlessly and it has enough content to keep you entertained for a long time but in the end it just come down to one simple fact. It represents the core of what gaming should be. Fun. Amazing work from Gaijin games and I hope we see more of that.
  2. robinjam
    Mar 5, 2013
    10
    Excellent graphics with fluid animations
    - Slick, responsive controls
    - Fantastic music - Charmingly nonsensical plot and cutscenes - Optional checkpoints which grant a score bonus if skipped - Great level variety; 5 worlds, each of which has a unique look and feel, and its own musical style Overall a very impressive, polished sequel which should keep fans of its predecessor happy     Excellent graphics with fluid animations
    - Slick, responsive controls
    - Fantastic music
    - Charmingly nonsensical plot and cutscenes
    - Optional checkpoints which grant a score bonus if skipped
    - Great level variety; 5 worlds, each of which has a unique look and feel, and its own musical style

    Overall a very impressive, polished sequel which should keep fans of its predecessor happy whilst also being more accessible for new players.    … Expand
  3. Snark
    Feb 26, 2013
    9
    Everything a follow up should be. Improves on the first Runner by leagues, while adding just enough new stuff to keep it fresh. The amount of stuff to unlock and the online leaderboards keep me pretty confident that i'll get more out of this $15 game than I have out of many full priced ones. Plus: You can put a walkman on CommanderVideo. If that doesn't sound great to you, you don't have a heart.
  4. ThatDoesNOTRock
    Feb 26, 2013
    9
    Fun, addictive, and deceptively simple gameplay. Accessible enough for the casual gamer, and packed with enough challenges and secrets to keep the old-school gamer and completionist busy for hours.
  5. TacoSalad
    Mar 14, 2013
    10
    Runner2 is the most fun I have had with a videogame in years. I have been a gamer for 20+ years and I would recommend this game to EVERYONE. This game has had me smiling for 3 days. 10/10 for me.
  6. Tursmo
    Mar 2, 2013
    9
    Colourful, fast and rhythmic. All you could hope from a new Bit.Trip game. For me Runner was always "the" bit.trip game, and Runner 2 doesn't disappoint. In some points its easier than the previous game (although in some parts rightfully so, no need for those 100% perfect timed springboards), but still has it's own magic. The good music is still there, the game looks great and has enoughColourful, fast and rhythmic. All you could hope from a new Bit.Trip game. For me Runner was always "the" bit.trip game, and Runner 2 doesn't disappoint. In some points its easier than the previous game (although in some parts rightfully so, no need for those 100% perfect timed springboards), but still has it's own magic. The good music is still there, the game looks great and has enough content for a… Expand
  7. eternalsnows
    Jul 23, 2013
    10
    Bit.Trip Runner2 is a perfect game. The controls are perfect (I'm playing with a 360 controller). The visuals are perfect. The music is perfect. The gameplay is perfect. You can always have differing opinions when it comes to personal taste, and so I'm sure Runner2 is not everybody's cup of tea. But from a purely objective standpoint it's clear that Gaijin Games put out a reallyBit.Trip Runner2 is a perfect game. The controls are perfect (I'm playing with a 360 controller). The visuals are perfect. The music is perfect. The gameplay is perfect. You can always have differing opinions when it comes to personal taste, and so I'm sure Runner2 is not everybody's cup of tea. But from a purely objective standpoint it's clear that Gaijin Games put out a really exceptional product here. There's plenty to keep both casual gamers and achievement hunters coming back for more. Highly recommended!… Expand
  8. gilgatex
    Mar 14, 2013
    10
    I can honestly say that this is the most fun game I've played so far in 2013. I would personally rate it a 10 (as I've played it enough to get triple perfect+ on everything), This game is more of a reaction/rhythm game than it is a platformer. Just like Guitar Hero, you have to press the right buttons at just the right time. If you like those types of games, you'll love Runner 2.

    The    I can honestly say that this is the most fun game I've played so far in 2013. I would personally rate it a 10 (as I've played it enough to get triple perfect+ on everything), This game is more of a reaction/rhythm game than it is a platformer. Just like Guitar Hero, you have to press the right buttons at just the right time. If you like those types of games, you'll love Runner 2.

    The two most important updates in this franchise are 1) checkpoints and 2) the ability to change the difficulty level on the fly. I've found myself ragequitting this game a lot less frequently. And for the purists, the checkpoint is optional; you get a large bonus to your score if you choose to skip it.

    I do want to caution people looking to buy the game that if they hated the first BIT.TRIP Runner, they might find this game a little more tolerable, but probably still won't really like it.    … Expand
  9. stjazz
    Feb 26, 2013
    10
    This game is just awesome. If you love bit. trip series, you must try this game. The graphics are just awesome, the gameplay has a lot of improvements and the lengh of the game is just perfect.
    10/10
  10. firehazard42
    Mar 11, 2013
    9
    I was already impressed with the original Bit.Trip Runner. Even so, it did have its flaws here and there. The difficulty spikes were very unforgiving, especially early in the game, and it really put off a lot of players. Fortunately, it wasn't in vain, as Gaijin has heard the fans, learned from mistakes, took everything good about the original and added enough new content to do theI was already impressed with the original Bit.Trip Runner. Even so, it did have its flaws here and there. The difficulty spikes were very unforgiving, especially early in the game, and it really put off a lot of players. Fortunately, it wasn't in vain, as Gaijin has heard the fans, learned from mistakes, took everything good about the original and added enough new content to do the impossible, and take Runner to the next level. If your a bit.trip fan, get this. If you like rhythm games, get this. If you play games, get this. Seriously. GET. THIS. GAME.… Expand
  11. Fordom
    Mar 11, 2013
    7
    Rhythm should be synced on keystroke not the character's motion. This made me kind of out of beat (and character died) by aligning buttons with the music (just like other music games). Otherwise, it is a great game.
  12. korkow
    Mar 6, 2013
    7
    As someone who really enjoys rhythm based games, I initially had a lot of fun playing this. However, I quickly found the "normal" difficultly setting to be far too easy, and switched it to hard. The game instantly became extremely frustrating. It's kinda annoying that you have to do the levels completely perfectly to continue. I would have really like to have maybe one or two health pointsAs someone who really enjoys rhythm based games, I initially had a lot of fun playing this. However, I quickly found the "normal" difficultly setting to be far too easy, and switched it to hard. The game instantly became extremely frustrating. It's kinda annoying that you have to do the levels completely perfectly to continue. I would have really like to have maybe one or two health points or something so I can keep going when I mess up. But being sent back to the beginning again and again and again and again and again really started to get on my nerves. So I set it back to "normal", and was once again boringly breezing through the levels with little effort. Also, the music could be better. In most levels, the music doesn't really get "good" until the very end, at which point it... ends. It'd be better if some levels could START OUT with awesome music and just build on that, instead of starting with quiet, dinky, boring blips.

    Also, there's no setting to sync audio with video (like in Guitar Hero etc), so on my screen, the audio always seems a tad ahead of the video, which makes the game difficult to play.    … Expand
  13. met306
    Mar 9, 2013
    0
    This game is literally just quick-time events. I don't understand the appeal in it, at all. I can safely say that it's better than Bit.Trip Beat and Bit.Trip Runner 1 though, but that's not much of an achievement. The fact that games like Dishonored and Stalker have a lower score than this sickens me.
  14. UjuidarEhcram
    Jan 11, 2014
    5
    BIT.TRIP Runner 2 is a rhythm/platformer where you run along a path, collect gold, and avoid/defeat tons of obstacles along the way.

    Much like the first BIT.TRIP Runner, I just couldn't enjoy this game despite my best efforts. The art is beautiful, and it's nice to see that Gaijin can make a beautiful, non-retro game. The music is wonderful as always. The gameplay, though... I normally    BIT.TRIP Runner 2 is a rhythm/platformer where you run along a path, collect gold, and avoid/defeat tons of obstacles along the way.

    Much like the first BIT.TRIP Runner, I just couldn't enjoy this game despite my best efforts. The art is beautiful, and it's nice to see that Gaijin can make a beautiful, non-retro game. The music is wonderful as always. The gameplay, though... I normally really love music games of all sorts, but the gameplay is incredibly frustrating. The levels still go on way too long, and they're pretty hard, even near the beginning, which means that you will end up re-doing the same parts of the same levels over and over. I don't think the first Runner has a checkpoint system, and that is definitely a welcomed addition to Runner 2, but it's not enough. This game is certainly challenging, but for me, it wasn't a fun challenge at all.

    The keyboard controls are baffling. You can use the arrow keys and space bar, which I highly recommend over what they tell you the controls are.

    The BIT.TRIP series is a cool experiment in rhythm games, but Runner, for me, was a failed experiment and I don't know why that's the game that got a sequel. If you liked Runner, you'll love Runner 2, but I can't endorse this game for anyone else.    … Expand
  15. ns0l
    Aug 11, 2014
    8
    It doesn't look interesting. I'm old enough for this kind of stuff. But let's get stupid just for a while. Oh I was mistaken. This lovely game is stupidly funny. It's challenging and very entertaining, but not for more than 20 minutes per day, because your brain is gonna grow tired and you will feel bored.
  16. doniell
    Oct 4, 2013
    8
    In Short: Great Game. But BIT.TRIP RUNNER (Runner1) was better.

    In Runner2 you are playing Commander Video, who can't stop running. You have to jump, slide, kick and block to avoid the many obstacles in his way. It's all about memorizing the obstacles. The music helps you with the tricky timing, which is quite a creative approach. Runner2 makes its predecessor look like a prototype.    In Short: Great Game. But BIT.TRIP RUNNER (Runner1) was better.

    In Runner2 you are playing Commander Video, who can't stop running. You have to jump, slide, kick and block to avoid the many obstacles in his way. It's all about memorizing the obstacles. The music helps you with the tricky timing, which is quite a creative approach.

    Runner2 makes its predecessor look like a prototype. Graphics are much better, nice cutscenes, pretty menues, good voice over, polished music and sound effects. Some elements were carefully added to the gameplay, but still it feels pretty much like the original game, which is a very good thing. So why do I like Runner1 better then?

    Today's games are often designed to be as little frustrating as possible, so that anybody can beat the game and nobody is scared off by the high difficulty. I think, that's a mistake. Runner1 had a very good level design, and there were a couple of levels which made me throw my controller against the wall because they were so difficult. Every game needs levels like that, otherwise it doesn't feel rewarding to beat it. And now for Runner2: It just took me one afternoon to finish it. Not even the final boss was particularly difficult. This is what disappointed me the most....

    One thing I'd criticize about Runner1 was the graphics. Often the background was full of moving, flashing things. They were so distracting that it was sometimes difficult to distinguish between all those meaningless objects and the obstacles in the foreground that would kill you, when you hit them. This problem was not solved in Runner2. In its later levels it seems even worse...

    If I did not know Runner1, I think I would give Runner2 a 9 or even 10/10 it is just great fun! But I do know the first part, so I know this could have been done better. Still I don't regret buying it at all, and I think I will still spend some time to unlock all the extra levels.    … Expand
  17. Cyberjepp
    Jul 13, 2013
    10
    I'm a huge fan of the BIT.TRIP series, BIT.TRIP RUNNER in particular. When I saw this for pre-order, I new straight away I had to get it. So I did. I've played through the entire game and still aiming to 100% the game. Unbelievable fun and re-playability with solid mechanics and 2.5D graphics with this game, an easy 10/10.
  18. MadsonHatterly
    Mar 14, 2013
    10
    Bit.Trip Runner 2 is not so much a music game in the sense that it requires you to make music, but rather that music is your reward for playing the game. It's obvious from the get-go that Gaijin knew exactly what they wanted to do with Runner 2. Gameplay is incredibly solid, visuals are breathtakingly gorgeous, and music you'd expect to greet you on a long sprint down the bridge toBit.Trip Runner 2 is not so much a music game in the sense that it requires you to make music, but rather that music is your reward for playing the game. It's obvious from the get-go that Gaijin knew exactly what they wanted to do with Runner 2. Gameplay is incredibly solid, visuals are breathtakingly gorgeous, and music you'd expect to greet you on a long sprint down the bridge to Valhalla. Every inch of this game is polished to perfection. You find yourself almost immediately absorbed into the bizarro world they present to you, your thoughts a swirling mess of music, colors, and twitch reflex. When you fail you only feel more compelled to play further, feeling the urge to show this game what-for!

    An absolute must have game with anyone with a Steam account.    … Expand
  19. xv4xv4x
    Apr 7, 2013
    10
    Game is very fun, i played bit.trip.runner1 and i think that runner 2 is a real improvement! The graphics are improved and jumping is improving and it also supports Xbox 360 remote!
  20. Frast2013X
    Aug 2, 2013
    7
    Nareszcie nadeszła gra przy której możemy się odprężyć jak i zdenerwować naraz. Prosty pomysł na rozgrywkę, coraz to ciekawsze poziomy i momentami ciężkawy poziom trudności pozwolił wczuć mi się w tą grę i odczuwać wielką przyjemność z grania. Myślę jednak że twórcy popełnili parę błędów. Pomysł graficzny jest trochę nijaki. Rozgrywka w Runner 2 jest prosta, jednak grafika nie powinnaNareszcie nadeszła gra przy której możemy się odprężyć jak i zdenerwować naraz. Prosty pomysł na rozgrywkę, coraz to ciekawsze poziomy i momentami ciężkawy poziom trudności pozwolił wczuć mi się w tą grę i odczuwać wielką przyjemność z grania. Myślę jednak że twórcy popełnili parę błędów. Pomysł graficzny jest trochę nijaki. Rozgrywka w Runner 2 jest prosta, jednak grafika nie powinna wyglądać tak "normalnie" i kolorowo. Do tego, Runner 2 przez połowę gry coraz to bardziej się rozbudowuje, robi się coraz to bardziej ciekawszy, jednak gdy mijamy magiczną barierę połowy gry, okazuje się że twórcy nie mają już czym nas zaskoczyć.… Expand
  21. cidgrad01
    Oct 8, 2013
    9
    First & most important: play this game with a gamepad. Do not try to play with a keyboard. You will make yourself miserable.

    That being said, this is what you want from a sequel: a game that improves upon the original in every way. I haven’t yet finished this one but I’m about halfway through and it has already exceeded my expectations. I’ll start with the only negative point I have    First & most important: play this game with a gamepad. Do not try to play with a keyboard. You will make yourself miserable.

    That being said, this is what you want from a sequel: a game that improves upon the original in every way. I haven’t yet finished this one but I’m about halfway through and it has already exceeded my expectations.

    I’ll start with the only negative point I have right now: the Reverse Merman’s ball sack. He’s a character with the upper body of a fish, the lower body of a man, and testicles that hang down to his knees. I’m not a prude, but I think it’s needlessly disgusting in an otherwise lighthearted & fun game. If you have kids, you probably don’t want them seeing that. I’m an adult and I don’t want to see that. At least he is an optional character so you don’t have to unlock him, and if you unlock him you don’t have to use him.

    Aside from that blemish, this is an incredibly polished & enjoyable platformer for both casual gamers and hardcore, leaderboard chasers alike. The way they designed the point system is ingenious because while they added checkpoints into each level, if you don’t use them you will get a point boost and a challenge boost since your experience will be a lot like the first game where you start all over from the beginning of the level each time you die.

    If you don’t care about your score, though, you can take full advantage of the checkpoints. They make trying to collect the gold bars scattered throughout each level a lot more fun. Ditto for the secrets and unlockables, of which the first game had none. Speaking of unlockables, there are quite a bit in this game from extra characters to extra outfits and even more of the Atari-style, ultra retro challenges featured in the first game. Levels also routinely feature multiple paths, one of which will be more difficult (but could contain a treasure or secret) or will lead to a secret level exit.

    The graphics are much nicer than the original and are 3-D while still keeping the original’s retro, 2-D feel. It makes the game look much sharper and gives more life to the characters you can play as they have more than bare bones animations this time around (the cheeseburger guy is especially fun in this respect).

    Oh and if the optional checkpoint challenge isn’t enough, there is also a new “dance” button that causes your character to dance for a split second during the level. You get points each time you dance, but your guy can’t do anything else while dancing, so you’re taking a risk when you do it. Also, getting a perfect run with all the gold bars gets your guy put in a cannon at the end where you have to try and hit a bullseye for maximum bonus points. The addition of these factors plus the checkpoint boost will keep a lot of leaderboard fiends busy for quite a while, I’m sure.

    I got this for 50% off at recent Steam sale but I’d say it would also be worth full price, especially if you enjoy competing on the leaderboards. Can’t wait to finish it.    … Expand
  22. mkull7r4
    Jan 12, 2014
    7
    Awesome and fun game concept ruined by the incredibly cheesy and testosterone depleting art style and music.

    If they remade the game with intense, quality electronica and less Bronyism it could easily be a 10/10.
  23. MikeZillaGames
    Oct 7, 2013
    8
    Great game that will either having you bobbing your head, or shaking it in disgrace as you fail over and over and over and over and over again...and it feels so damn good.

    Runner 2 is a rhythm platforming game wherein your runner...runs...at a constant pace through various obstacles. It's definitely not a traditional platformer like Super Meat Boy, and it's a far bit more simple. You    Great game that will either having you bobbing your head, or shaking it in disgrace as you fail over and over and over and over and over again...and it feels so damn good.

    Runner 2 is a rhythm platforming game wherein your runner...runs...at a constant pace through various obstacles. It's definitely not a traditional platformer like Super Meat Boy, and it's a far bit more simple. You simply move right and avoid stuff...but even though this may not sound like much, it's so deeper than what you might think.

    Levels start simple, but the game consistently throws new stuff out at you to surprise you. Jumping obstacles becomes more complex as you progress, and score attack style gameplay with online leaderboards will have you dancing about trying to maximize your performance. This game gets incredibly difficult, but that urge to "try once more, and do better this time" never leaves.

    The whole rhythm aspect of this game is incredibly well implemented. Songs move to the beat of the stage to the point where they almost mimic your performance and vice versa. Inevitably the rhythm itself becomes part of the gameplay itself.

    I'm not a big fan of the visuals, tbh. I liked the old school 8 bit look of Runner...and here, the graphics just look a bit odd to me. Aside from that, I can't complain about much else.    … Expand
  24. Edward7089
    Jan 3, 2014
    9
    A very frustrating but brilliant game. The graphics are brilliant, the music is brilliant, the gameplay is brilliantly simple.
    Every aspect of this game is designed to distract you from the essential timing of your button-presses to advance throught the seemingly never-ending obstacle courses. Alone, the simple free-running style would be easy, but the moving backgrounds, particle    A very frustrating but brilliant game. The graphics are brilliant, the music is brilliant, the gameplay is brilliantly simple.
    Every aspect of this game is designed to distract you from the essential timing of your button-presses to advance throught the seemingly never-ending obstacle courses. Alone, the simple free-running style would be easy, but the moving backgrounds, particle effects, detailed environments, hyper music and wacky ideas ensure this is not so. I love that.    … Expand
  25. DanySK
    Mar 20, 2014
    5
    I does not work with pulseaudio. I was lucky enough to spot the issue, but this is unacceptable.
    The game itself is funny for some time, then the game mechanic offers few novelties, everything resolves to trying over and over the same combos with the joypad.
  26. runner
    Dec 24, 2014
    7
    Runner 2 is definitely a casual game, intended mainly just to pass time, and it does that well enough.

    Much better than its predecessor, the music and graphics are fun to experience. The game itself is challanging and yet lite and lets you progress without wanting to kill yourself, in a way some video games of this genres sometimes do. I can easily see many people get bored or    Runner 2 is definitely a casual game, intended mainly just to pass time, and it does that well enough.

    Much better than its predecessor, the music and graphics are fun to experience.
    The game itself is challanging and yet lite and lets you progress without wanting to kill yourself, in a way some video games of this genres sometimes do.

    I can easily see many people get bored or annoyed by this game, as it can get repetitive and is quite long for such simple gameplay. That's why I think this game is good for killing like 2-5-10-20 dead minutes of the day or something like that. Personally I've been playing this game for quite a long time but only once or twice in a weekend, or something like that, and that lets me really enjoy the game and keeps me from getting sick of it.

    The bottom line - but when on sale, use only when you really wish to kill some time.    … Expand
  27. thisisdot
    Jan 29, 2019
    9
    Extremely addicting, I used to play the demos of the original games on the Wii and I remember I would stay up till 4 a.m playing them. Then recently Choice put the games on sale to celebrate the 10th anniversary and I finally got to have the chance to play through the series and I got to say, I'm glad I got to. This game does such a great job pulling you in, you're introduced to everythingExtremely addicting, I used to play the demos of the original games on the Wii and I remember I would stay up till 4 a.m playing them. Then recently Choice put the games on sale to celebrate the 10th anniversary and I finally got to have the chance to play through the series and I got to say, I'm glad I got to. This game does such a great job pulling you in, you're introduced to everything at a nice pace giving you enough time to understand each concept and because of that, you always feel up to the challenge. This game keeps you engaged all the way to the end and you'll still want to go back to it. There is a sequel out now, but if you get the chance to play these games, take the opportunity because it is worth it.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

21
#21 Best PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. CD-Action
    May 7, 2013
    85
    Gaijin Games once again managed to find a reasonable balance between trivial gameplay rules and gradually rising, pleasantly challenging difficulty level. [CD-Action 05/2013, p.75]
  2. PC Gamer
    Apr 11, 2013
    85
    Travelling along a plane at a constant pace has never been so much fun – Runner2 is an addictive and rewarding experience.
    Read full review
  3. DarkZero
    Apr 5, 2013
    80
    It manages to blend rhythmic platforming with the runner genre tremendously well, creating a cocktail of pure enjoyment from start to finish, and is accessible enough that anyone can get into.
    Read full review
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