Awesome retro fun!
First off; Lukie comes through again. Got the game in perfect, described condition with the jewel case, and the disc looks great without a scratch!
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A weird thing to note - not Lukie Games' fault - is that it doesn't work on every Playstation I have; my PS2 Slim can't read it while my PS3 is just fine playing it. I have a feeling that it's just the games are getting old (physical media degrades, y'all) and certain hardware configurations just can't read it correctly. So be warned about that, IN GENERAL, if you're hunting down retro CD based games. It's been a concern for me for awhile, and lately I've been seeing more and more CD games from the PSX era have difficulty running on my older Playstations :/
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As a game, Floating Runner is super simple, very colorful and loads of fun... as long as you know what you're getting into. A 3D platformer (technically a run-n-gun style platformer) from the days before Super Mario 64, this design is a little messy. It's fairly aimless, and its very easy to get lost - something which wouldn't be a problem if it didn't have a doomsday timer counting down the whole time in every level. It also stinks that this uses the dpad instead of analog sticks (which didn't exist when this came out), as that'll hurt your thumb after awhile.
But if you're willing to accept wandering around levels and dying until you learn the ropes/your way around, then there's loads of fun to be had here! Battle myriad cute enemies with your popgun, jump and flip around to dodge attacks and progress through the stages, and collect gold & items on your way to the exit - its very straightforward. There's lots of variety in the levels, and it ends up looking stylized because it's so low-fi. Also, everything moves at a brisk frame rate and controls really responsively. I can't guarantee you'll never blame a death on something dumb in the game design (for instance, your bullet arcs a little, so it actually goes OVER enemies if they're too close in front of you. That's annoying), but its generally fair once you - again - come to terms with what its doing.
It's bright, poppy, colorful and sounds great; just like a charming Japanese action game from this era should. Definitely worth checking out if you ever enjoyed anything like Jumping Flash or Burning Rangers, and Lukie was dependable as always in getting it to me on time and in great condition, for a fantastic price!
Reviewed by: Vince from USA on 8/8/2016
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