Rush Bros Review

Racing through a cel-shaded city as a Meg Myers song blasts from massive speakers that hang against the overcast sky, a spandex-clad DJ soars over a whirling saw blade, grabs a wall, and bolts up a narrow elevator shaft. A barrage of spikes launch toward him, barely missing their target. The DJ glances back the way he came and is just in time to see his opponent's ghost flickering out of sight. Seconds later, he sprints across the checkered finish line and jumps onto a switch. A giant death ray burns across the course, and victory is achieved.

Music notes are the key to unlocking colorful doors.

Rush Bros. might play just like that for you, or your experience could vary slightly because it's Johnny Cash who is singing you to victory, or Kid Cudi, or…anyone, really. The game's primary draw is that you can have whatever tunes you like playing in the background, just as long as you possess the MP3 or OGG tracks required to make it happen. You simply put everything you'd like to hear in a single folder and point the game to that location on your hard drive before you start leaping towards the finish line.

Once you look past its main hook, Rush Bros. isn't unique or interesting enough to remain entertaining for long. It features over 40 stages that are simple platforming arenas without much more to offer than colorful obstacles. You are placed in a course, and you must then quickly negotiate those hazards to reach the finish line. Mostly, that means running, jumping, climbing, and sliding along a fairly standard series of ledges while avoiding a few spike pits. You often also need to find color-coded keys to unlock various doors, and sometimes you have to push balls around or mash a button on computer consoles you find. Later courses include a few additional hazards and more-complex layouts, but there aren't a lot of distinct hazards to keep things fresh. Once you know where everything is located, you're left with little challenge beyond the pursuit of a better time.

Maybe move a little faster if that wall of spikes has you concerned…

You've perhaps already played games that allowed custom soundtracks, but in this case, the tunes that you choose to augment your experience do a bit more than simply provide familiar audio accompaniment. As the game shuffles through the assorted songs on your playlist, obstacles that you encounter within the various action courses adjust subtly to match the tempo of your selection. If you've landed on a song with a rapid drum beat, for instance, trap doors might erratically swing open and shut. You're forced to time your leaps more carefully than normal if you want to pass through an opening unscathed. A slower selection, meanwhile, may afford you more time to react, but that's not always going to work in your favor, since overall, your goal is to reach the finish line as quickly as possible. Thankfully, you're not forced to listen through an entire song if one starts playing that seems inappropriate. You can press a button or key and immediately shuffle to the next selection.

Although the notion of levels that change according to the musical accompaniment is relatively uncommon and will thus likely appeal to audiophiles, it doesn't affect the gameplay to any rewarding degree. To spot any obvious differences between how songs affect gameplay, you generally have to go from a romantic ballad to a frantic punk song while traversing a particularly troublesome area. If you're playing well, though, you're not likely to see those differences. Most courses can be completed in less time than it takes to finish a single song, and there's also atmosphere to consider. If you don't provide a playlist of your own, the game defaults to the sort of grinding, thumping tunes you might expect to hear in a club. They blend nicely with the onscreen action and the cel-shaded artwork. They get the blood pumping, whereas favorite tunes from your personal music library could feel distinctly out of place.