Alternately challenging and frustrating, RUSH will both delight and irritate you.
Cons: Sometimes the puzzles border on downright infuriating; Certain puzzles do not cooperate with the camera
10:00PM – Anonymoe starts a puzzle in RUSH
10:15PM – After 15 fruitless minutes, rage ensues.
10:20PM – After further rage, Anonymoe gives up and uses the hint system
10:21PM – Anonymoe starts another puzzle
If you can't tell by the above time log, RUSH gave me some of the toughest head-scratchers I've encountered in a game in a while. An abstract game about guiding colored blocks into their corresponding holes, RUSH is not light on challenge. This is just as often a good thing as it is a bad one for the sake of the game.
The concept seems innocent enough: you place floor tiles to guide rolling blocks by making them turn, slide, stop, warp, etc. If a block hits a wall, it turns right. The cubes are not allowed to fall off the edge or collide with one another, and all must reach their color-coded holes. You have a limited set of tiles, so you must make the most of them, often managing multiple colors with the same tiles.
Despite the simplicity of the rules, the game's puzzles get downright devious. When you have to use tiles that switch function with every use, and figure out where to use conveyer belts instead turn arrows to manage four blocks simultaneously on a 3D plane, headaches ensue. Worse still, some of the denser 3D puzzles provide issues for the limited camera and add to the confusion. Should you figure out exactly what you need to do, it's a very satisfying feeling, but don't be surprised if you end up succumbing to the hint system more than you'd care to admit.
Thankfully, the soothing, yet catchy, electronic/jazz soundtrack helps to offset inevitable frustration caused by RUSH's puzzles. The rest of the presentation is about as minimal as can be (it's about cubes rolling over tiles, so this is to be expected). While one could want more visually, the use of simple shapes and colors is appealing.
Of course, one isn't going to buy RUSH for the presentation aspect of it: the puzzles are the important part, and the game delivers there. As a cheap game, RUSH certainly is enjoyable enough to warrant the purchase, but be warned: only the stubborn and patient need apply.