Alright so! I'm in the US but I've got Runners on my iOS device! I'm also totally not dead I just go by a different name on the rest of the internet and haven't used this account in years BUT
If you follow these instructions, you'll be able to do this too without having to provide Canadian billing info!
1. Click the link to the Canadian release from your device (
https://t.co/a2yLhBs6s1)
2. Let it switch you to the Canadian store
3. Log out of your American Apple ID
4. Click the link again
5. Try to download the game
6. Create a New Apple ID
7. Use a non-Apple associated email and a random Canadian address
8. Verify the Apple ID through your email
9. Download Sonic Runners
Here's some
screenshots! This album will update periodically! I have documented the IAP structure as well as I can! It appears Red Rings can be exchanged for spins on the "Premium Roulette", which lets you unlock companion items (RC things from Colors/Lost World, Chao, Chip), or for rings. There is also a daily roulette that lets you unlock Color powers and Items, which can also be bought with Rings. Rings also buy you "Revive Tokens" - I have four of these, and they appear to regenerate. I'm guessing energy? But they don't deplete in the that way. These are possibly just "number of actual falls you're allowed" because they've only disappeared when I've actually died. Presumably, Rings also let you buy characters - I haven't gotten that far yet.
This all comes off to me as a potentially brutal IAP system, but I'm just going to swallow it for now because the player is basically buried in rings during the actual game and they're giving every player 2 dollars worth of Red Rings for free every day so it could be worse.
As far as gameplay goes, there's some stuff of note. You can indeed not do anything but tap to jump. Spin dash happens if you don't jump while going down hill at a certain speed. There are rainbow rings - and boy are they fun to get through. Companion items boost your score or hurt enemies or other buffs/environment or badnik nerfs. You can have a "character" and a "sub character" who level up as you move through the Story Episodes, which are given to the player in text dialogue boxes that appear between each run. There is a set goal in each run, after which the player continues running until they finally die. My high score is 188,000ish. There's a ranking system, but no single player has gotten above rank F, it seems. If you unlock or purchase an item, it's not simply given to you (outside of the first time), it's placed in your run as an item box which you need to actually *bop* to use. There are Color powers here but they do not involve motion controls (thankfully).
There is a very typical level up system, and when I say typical I mean typical for a mobile game. As you would expect from a Hardlight title like Dash or City Rush, the upgrade system serves not to upgrade Sonic but to upgrade his abilities, like the effect duration of Color powers or item boxes.
Orbot and Cubot are in it. The dialogue is kinda funny and light. So far the stories have been Eggman trying to capture animals, but I can see how this has room for expansion and deeper content. There's an Event system, and right now all new players get 25 Red Rings every day for logging in, in addition to the "10 Friends for Amy!" thing. I'm guessing in future we may see some cool story-centric events. A lot of this is similar to Lost World. New Color powers like Indigo Asteroid return, and in addition to Windy Hill and other environments being reused along with models, we see a return of the parkour mechanic - if the player jumps and barely misses the edge of the next platform, Sonic runs up the side, and the parkour sound effect plays. The music is great - there's some new stuff, but also some stuff from Unleashed-Lost World. Overall this just feels like kind of the standardized "new modern Sonic" if anything, and it's... y'know, it's what we've got. The art is nice. Models are cute.
There's Japanese text that appears in the English version, specifically in the Game Center drop-down and in the name creation screen. The game's a bit choppy, and apparently was built in Unity which is a first for Sonic Team, I think. I can see why this is in
soft-launch and why they don't think it's ready for global release, but I can also see a fully polished version of this becoming a successful little title, and it's certainly more fun and packed with content than anything Hardlight put out.
I'm not going to say I'm not bitter about Sega Networks eclipsing Sega going forward, and I'm not going to say this is on par with a console title. I'm also not going to excuse the awful in-app purchases. But am I gonna play a ton of this on subway? Am I really going to enjoy myself while I do? Heck yes. It's fast and it's fun and it's colorful and I genuinely hope it does really well - if not just for all of our sake.
This post has been edited by Roybertito: 26 February 2015 - 04:20 AM
17
360, on 24 February 2015 - 04:32 AM, said:
/>/>
