Runman

RunMan: Race Around the World is an excellent freeware game by Tom Sennett and Matt Thorson in the style of classic Sonic titles, though fairly removed from the spirit. This is its own chaotic piece of adrenaline, and rarely has twitch-driven gameplay - a fickle concept at the best of times - been so routinely satisfying to master. In the same breadth as time trials from Rayman Origins or Donkey Kong Country Returns stretched out to the entire point, experiencing RunMan is about anything but leisurely strolling from point A to point B; you want to craft the most deliberate path you can find to push your score to its limits, transforming the make of a level and exposing every stage component as impeccably placed and timed. This is not an easy thing to expose. RunMan wears no masks: with death ostensibly impossible and stages almost mindlessly surpassable barebones, the experience is brazenly in the execution and pathfinding, and if you're looking to optimize to the letter, brother does it ask for some mean execution. The meta game is astoundingly fun, which is fairly self-demonstrative. The refuge in lunacy artstyle and 20s boom soundtrack are just the icing.

This video is a collection of gold medal runs (more precisely personal bests) for the 36 stages of RunMan, such as I've been able to exact. I don't doubt numerous stages are improvable with more measured balances between collection and time, or simply tighter routing, but if so, they're beyond what my mind found during this undertaking. The somewhat rigid scoring system in this game means constants appear frequently, which helps in understanding what the 'perfect' score for a level can theoretically be, though of course this doesn't account for optimizations that simply escape one's notice. For posterity's sake, and because it isn't self-evident, here's how score is calculated:

- any enemy killed tallies 1.
- balloons give bonuses of sequential worth; blues are 10, reds are 25, greens are 50 and yellows are 100.
- you are awarded set amounts of points based on the timer as you pass marked checkpoints (including the finish line); as a rough constant, each second is worth 10 points, and as such, 10 points are lost per second wasted past a given stretch's optimal threshold. These sets are measured in whole seconds. Varying amounts of checkpoints are present in given levels as theme, layout, length, available bonuses and desired strictness dictate.
- the main breadwinner that works in conjunction with the above is your momentum meter; as long as you are in motion, whether consistently walking or using the zoom, your momentum meter will gradually build. This goes uninterrupted unless RunMan is hit, stops, or turns while grounded. It is preserved consistently while in midair, or using certain in-stage objects. This acts as a multiplier to your timer-driven score between checkpoints, at a max of x10, and as a contrast to the flat additions of balloons and enemies. This crucial juxtaposition means the balance between what you expend time to collect and what you ignore becomes essential in tight levels to place gold, and all levels to really squeeze out the most you can.

The controls are as precise as the layout, and go a long way in servicing split-second maneuvers once you learn their sometimes non-standard details. Again, for posterity, and to lend a bit more comprehensiveness to the footage, here are the details:

- RunMan has a static, variable jump with a fixed cap and can walk in either direction at a quickly accelerating speed, also with a fixed cap. He can also dive in midair, a move that cuts short the fixed parameters of the maneuver detailed below; an incredibly integral skill to master. The jump button itself can augment in-stage tools like springs if held, but must be moderated wisely in conjunction with RunMan's final principle...
- The main gimmick and real meat of RunMan's physics is his zoom maneuver. Simply hitting the designated button sends RunMan into a static boost of speed independent of current momentum. You can trigger this boost on ground or in air. Holding the button sends RunMan into a second, faster fixed speed that destroys most enemies he contacts, automatically rebounds from walls, and locks your direction of movement. It also locks the height and distance of your jumps to their caps. It is quite literally a runaway train situation, and you'd better be sure you're using it appropriately or you can send yourself into a complete fit. Critically, RunMan will maintain his built-up momentum (and, as long as he's in motion, momentum meter) for a decent amount of time should you release zoom or segue into a walk, which means you can perform stricter maneuvers or static turns as necessary and re-trigger your zoom without breaking the meter. Using the zoom uninterrupted is easily the most efficient and consistent way to keep the momentum meter constant, and is the driving reason the game's challenge hikes so considerably when attempting an optimized score.

This philosophy to scoring, physics and design, as in this game they go hand in hand, turns RunMan into a third reflex, third puzzle, third memory challenge. If you can appreciate that kind of approach in appropriate circumstances, I'd say this game's are about as appropriate as they come. The visceral satisfaction and ludicrous speed go a long way in forgiving necessary repetition, as does revealing the elaborate nature of each level's construction through your improvement. Give it a go for yourself if you're at all a fan of Genesis-era Sonic, fast games in general, rampant anthropomorphizing or Louis Armstrong singing to a tornado.

As a final note (and possibly incentive), RunMan has a ghost system that allows one to view and compete with their own or another's previous bests. Included here is a link to the ghost files for the runs contained in this video, which once loaded into the game will play automatically alongside you during a level. See if you can expose me for the hack I am and best what I've shown you. As said, I make no claims that these are the best possible; in fact, upon review of just the first world's footage I can already notice a few stages where enemies that could be used to push the score an inch or two further are ignored. The balance between factors in RunMan can get as obscure as weighing a x8 versus a x10 between checkpoints at the expense of a single second, and this can sometimes have surprisingly drastic impacts on your final score, to the point where I'm sure hundreds can be gained on what I've shown by someone with a sharper mind. I hope to instill a drive in the viewer to play this and see how far it can be pushed. It deserves the attention.

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