On Rusty Trails

On Rusty Trails is a 2D platformer by Black Pants Studio, who are mostly known for the 2012 physics platformer Tiny & Big. The gameplay of On Rusty Trails consists of straightforward linear platforming with a slight twist. During the game you acquire the ability to disguise your character from a red robot to a blue monster, which dictates the platforms you can stand on. It's a simple idea but there's enough variety in stage design to keep it interesting. As you progress through the 100+ stages (scattered over 7 chapters) new obstacles are slowly introduced like homing missiles that kill you depending on your color, green toxic waste that kills you regardless of color, bounce pads only accessible by one color, etc etc. Levels are fairly short, ranging between thirty seconds to three minutes, and though you die in one hit/fall you have as many lives as you need to complete each level.

Each level has a few collectible tokens that can either be spent on save points or saved until the end for completion's sake. As far as I know there isn't any other function for the tokens outside of achievements. What's interesting is checkpoints become obstacles in themselves if you're trying to collect all the tokens since they're activated automatically upon touch. This was frustrating at first but I think it added a cool, riskier dynamic that the game is missing otherwise. I played the majority of levels without checkpoints, and when I did use them it was by accident and I didn't feel like restarting the stage. I would recommend playing it the same way to get more out of On Rusty Trails.

I have a few complaints though. Some of the stages require waiting for platforms to change colors and such, which can kind of break the flow. Those stages aren't too often though, and it's never egregious. There isn't much variety in the graphics. They look nice at first but you're pretty much looking at the same drab setting throughout the whole game. The game isn't meant to be beautiful - this isn't On Lovely Trails - but that doesn't mean every stage has to look the same. Another minor complaint, but I think more variety could have gone a long way.

I recommend On Rusty Trails. $13 might be a bit much but as of writing it's on sale for $3.24 which is a steal. It's what I like to call a podcast game, where you can play it while having something else in the background (I watched a lot of Curb your Enthusiasm and Simpsons while playing), but it still stands on its own merit. If you don't like platformers On Rusty Trails won't change your mind, but it's a very pleasant game.