Galaxy Run (iOs) Review

“Help get Rez home”

Spiel Studios brings a brand new auto-runner to the App Store with the newly released Galaxy Run. As is common with the genre, there isn’t a whole lot of story to the game. Basically, you are an astronaut who has been forced to make a crash landing. With your ship out of commission, you decide to take off for home on foot. Implausible though it may be, it serves its purpose of explaining why it is you must run around in space.

And run around in space you will, although the main mechanic is actually jumping. There are 360 levels in Galaxy Run, and each of them stays true to the main format. Your character (Rez), starts each level at the left side of screen. His running (and the timer) begin when you tap the screen for the first time. From there on out, you simply tap the screen to cause Rez to jump over obstacles and across divides to platforms in order to make it to the right side of the screen. It moves very quickly, and a level done perfectly takes mere seconds to complete.

If you succumb to spikes or other obstacles, Rez will get moved back to the left of the screen while the timer keeps going. Your points at the end of the level are based on your time, so getting things done as quickly as possible is always the goal. Of course, things don’t stay as easy as just running and jumping for long, and soon you’ll be timing your jumps to pick up items that will allow you to swing, double jump, and even defy gravity to make your way through the levels. Yes, there is gravity in this version of space, and while that takes a little suspension of science to get over, collecting pick-ups that will immediately send you soaring up or dropping down is a really neat mechanic that ups the challenge and provides variety to play, even if you are still just tapping the screen.

Galaxy Run stays strict to the idea that you must complete each level in turn before advancing to the next, but there are a few tricks you can employ when you find yourself truly stuck. You can try slo-mo, which slows Rez down enough to work your timing out. Ghosting allows you to pass directly through obstacles. The skip feature allows you to completely skip a level. You’ll get a few of these handed to you at the start – but once you’re out, you’re out unless you want to shell out for in-app purchases. The game is super challenging, requiring split second timing to get jumps just right if you want to make it through, so I can see where these bonuses would be helpful. That being said, each level can be done without them (you just have to try and try again), and if you do happen to skip a level, you’ll likely just get stuck again on the next, as they sure don’t get any easier.

Galaxy Run is a challenging auto-runner that sends you soaring through space on a journey towards home. Each level requires split second timing to master, but the single touch mechanics of the game makes that achievable with a little luck and a lot of practice. The bite sized levels make it easy to pick up and play for just a few seconds here and there, but if you’re the type who gets easily frustrated, prepare to shell out for some extra cheats.