Run Fatty Run: Frantic arcade tapping action to help you lose some calories whilst having fun!
Here at AGR we love indie games companies and we’re especially excited by development houses with an interesting background. So when Disparity Games came to us with their product we were quite amazed by their game and the story of their development. They’re one family and they work together towards building games! Awesome… Read on to feel the family love…
Gameplay: In this weird and whacky game the world has gone nuts. Obesity has become a global endemic and one government has created a new health program to help their citizens lose weight. It involves some consistent running with a motivator… and no we’re not talking about a Personal Trainer or Mr Motivator himself… there’s a tiger chasing you! You control the hero, Bert, and you need to outpace the predator otherwise he’ll maul you to death jump on you and drag you back to the start line (…we presume the game is family friendly.) Bert is quite an amusing guy really… he’s like a stereotypical geeky and unhappy office worker. He looks like he’s stuck in a vicious cycle where he eats because he’s unhappy and he’s unhappy because he eats so much. Everyday at the office is pink shirt Friday for him and then BAM! All of sudden he’s thrown into this Running Man training regime and needs to pound the concrete faster than a jungle beast!
To get in the exercise mood with Bert then you also need to participate and you do this by tapping on the screen. The faster you tap then the faster Bert will run, and the vertical position of your taps will control where your obese runner will move to. The fairly intuitive controls are extended further with swipe actions which let you charge through objects, and roll down hills. All pretty simple but at the same time it’s very entertaining to see how this chunky guy actually has more leg muscle strength than a four legged creature. (Note that in real life there’s a certain element of truth… many big boned people have strong legs because their legs are trained in holding up their large body mass!)
Before you think this is some sort of non-stop runner game – it isn’t at all. There are multiple levels which break up the gameplay into short manageable bursts of fun. In fact there are 36 levels in total and each has a bronze/silver/gold rating system to it. The surprise doesn’t stop there though because in addition to the standard races there are some special lightening races. If you complete enough of these challenges then you’ll be rewarded with a comic strip!
Comic Surprise: Personally I’m a comic nut, so when I saw these little sketches I was pretty hooked. In fact that became my purpose for playing the game. Indeed this game is fun to play in short bursts, but it’s even better to play for the comic rewards.
Game Theming: Overall the game is quite lively and the music is just upbeat enough to get you into that running mood. Personally I think some more tiger growling noises would increase the excitement (but they would be pretty cheesy too!). The visuals are superb and there’s excellent 3D graphics. All the smooth models and pretty colour palettes make it a gentle and easy on the eyes game.
However, in turns of gameplay it’s not gentle or easy at all and it really doesn’t let you rest. Although it’s intuitive, it’s also very hectic and intense. In fact, it’s so manic that I was breaking into a sweat from playing and perhaps I was losing calories from the exercise too!
Tuning: As with every new game there are obviously some areas which need some tweaking. The key areas we’ve spotted are the Gold stars and the touch interface. However we’re quite confident that successive releases will iron out these issues and polish this game up. More importantly we think that the developers will actually listen to your requests and try to accommodate for you.
Rating: 4/5 Run Fatty Run will urge you to tap your screen faster and harder. The exercise inducing gameplay is coupled with a unique comic strip reward! Complete the game to find out what becomes of your hero, Bert!
Run Fatty Run Promotional Youtube Video
Run Fatty Run Tips from Android Games Review
- When you frantically tap away at the screen then your tapping position will probably drift downwards. To reduce this effect then you should orientate the screen slightly towards the portrait position.
- If you’re right handed then you may realise that tapping on the right of the screen would obscure your runner’s vision. To eliminate this problem then tap on the left of Bert. Though it’s not intuitive to tap behind Bert, he will still run correctly and the increased vision will improve your run dramatically.
- You should start tapping frantically before Bert actually gets into position for running because this will set your initial speed quite high, thus giving Bert a mini boost ahead of the tiger at the beginning.
- Smashing through benches will provide a speed boost which will let you get to the top speed. So it’s imperative to crash into each bench you see available. If you want to gold star all the rounds then you almost have to do this.
- The donuts have a gravity/attraction effect which you can sometimes use to slingshot yourself to increase your speed. That means as you run past it you can slide towards it to get a subtle increase in speed. Keep up your pace and then you’ll maintain this speed boost.
- Like in the Olympic 100m sprints, you should dive at the end to get the subtle decrease in running time. It’s alright to fall over since you’ll already be at the end of the race.
Developers: Disparity Games
Run Fatty Run QR Code
(Click on the image or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto Google Play)
