Rise & Shine (Xbox One)
Rise & Shine takes place in a rather creative and delightful setting for a video game, that being the world of Gamearth. Gamearth is a planet where various video game characters are said to live, the game using legally safe analogues for characters like Mario and Q*Bert for statues and set dressing while also integrating game mechanics as part of the world’s lore. Extra lives and respawning are acknowledged capabilities of some citizens of this planet, but while the backgrounds and references are certainly fun, perhaps the most interesting interpretation of game mechanics would have to be the planet’s religion, where players are believed to be Guides who help certain people on Gamearth achieve their destiny, while game developers are identified as the Creators of Gamearth and its people. With 8-bit characters and locations representing this world’s version of the past as well, Gamearth is a concept with a lot more potential than this short game touches on, but perhaps the stranger thing about Rise & Shine’s use of Gamearth is that it has very little connection to the gameplay.
Despite being the realm where classic video games take place, Gamearth is a mostly peaceful world until invaders from the planet Nexgen launch a global bid of conquest. Nexgen certainly sounds like it’s going to be a pastiche of more modern games, a counterpoint to the world filled with mostly retro gaming references, but Nexgen is pretty much filled with generic robots and a brief jab at zombie games, the only major reference among them being hulking soldiers who are quite clearly based on the character designs from Gears of War. While Gears of War may have paved the way for drab cover shooters to oversaturate the market for a time, it’s perhaps not best positioned as a corrupting influence that will destroy gaming history. It’s more disappointing that the villains didn’t go for a broader reference scope, the Gears of War references perhaps not entirely intended to be harsh jabs but rather a good face for the concept of Nexgen, something not communicated well when it’s the only franchise serving as the bad guys. When the Nexgen invasion begins though, a child named Rise ends up coming across a character meant to resemble Link from Legend of Zelda, this legendary hero running out of respawns and leaving his sacred gun Shine behind. Rise is the only one able to pick the gun up, learning that not only can the weapon speak, but if Rise dies, Shine will bring him back from death. So begins Rise’s quest to take down Nexgen and save Gamearth, which he’ll mostly do by running and gunning through levels.
Control in Rise & Shine isn’t too hard to a get a grip on, the player having a double jump, a quick dash used to get out of trouble, and the ability to pull out their gun and aim it with one of the control sticks. Over the course of the game you can get new ammo types and firing methods to change the way your gun fires, but you’ll never run out of ammo fully, instead just needing to reload Shine after emptying a clip. Most of the game will be about firing at enemies, there being a few platforming sections and puzzle moments, but the bread and butter is definitely the combat, and it doesn’t really have the strength to carry the experience. Shooting enemies is often so straightforward it can’t really be too exciting, and while you do sometimes have to dodge their attacks while doing so, it’s not really pushing you to be too quick on your feet. You can even take a few weaker hits before dying in these firefights, and since the game fall backs on the same robot enemies quite often, you’ll find most battles are pretty tame. When cover gets involved though they get even less exciting. Park Rise behind some cover, wait for slow bullets to hit it, and then pop out during the window of opportunity to shoot as much as you can. Enemies can conceivably break through cover, but it would take a long time for this to happen in most cases, and while this plays into the Gears of War reference, cover shooting is a pretty dry experience when its a 2D plane and your only option is to trade turns crouching to hide and rising up to shoot. You’re even able to shoot down the slow enemy bullets at times, which mostly just means you’ll have to fire even more shots to clear a path to the enemy for the shots that will actually deal some damage.
Bosses could have offered a chance for combat to be more interesting, but they have a few holes to fall into. Dodging is definitely important during these fights, but once you’ve seen an attack once , it’s easy enough to dodge next time, the game packing a few moments elsewhere like underground mines where dying to them is pretty much the best way to learn there’s even trouble to overcome. Respawning in a stage can set you back a bit at times, so learning through death isn’t fun when a lot must be repeated due to being thrust into a new situation. Back to the bosses, even the final boss doesn’t really pack much to push you to get particularly skilled at shooting, but some bosses do at least push you to use your alternate ammo and shooting options. Among the new abilities Shine gets along the way include a guided bullet, an explosive shot, and electrical ammo, little puzzles appearing both in fights and in the environment to push you to use these. The guided bullet is perhaps the most embraced, Rise able to guide a shot around so long as there is a communication relay nearby to keep the signal to the bullet going. However, while snaking a bullet through tunnels or around obstacles to land the shot is a bit more interesting than aiming and firing, it’s often pretty slow and is less puzzle-solving than it is avoiding walls like a game of Operation. The explosive shot has a few moments where it needs to be lobbed properly and the electrical shot might need to be switched on to disable systems, but they aren’t pushed too hard during normal play. Minigames can give these extra shot types some enjoyable challenges, but the minigames crop up briefly, the focus remaining on the shooting system that doesn’t have much going for it.
Rise and Shine has a lot going for it artistically. The worlds are colorful and teeming with cute touches for long time gaming fans, but the gameplay, strangely enough, doesn’t feel like an appropriate fit for the world. I feel like one has to call it a run and gun platformer, but it doesn’t play like Mega Man or Contra. The movement here is very minimal since having your gun out makes you move quite slowly, your options limited to dodging attacks if the game hasn’t put a wall nearby to crouch behind. The shooting is also limited due to the clip size and how many of the confrontations with enemies amount to you standing in place and aiming your gun around to hopefully shoot them down before you die. Rise & Shine didn’t need to be like the predecessors it lovingly references, but it feels like it should have at least learned from them. Too much of Rise & Shine is slowly completing tasks, the game pushing against you at some moments like the zombie invasion or minigames to actually require some skill or quick action, but mostly just about identifying the particular check list of actions you’ll need to do to progress and lining up your shots do them right.
THE VERDICT: Rise & Shine concocts a brilliant setting in the form of Gamearth, but none of the creativity it used to make a world based on video game rules seem possible is used to make the central gameplay exciting. Most of the fun in Rise & Shine is from seeing how it’s turned classic game concepts and imagery into part of its world, but to get to these references, you need to push through some slow shooting where battles don’t really test your abilities so much as your patience. Hiding behind walls and waiting your turn to fire grows stale quickly, and even when you need to actively dodge during a gunfight, the battle itself still amounts to slow interaction. Moments that ask you to more actively consider your aiming and shot types do keep things from being a complete drag, but the action on offer is just too plain to support its part of this short experience.
And so, I give Rise & Shine for Xbox One…
A BAD rating. When I first saw gameplay of Rise & Shine, it looked exciting. When I saw the idea for its game world, it was looking even more like it would be a good time. However, Rise & Shine squanders the concept of Gamearth by attaching it to a very slow shooter. Even when you’re moving around quickly in a battle, it still feels like things take too long to complete due to resilient enemies or their sheer numbers. Even though it has some ambush moments that might take you by surprise and kill you, general fights can sometimes be a bit too lenient, perhaps because the game offers a one-life mode it needs to account for. Boss battles and puzzle moment are a bit too tame to be the engaging highlights or break from the core action design as well, but these are certainly problems felt more by the player than communicated by the visuals. A lot of work went into making this game look nice and chock full of classic gaming Easter eggs, but then it drops the ball on the part the player participates in mainly because what they’re doing isn’t as good as it looks.
Rise & Shine tries to embrace a few different ideas without ever putting in the time to hone them into something enjoyable. When the best way to describe some of its puzzles and battles is “functional”, that’s not a good sign, but the frustrations aren’t so common it makes this game too hard to stomach. The incredible potential a concept like Gamearth has ends up wasted since it isn’t pushed as far as it should have been, leaving Rise & Shine without much fully realized besides its visual components.