With the success of Crossy Road (Free) and its many spinoffs, it can be tough to get excited when a developer describes their upcoming game is an “endless hopper." You immediately imagine yet another Verby Noun game that doesn’t do anything especially different from the many similar games flooding the market. So it was a pleasant surprise to see Runaway Toad, a game that Carter checked out at PAX South back in January, in action for myself. It’s not a Crossy Road-like gameplay-wise, it’s more of a platform jumper where you need to adequately estimate the angle and force of your jump from platform to platform. Runaway Toad takes that simple concept and adds in lots of interesting layers in terms of power-ups, enemies, storyline, fantastic visuals and a wonderful atmosphere.
Another very interesting part of Runaway Toad is that it’s the sort of game that seems ripe for the free to play market, but developer Niv Fisher and partner Finji Games feel passionate enough about his project and feels that it would be best as a premium game without any of that f2p BS. I think there’s a lot of potential to take these simple concepts and flesh them out more than what we normally see, providing something more than a simple distraction that you’ll forget about in a couple of days. Runaway Toad looks like it’s on that exact path and for once I’m actually incredibly excited to get my hands on this endless hopper when it launches sometime in the next couple of months.
