Mars Runner is a racing game from Jake Poznanski who we like to think is the card puzzle game guru on Windows Phone 7, and this time he has broken away from his usual genre and has taken on the task of delivering a racing game.. How did it go ? Read on to find out

One expect Jake Poznanski games to be good in the graphics department and Mars Runner does not disappoint and with a fun gameplay mechanism its easy for anyone to jump-in and have fun with. The game uses the accelerometer for controls , and use tilt the phone to maneuver your ship around the rocks on the surface and you the the ability to slow down time to move around those hard to get past obstacle laden course.

Mars Runner is a space racer and there is a bit of storyline to the game in the description on the marketplace but the game itself has not many reference to it which was kind disappointing. When you launch the game you get the main dashboard where you can view the online leaderboard filtered by weekly, all-time and local scores, there is handy find me button here which will pull your rank and score from the leaderboard. The also offers the player 10 unlock-able trophies for completing various feats in the game from the simple play one game to fly without using the time warp for 5 mins, these offer the gamers to shoot for something other than the top spot on the leaderboars. The dashboard also shows your your stats and how well you are doing and if your rank on the leaderboard has gone down/up, which is a great motivation to get back to the game.

There are some basic in game options but the sensitivity of the accelerometer was not one of them. When you are ready to launch the game the game gives you some info on using the controls and what to to ( which kind acts as the tutorial ) and you get to pick one of the 3 available difficulty Easy, Medium and Hard , the difficulty is governed by how fast your ship moves and how fast your time warp meter is used up.

The game itself is quite fun and the controls works great, you tilt the device to steer and touch the screen to time warp and the aim is to avoid the rocks and keep going as long as you can with out crashing in to the rocks that are scattered all over the course. Now lets see the the main issue that I had with the game.. it’s repetitive and you find that out two minutes in to the game :(. You get a section where there are rocks at either side and then there is a a section where the rocks are scattered all over the place and the game keeps throwing these at you over and over. Dont get me wrong the game is awesome for short bursts of games from time to time but if you try to play this for a while then, if you are like me, it will be boring. I do hope Jake updates the game with perhaps some more elements like powe-ups, enemies , some other structures like tunnels, bridges, etc so gamers will be able to enjoy this game for longer :)

To sum it up : Great game in short bursts but not something you can play for long. The game’s presentation, music and controls are really good and when its for $0.00 , its definitely worth checking out.

Disclosure : Jake Poznanski is a long time advertiser on the site. The review of Mars Runner represent my honest opinion on the game.

Mars Runner Gameplay Video

Mars Runner Screenshots

Version Under Review : 1.0.0.0

Mars Runner is a FREE game for Windows Phone 7

Windows Phone 7 Game Rating

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