Rise & Shine is an interesting style of game, I believe some people would refer to this as “think and gun”. The game is essentially a 2D shooter and takes place in a peaceful world named Gamearth which is populated by video game characters although they only mildly resemble characters that you may already know (for licensing reasons it’d probably cost an arm and a leg to have the actual Marcus Fenix or Sonic the Hedgehog show up in the game). The

world has been invaded by an evil alien force from a world named Nexgen hellbent on taking over their world.

You play as a boy named Rise who inherits a gun almost half his size which is named Shine… hence the title, in case you were wondering where the game got its name. You can already deduce from this description that the game is going to be tongue in cheek for most of its duration. The game is basically a story about a boy and his gun as they defend their planet and crack jokes along the way, there are also some hilarious video game tropes that keen games may pick up as well.

The game has a cartoony and funny feel to it, however, there’s also a lot of areas where it’s just dark. The stark imagery in these areas are jarring and can really take you out of the overall lighthearted feel when you encounter them. For example, the game starts off with an alien attack in a mall of all places as innocent shoppers are gunned down. Later on as you traverse the world you can see lampposts in the background with bodies hung from them, so yeah, this game isn’t for the kiddies even though at first glance it may seem like a G rated adventure.

Aside from Rise, the other main character in the game is his gun which is a super powerful weapon previously wielded by one of the planet’s heroes and it (he?) has a personality all his own as well which lends itself to the overall humour of the game. In addition to this the gun also has multiple modes of fire which brings us to the “thinking” aspect of the game. One of the modes of fire allows you to guide  a bullet after it has been fired, almost like a smart bullet. This is essentially used when dealing with puzzles in the games which require you to navigate a bullet through a maze to hit a switch or a target. In addition to this there are a bunch of other modes which are often effective against specific enemies also lending to the thinking part of the game.

The initial impression is definitely a good one, the graphics are beautiful and colourful and really makes the areas of Gamearth that Rise & Shine travel through really pop out. However, the game has some issues while balancing its difficulty, while a challenging game is always welcome there are parts of the game which have you gunning down zombies, evil robots, and enormous bosses only to hit a wall with a certain area. The issue is that some of it has you trying to navigate  a bullet while all hell is let loose around you, definitely a challenging situation.

However, one area that the game shines in are the boss battles. They’re almost always these huge characters or machines with intricate areas that you’ll need to destroy before you can take them down. This made me fondly recall old favourites such as Contra on SNES back in the day. However, like Contra these boss battles wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.. actually they were pretty darn challenging. While the boss itself was tough, I found myself also struggling with the overall controls themselves. The controls didn’t feel always receptive and sometimes they could feel a little sluggish or off, this is often an issue when you’re fighting a ton of enemies as well as a huge hulking boss firing off a thousand bullets your way..

Although, if you persist enough you can get through it which is basically on par with the classic 2D legends of yester-year. One thing that really helped was that the checkpoints themselves occured often enough that you’re not wasting your time redoing areas that you don’t have to. I found that the game really shined, if you’re pardon the pun, when the areas were zoomed out and you’re able to actually run and gun the bunch of enemies on the screen. Otherwise, the game is mostly zoomed in and you’re facing a few enemies at a time.

The average length of the game seems to be around 3-4 hours, however, the actual game itself would be even shorter than that if not for the high level of difficulty. However, after beating the game you’ll unlock a new level of difficulty and also be able to run through the game to get all the collectibles. For a game like this, the length seemed to be just right, if never really wore out its welcome.

Overall, the game enjoyable considering all the quirks and issues that I had with it. The developers for the game, who’ve only previously handled mobile games in the past are to be commended for trying something new and dabbling in the console\PC game market. I felt that the game was pretty enjoyable especially considering the fair price point, and fans of retro 2D shooters may find something to appreciate here… rise up!

Score: 7/10

This game was reviewed based on a copy provided by Adult Swim games.