Runway™

Sometimes a game will come along that looks so unique and strangely irresistible that I just have to give it a shot. I’ve encountered some amazing peculiar games this way, but there are times when it doesn’t exactly pan out the way I had hoped. I say that because I really, really wanted to like Runway, yet after seeing it through to the credits I still feel like I don’t really understand what it was trying to be. Many thanks to the developer for the review code. DRESSED TO THE NINES The premise of Runway is outlandishly silly. You play as a fashionista, strutting across catwalks situated in the fashion capitals of the world, showing off your best outfits. The twist is that your character is actually a robot named Lisa who likes to kick the competition clean off the stage. Starting off in your dressing room, you have a range of outfits to choose from. The selection is rather limited at first, but a lot more can be unlocked by beating up the shiny supermodels in each location. There are some pretty outlandish outfits to choose from, which feels appropriate given the setting. Once you’re ready, you can then take to the stage and take out your competition. Each location has a slightly different theming and catwalk layout, but the idea is essentially the same: the supermodels are wandering around in a circle, and you have 60 seconds to beat up as many as you can. Certain models grant bonus effects, such as a time extension or an instant charge for your special attack, so those are the best ones to go for if you want the best possible score. Unfortunately though, there are only a couple of attack buttons at your disposal and it’s never really made clear as to how they actually work. To fill up your combo meter and pull of a super-charged hit, you need to mix up your attacks – with the button just not working if it feels like you’ve used it enough. It’s a weird system that sees you essentially button mashing as you never know if an attack is actually going to work or not. Worse still is that the other models walk around in circles, and absolutely nothing more. They don’t fight back, they don’t evade, they don’t do anything. You kick them off the stage and after a minute, you’re done. You don’t even need to hit a certain score to unlock the next stage and could theoretically just do nothing. My controller ran out of battery on the second stage so had to rush around finding a cable so I could continue, but I still passed the stage and unlocked the next. It’s very unrewarding and removes any incentive to replay. I imagine most people will only stick with it due to it only having nine stages, meaning that the experience isn’t going to take up too much of their time. It’s such a shame that Runway is so bland to play, as the presentation is really good for the most part. I like the Dreamcast era visuals, and even the music is pretty fitting for the setting too. Admittedly I did have issues navigating the dressing room area and selecting options on the Steam Deck, but otherwise performance on the handheld was pretty solid. However, when the game is as dull and unrewarding as this, even stellar presentation isn’t enough to save it.