Beagles have escaped from a makeup testing lab and it’s up to two kids to rescue them in the wild.  Rescue: The Beagles is a classic arcade-like, continuous runner kind of game where you must avoid enemies, collect power ups, and save the beagles before they go off screen.  It’s available for most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.

You can choose to play as one of two kids, and there are co-op and competitive modes, too.  But the basic gameplay is that you are on an auto scrolling 2D platform screen and can jump up or down to platforms if they aren’t too high.  You must collect the beagles as they go past while avoiding enemies and collecting power-ups.  You lose a life if you fall too far, get hit by an enemy, or if a beagle gets to the edge of the screen before you collect it.  When all lives are lost, it’s Game Over.

The power-ups include owls that you can throw at enemies to defeat them.  Parachutes and ropes let you fall down or climb up ledges that are too high.  When you complete a level, you can upgrade one of your stats if you have enough points.  These include running speed, letting you hold more items, etc.  But I didn’t really notice much difference in the upgrades.

Two of the problems I have with the game you can kind of fix in the options screen.  I didn’t like how objects can be hidden behind trees, but you can turn on an X-ray mode to see them.  I also didn’t like how you can die if you fall to far, but you can also turn on a mode that lets you see which areas are safe and which are not, which helped a little bit.  But I don’t know if the game had bad controls or the JoyCons are just sucky, but I would always fall left or right instead of straight down which messed me up.  But as it stands, the game is just way too hard.  If they eliminated the fall damage gameplay mechanic, I think it would’ve been more fun.

Kid Factor:

Rescue: The Beagles is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Mild Fantasy Violence.  If you hit an enemy or fall too far, you just kind of fall over and that’s it.  Plus the pixel graphics negate a lot of the violence.  Reading skill is helpful for the text, but not necessary just to play.  But younger gamers may find this one too difficult.

Tags: Game Reviews