Serious Scramblers

I think we can all agree that jumping is a huge part of any platforming game. But if you take away the ability to hop around, you get something that looks like Serious Scramblers. This is a slight but enjoyable new action game that's all about falling down a giant pit, collecting coins and avoiding the deadly spikes above. It's definitely a good time with a lot of charm, but will the simple concept be enough to hold your attention for long? That's what I intend to find out.

With no story and very little setup, Serious Scramblers reminds of one of those old school arcade games that was all about vying for high scores. You play a character that can't jump, so the goal of the game is to safely navigate your way down a giant pit by falling on platforms and bouncing off of cartoony enemies. You'll want to pick up coins along the way, which can be used to unlock new characters with unique abilities.

Like I said at the top, this is a simple concept. Serious Scramblers is one of those games you can play with only one hand, making it accessible to pretty much everybody. But don't confuse simplicity for a lack of challenge, because these randomly-constructed stages are filled with tough obstacles to overcome. The platforms will often have enemies on them or spikes that will pop up if you wait too long. There are also guns shooting at our heroes and even bad guys that fly. And if you aren't quick and don't walk off the platforms in time, the row of spikes at the top of the pit will turn you into Swiss cheese.

What I like about Serious Scramblers is that each unlockable character is a little different. They'll fall at different speeds and change the levels in a number of interesting ways. A great example of that is Motoko, who is able to stop time by standing still. This gives you a second to plan the next move, but the flip side is that your descent is faster than other characters. A lot of the abilities come down to controlling the speed of the level and your fall, as well as being able to withstand enemy bullets and ground pound any bad guy in your way. These characters have pros and cons, and none of them break the challenge of the game. This is a tricky game to beat, no matter who you pick.

The problem is that there isn't enough content to truly take advantage of this large cast of characters. There are only 27 stages to beat in the campaign, followed by a straight-forward endless mode that didn't hold my interest for very long. I was hoping to see more variety to the levels, giving me good reasons to mix things up and try different characters. But there's nothing like that, and almost all of the levels play out exactly the same way. The only real variation comes when you need to fight one of the challenging bosses, but even that ends up repeating more than I would have liked.

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And speaking of repetition, you basically see every obstacle after the first few stages. Apart from the occasional spike and flame platforms, there's not much to avoid in Serious Scramblers. You'll see the same enemies and gun turrets throughout every mode, which can be a real drag after a while. For a simple concept like this to work, it needs to constantly mix things up in order to keep you on your toes. Where are the disappearing or moving platforms? Where are the portals, walled off sections and homing missiles? And that's just off the top of my head. With so many different types of obstacles to incorporate, it's incredibly disappointing that only a few made the final cut.

I'm honestly a little surprised by the lack of variety in this game. Even the backgrounds and side panels start to blur together after a while. One of the tricks a lot of developers use is to make drastic changes to the background to keep things fresh, but they don't really do that here. There are slight variations and the colors change, but it's subtle enough to where you might not even notice it. That's a shame, because this game needed something to help each level stand out.

And that's a problem I couldn't shake. From the stage designs to the obstacles to the objectives, everything is too repetitive. Serious Scramblers is fun in short doses, but there isn't enough to it to keep me playing past a couple hours. With the campaign being so short and the endless mode being too repetitive, I found that most of my time was spent trying to unlock the different characters. Maybe you'll find that more compelling than me, but there isn't enough to this game for me to recommend.