Rat On A Skateboard: Gnawly, dude!

Review Podgamer Recommended

Gnawly, dude!

by Craig Grannell (November 25th, 2010 at 3:56 pm)

Game: Rat On A Skateboard. Publisher: Donut Games. Price: 59p/€0,79/99¢. Buy the game

The Rat is back. After being On The Run (innovative, demanding one-thumb platforming jump-o-game with several modes) and On A Scooter (cute one-thumb jump-o-game with several modes), he’s now trying to be all cool, On A Skateboard (you guessed it: one-thumb jump-o-game with several modes).

So: gameplay. The imaginatively named Ratty has been glued to a skateboard and shoved into scary and demanding courses. The only way to help him escape from the skateboard is to ‘collide’ with helpful obstacles, whereupon he’s liberated from his shackles, flying out of the screen to his freedom/doom (depending on what he lands on). It’s a tough life being a rat.

Gnarly, dude! Totally rad! *gets shot* *dies*

If you want to play the game properly, though, you’ll have to ensure Ratty survives until the end of each of the 30 challenge courses, or, in the case of Power Stunts and Banana Harbour, forever, since they’re randomly generated and infinitely long.

The game’s controls are simple: prod the screen to make Ratty leap into the air and prod up to three more times so he performs stunts that I’m reliably informed are ‘rad’ and ‘hip’ and ‘groovy’, to use skater ‘language jargon’. Extra points are gained for perilously skidding along handrails like an idiot with a deathwish and destroying fire hydrants like a common vandal.

Newly zombied caption writer: Surely a mousetrap would be an easier way of HRRRNNN killing skateboarding vermin, rather than GRRRR lobbing an infinite pile of FRRRNNNGGG basketballs?

As always with Donut Games, you unlock each subsequent challenge level by scoring enough points to qualify for one star. Rat On A Skateboard isn’t that tough, so you’ll probably manage that within an hour, although getting two or more stars on many of the courses is tough. Again, as always, there’s no Game Center support, which is bafflingly stupid for what’s essentially a highscore game.

Zombie caption writer: FRRRNNNNN. GRRRRRR. RRRRRR. HHHHRRRRNNNNZZZZ!

Rat On The Run was innovative and fun, and Rat On A Scooter was extracted from On The Run’s bonus content and turned into a playable, amusing one-thumb survival game. Rat On A Skateboard somehow lacks the charm of the scooter game, despite offering a format with distinct challenges rather than several variations on a theme. Still, it only costs 59p/€0,79/99¢ and so Ratty just squeaks himself a recommendation.

Sadly, after writing this review, we discovered Ratty had been poisoned by Pest Control and his remains eaten by a brown cat called Kevin, who also died. Subsequent Donut Games Ratty titles will instead star Simon Amstell in a rat suit.