Criticism of capitalism comes in all shapes and sizes. Cabaret shows, political parties and – from this day on – mobile games! In “Run on the Bank” by Reject Force Entertainment, you slip into the role of Ramblington Babblington, whose bank vault exploded (Scrooge McDuck sends his greetings!). Now, it’s not raining men, it’s raining golden coins and you have to get all money back, whereas the dirty peasants try to snaffle your savings.

Life is like a hurricane here in Duckburg…

Story: 1

The hilarious setting of “Run on the Bank” is preluded by an intro, that is one of the best openings, that I’ve seen for years. Plus, the love for details in this game is simply sensational. “Run on the Bank” is full of creative elements, original ideas and smart references. Do you see the billboard ad in the screenshot below? Yes, it’s a reference to the Big Brother from George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.  Not a common thing to discover in a mobile game.

Usually, mobile games are rich in fun and poor in story, but this time, it’s exactly the other way around.

Gameplay: 0

Sadly, the developers seem to have spent so much time and love for the story, that they had no XP left to level the game mechanics. Like a bodybuilder skipping leg day, “Run on the Bank” is walking with a limp and crashing into three hurdles.

1. The Controls: Steering Mr. Babblington through the streets is like taking your drunk friend home. He runs automatically, but every time you poke him into one direction, he’s rushing forward like there’s no tomorrow.
2. The Learning Curve: Whereas the good (but far too time-consuming) pillow fight tutorial treats you with kid gloves, the first stage is so hard, that I was not capable of reaching the next level after ten tries.
3. The Overview: For reasons of clarity and comprehensibility, developers usually try to keep both the user interface and the game screen as neat and clean as possible. In this game, 75% of the action takes place in 25% of the screen, where tiny pixels compete with other tiny pixels for more tiny pixels.

You better run, run, run, run, run…

Light and Shadow

Actually, I’ve never reviewed a game, that is as ambivalent as this one. The setting of “Run on the Bank” is classy and superb, whereas the game itself isn’t able to keep up with it. The good news is that it’s so much easier to tweak the gameplay than comping up with a whole new game idea. That’s why I am very optimistic about this game and 100% sure that Reject Force Entertainment will make the best of it. Follow their progress and download the game here.

All pictures are in-game screenshots.