The main draw of Gravity Runner is its aesthetics — the bright neon colors and synthwave soundtrack do wonders to sell the vibe and it works quite well in practice. It’s a sharp but intriguing contrast to the game’s premise — it puts us in control of an orange-clad astronaut running for his life from an ever-growing black hole. It’s all very surreal and I really do appreciate it. However, the visuals and sounds can’t save a game if its mechanics aren’t well-designed and polished, which is where Gravity Runner really misses the beat. It’s posed as a challenging, arcade-style, physics-based 3D platformer and well… It really is all of those things, for better or for worse.

Renan Greca