Super Rude Bear Resurrection Review (PS4)

2D platformers are an ancient genre, so it can be tough to keep new additions to this category feeling fresh. However, Super Rude Bear Resurrection brings a very interesting mechanic to the table, which sets it apart from the glut of platformers available to gamers these days.

What makes Super Rude Bear Ressurection unique compared to similar games is that when you die your corpse remains in the level, rather than disappearing into the abyss. You can use this to your advantage to make incredibly tough jumps and make insanely tricky parts of levels much easier. Developer Alex Rose has designed the platforming difficulty and overall feel to be quite similar to games such as Super Meat Boy, which are notorious for their challenge. 

While this could be a turnoff for many people who don't want to be pulling their hair out constantly, the ability to use your corpses means that anybody who picks up a controller will eventually be able to progress through the levels. If you're on the opposite end of the spectrum and love a good challenge you can still find that here, too. The overwhelming majority of puzzles are designed so they can be solved without the need to strategically place your corpses, so if you want to try and make these mindboggling jumps on your own you can do just that. Rude Bear also has a wizard fairy companion who can dissolve corpses, which is handy for those who don't want much assistance and it means you never have to worry about a corpse blocking your path.

With death being an integral part of the game it's important that a rigid checkpoint system is in place. You will find that in most cases there is a checkpoint before every major puzzle, allowing the use of your corpses to thrive as you don't have to constantly re-do sizable sections of a level. Respawning after a death is also instantaneous, which maintains the breakneck pace of the game and keeps everything flowing nicely. Unfortunately, the novelty of constant deaths starts to wear off by the end of the game and can become a little annoying. 

The levels are segmented into different worlds, and each world brings something completely new to the table. There's always a new gimmick or hazards like disappearing blocks, freeze rays or missiles being introduced, and the level in space completely messes with the gravity. These constant additions keep you on your toes and it prevents the gameplay from ever becoming stale. Similarly, the end of each world sees Rude Bear encounter a boss battle, which generally incorporates many of the hazards found during the stages you just played through. These boss battles are hit and miss, with some being really great like the homage to Mega Man's boss battles, while some are just poorly thought out and a complete pushover.

One of the best aspects of this game is the music. All the level themes are catchy, extremely well produced, and fit perfectly with the kind of tone the game is going for. We also found the great soundtrack was a very welcome addition when we were stuck in certain areas for extended periods of time.

The biggest issues we found with the game is that there was an issue with saving our progress. Despite beating World 5 and 6, upon starting the game up again, we were back at World 4, which was made even more strange by the fact we had the Trophies for completing these worlds. Thankfully, Super Rude Bear Resurrection is relatively short, so it didn't take too long to trudge back through the levels.