Nowadays when you hear someone talk about a “runner” style game, it’s hard not to think of loads of middling to poor mobile games that were all the rage for quite some time. The thing is, the classic BIT.TRIP Runner games pre-date those titles, and shouldn’t be lumped in with them. By contrast this is a series known for its quirky charm, fair but generally challenging designs, and some great music that compliments the action. This re-introduction of the second game in the series is a great reminder of how generally simple gameplay can be well executed and compelling.

The name of the game here is to keep running, jumping, sliding, kicking, and more as you attempt to get through 120 levels of progressively more difficult fun. Starting out with the basics, you’ll get a chance to simply get into the groove of things, and early on you’ll quite possibly get some perfect runs on your first try. Enjoy those times while they last, because the further you get the higher the bar will be raised. Sure, you can still complete new stages without dying, but without having a feel for the flow the likelihood of you grabbing everything will continue to diminish as more and more new moves and elements get introduced. The pacing is reasonably gentle, giving you a few stages to acquire and get acclimated before adding more, but you’ll be juggling quite a lot pretty quickly.

What compliments this steady increase in complexity and difficulty well is the fact that, for the most part, the controls are appropriately responsive and tight, something you’ll need to take full advantage of in order to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge your way through while grabbing everything along the way. This is very much an experience where you can feel “in the zone” at times, completely in tune with the stage and what’s happening, but if you let your concentration slip just a little bit it can come crashing down pretty quickly. I think moreso than most titles, the Runner games are certainly fun but they can be a bit taxing the longer stretches you try to play it in. You really need to give it your full attention, so the best approach may be to attack it in bursts, and that also helps add a little longevity to boot.

Normally in reviews like this I’d spend some time covering the downsides, but this is one of those titles where outside of tastes there isn’t too much to complain about. I will say that while its successor, Runner3, was more weird and varied it also seemed to let some of its sections get too long, a problem I don’t feel here. Yes, you’ll need to push at times to survive until the checkpoint or the end, but for whatever reason the course designs here feel more fair, even when they continue to push you to improve. Keeping all of that in mind, this is an excellent action game that generally keeps things simple and executes its details with an ample amount of polish. Recommended without much hesitation, especially for a steal of a price.