Hey, everyone…it’s Dant Rambo again! After years of retirement and living off a modest-but-reasonable pension, I’ve decided to rejoin the workforce and tell you all about the Retro Challenges of Runner3, AKA the-game-within-the-game. Sit back, relax and pour me a nice beverage. Please.

Those of you who played BIT.TRIP RUNNER and/or Runner2 are likely familiar with our Retro Challenges. In BIT.TRIP RUNNER, they had an Atari 2600-inspired visual style (similar to that of Pitfall!). In Runner2, we modernized—relatively speaking—by giving them more of an 8-bit look. Now, what do you think the logical progression would be here? If you guessed “16-bit,” you’re wrong. Furthermore, shame on you. If you guessed “graphics inspired by the classic works of Friz Freleng and Hanna-Barbera,” you’re 100% correct and you should be proud of yourself.

The frog-leap forward in visual style isn’t even the biggest change we’ve made to the Retro Challenges, if you can believe it. As alluded to in previous posts, players will also have free movement of CommanderVideo! After much coaxing and some good old-fashioned bribery, we convinced the Commander to allow us to turn the Retro Challenges portion of Runner3 into a more traditional platformer experience. You can still run to the right—he’s very good at that—but now you also have the option of running left! Oh, and if you keep your grubby paws off the controls entirely, you’ll come to a complete halt. It’s incredible, right? Surely we’re the first developers to think of this.

I previously referred to the Retro Challenges as the-game-within-the-game because each regular level in Runner3 has a Challenge associated with it. This makes for 27 Retro Challenges in total, not to mention the three bosses you’ll have to defeat in order to progress. Every level is home to five mysterious “Gildan Coins,” which in turn can be used on costumes, capes and accessories. A Gildan amounts to $47,910 in US currency, so you can expect to pick up some pretty choice rewards with them. Let’s just say the thread count on those capes is preeeeetty darn high.

I hope this post has given you a solid understanding of how the Retro Challenges will work in Runner3, along with how much they add to the overall experience. As always, though, let us know in the comments if you have any questions!

Thanks!