MechRunner is an Endless Running Game by Spark Plug Games. It was funded
on Kickstarter on May 13th, 2014, and released for PC through Steam on July 15th, 2016. A Playstation 4 version followed on April 18th, 2017.
On June 30th, 1908, The Tunguska Event occurred. No one knows what happened, despite the many investigations into it. It remains one of the biggest mysteries of our time.
Until the mid-40s, when a strange alien spacecraft was discovered there. In the years that followed, the KGB set to work researching the mysterious tech to harness it to their ends. They even set up a secret program called the Division Of Advanced Weaponry (O.S.O. in Russian) dedicated to this cause.
Unfortunately for them, the power they harnessed began to drive them mad. The one who got the worst of it was Yuri Petrakoff, the head of O.S.O. On April 14th, 1949, he launched an assault on Europe.
Fortunately, Jesper Teterev left the project before it could effect him like it did all the others. He has since been living in secret with his sister Isabel, and his niece and aspiring pilot, Allison. While hiding with them, Jesper has been building a weapon of his own, the XP-41, in the event O.S.O. would attack. He was right to do so.
MechRunner contains examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: One of the alternate levels is a sewer big enough to fly the XP-41 in.
- Cool Train: There is a boss battle where you chase after a train equipped with a powerful cannon, and which is able to fire it at unpredictable angles whenever there are sharp turns on the tracks it follows.
- Dual Wielding: The XP-41 can wield two weapons against enemies in its mecha form.
- Finishing Move: Temporarily disabled enemies can be sliced up through a quick-time event.
- Gatling Good: Downplayed: gatling turrets are an early opponent of yours, but due to their reliance on Laser Sight tracking, there is a delay that makes them easy to dodge.
- Goggles Do Nothing: Teterev wears both his regular glasses and a pair of goggles atop his forehead.
- Green Rocks: Shards of the so-called "protoenergy" fulfil this role here.
- Hitbox Dissonance: Since the game is in 3D and uses free positioning instead of the lanes that normally define endless runners, it can often be unclear just where the hitboxes of the irregularly shap
- Humongous Mecha: Plenty of enemy ones. Plus, the XP-41 has the ability to turn into one.
- Jet Pack: XP-41's engine acts as a jetpack when it is in a mecha form.
- Parrying Bullets: The XP-41 can deflect bullets from enemy fire with a swipe of his sword.
- Red Is Heroic: The XP-41's primary colour is red, and it was created to defeat Petrakoff and the O.S.O.
- Sinister Scythe: A heroic example. The XP-41 can dual wield scythes in mech mode.
- Transforming Mecha: TheXP-41 can switch between battle ship and melee-wielding mech.
- Weak Turret Gun: Downplayed: some of the first enemies are turrets that get dropped in XP-41's path. While they are less durable than the tanks, they can still take a few hits before being destroyed.
