Video Game / Runbow

Yes, Shovel Knight is a playable character in this! Who cares about the rest!?

Runbow is an Indie, Massive Multiplayer Crossover, 2D Platforming Party game developed by 13AM Games and released on the Nintendo Wii U eShop on August 27th, 2015, with ports on Steam, the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch releasing afterwards. It features original characters Hue and Val, their nemesis, Satura, and a nice plethora of guest characters from other indie games. The main gimmick in the game is that the background color constantly shifts among a set palette and any platform or obstacle that matches that color will effectively blend in and "disappear," allowing the player to pass through the same. It features four main party games and two single player modes, but all modes allow up to a whopping 9 players all at once!

Not to be confused with Runbow: A Game of Endless Rainbows and Running for iOS.

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Runbow provides examples of the following tropes:

• Advancing Boss of Doom: Plunto from Satura's Space Adventure starts off as a Retreating Boss of Doom.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Many levels have a wall of spikes advancing on the players.
• Auto-Scrolling Level: A small handful of stages auto-scroll: notably a good portion of the final level in Adventure Mode and a few stages in the Bowhemoth.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Several of the unlockables in the Characters gallery are alternate costumes for Hue and Val. Satura's Space Adventure gives Satura one: her old spacesuit.
• Color-Coded Multiplayer: Each player has a different color, including the Guest Runners.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Adventure Mode levels are colored green for easy, yellow for medium, and red for hard in terms of difficulty.
• A Day in the Limelight: Satura's Space Adventure for Satura.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Satura becomes a playable character after clearing Adventure Mode.
• Double Jump: All characters have this ability, in addition to performing a third jump by punching up in the air. Many of the game’s stages require you take advantage of the third jump.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: One of the power-ups in multiplayer inverts the stage, causing it to flip upside down, reversing the horizontal controls but not the vertical, making it even more tricky to adapt to.
• Downloadable Content: New costumes, a new level set starring Satura, and two more guest characters (Lilac and Shantae) were added to the roster.
• Energy Weapon: A common obstacle.^note Getting killed by one unlocks Gunvolt.
• Everything's Better with Rainbows: The premise of the game!
• Fake Difficulty: The fact that this is averted is one of the reasons why this game is so fun. You'll die a lot, but it's almost never the game's fault.
• Final-Exam Boss: The Bowhemoth Challenge, as many of the mechanics in its stages are encountered throughout Adventure Mode if one plays through it first.
• Game-Breaking Bug: The Switch port froze up when loading the end credits after clearing Adventure Mode. While it doesn't lock the player out of unlocking Satura (by clearing every other level), but does prevent from earning the level's medals and getting credit for beating the final boss. This was later fixed in a patch. Also, Shovel Knight and Juan are not able to be unlocked in this version, for unknown reasons.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Satura, being jealous of Hue and Val's various colors while she's only black and white.
• Ground Pound: Every playable character can do this.^note Ground pound enough enemies to unlock Shovel Knight too!
• Guest Fighter: A boatload! Listed in Gallery appearance order (plus how to unlock):
  • Shovel Knight^note Ground Pound 10 enemies.
  • Rusty^note Break 30 breakable blocks.
  • Swift^note Spend more than 3 minutes in the air.
  • Juan and Tostada^note Land one of each attack and 5 super punches, respectively.
  • Scram Kitty^note Taunt 20 times.
  • Commander Video and Commandgirl Video^note Get 3 medals in 10 and 15 Adventure Mode levels, respectively.
  • Xeodrifter^note Play a level in each of the 4 Adventure Mode worlds.
  • Max^note Set the Fun type to Maximum.
  • Princess^note Beat 10 Adventure Mode levels with at least 2 people.
  • Clone^note Get the Mimicry Power-up 10 times.
  • Drifter^note Get the Swapper Power-up 10 times.
  • Teslamancer^note Get the Lightning Power-up 10 times.
  • A.R.I.D.^note Fall to your death 20 times.
  • Gunvolt^note Get killed by a laser.
  • Unity-chan^note Set the Fun type to Kawaii.
  • Lilac^note Free Downloadable Content.
  • Shantae^note Also free Downloadable Content.
• I Choose to Stay: In Satura's Space Adventure, after discovering that the space-themed poster world they are exploring is the one she originally came from, Satura decides to return to Hue and Val's world instead of staying there.
• I Shall Taunt You: Every character has a unique taunt.
• The Many Deaths of You: Expect to die a lot, especially when running the Bowhemoth.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Hue, Val, and Satura all refer to terms related to colors.
  • Satura could also be linked to 'Saturn', hinting at the femme fatale's space-born origins.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: These are all choices of costumes for Hue and Val.
• One-Hit Kill: The Super Punch power-up turns all attacks into this.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Averted with the player characters as hitting regular enemies will only stun them, though spikes and lasers are still instant death. Played straight when battling against Satura (her, not you).
• Pun: A lot of the death messages while running the Bowhemoth:
  • "Can't stomach it?"
  • "Is it hard to digest?"
  • "Stop feeding."
• Palette Swap: There are only two body types in the game, one is a bulky form (Hue) and the other is slimmer but tall form (Val). Beyond this, all characters essentially play the same.
• Red Boxing Gloves: A power-up (named Super Punch) that can be used to take out other players from the stage, essentially causing a One-Hit Kill.
• Rule of Three: The boss of Satura's Space Adventure, Plunto, needs three hits from above to be defeated in his third phase.
• Shout-Out: Several of the death messages:
  • "Do or do not..."
  • "Go play Oregon Trail."
  • "The way is shut."
  • "You chose... poorly."
• Troll: Many of the death messages.
  • "Did we mention this will be hard?"
  • "How high does the death counter go?"
  • "Like that. Only better."
  • "My grandma beat this level."
  • "Never give up. Except now."
  • "This is funny. But the joke is on you."
  • "Win better."
  • "You should see the hard levels."
  • "You're almost 2% done."
  • "You're taking a long time."
• Unexpected Shmup Level: Twisted. The final level in Adventure Mode feels like this, only it has you as the one dodging the bullets!
• What Does This Button Do?: There is a setting for the "Fun" level in the Options menu but it isn't exactly clear how changing it affects the game. When asked on twitter, the game's Creative Director, Alex Rushdy, answered, "It sets the fun."^note Changing the settings to certain levels will unlock both Max and Unity-chan, at least.

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