Rack N Ruin

GamingTrendPatrick Rost

80/100

Rack N Ruin redeems itself with a second showing on PC, but only if you abandon your controller for the ol’ fashioned keyboard and mouse. The black comedic story of a demon set to enslave the earth pops with colorful backgrounds and challenging, fast-paced gameplay and finds redemption in its PC release.

GameSpewKim Snaith

8/10

On normal difficulty, the game manages to be challenging without being frustrating – if you can’t solve a puzzle or get killed too quickly, you can accept that you’re going about things in the wrong way, and gladly try it again. The fact that you’re not given too much guidance through the game just makes it all the more challenging when you succeed, although some players could find this a little vexing. Overall, I found little to dislike in my time with Rack and his quest to ruin. It’s a solid game, strengthened further by its nostalgic elements. Any fan of the early Zelda games will surely lo...

GameGrinJamie Davies

7/10

Rack N Ruin might suffer from an abundance of items and enemies, but there's enough worth experiencing in the game's humour, combat and distinct visual design to make it worth a playthrough.

Gaming NexusRandy Kalista

6.5/10

Rack N Ruin is a twin-stick shooter (sort of) with a juvenile appreciation for wanton destruction. The role-reversal, with you as the bad guy, brings up some interesting questions, but the story doesn't take neart enough advantage of that fact. It can be good to be bad, but Rack N Ruin's character isn't all that deep.

Push SquareEdwin Garcia

6/10

Rack N Ruin attempts to pull at the nostalgia strings, getting inspiration from all sorts of old-school adventure games. Instead of giving you a hero, though, you get Rack, a little demon who is hell bent on destroying planets. This demon-driven adventure game attempts to blend some of the best classic titles into one cohesive and humorous adventure – but how close does it come to this nostalgic gold?

Attack of the FanboyKyle Hanson

Rack N Ruin takes great elements, mixes them together, and then adds a ton of frustration on top. There are things to like here, but they are hidden behind bad controls, confusing design, and annoying gameplay elements.

TheSixthAxisMatt Wingler

5/10

For this type of game, I feel like the combat and puzzle solving should be the strongest aspect on offer, but they ended up being the worst part of the experience. Outside of the lousy checkpoint system, there really isn’t anything too terrible about Rack N Ruin, it just doesn’t have enough going for it for me to unequivocally recommend it. If you don’t mind repeating areas and using the same few abilities over and over again, Rack N Ruin isn’t a total loss, just weather your expectations before you enter.

Overall Rack N Ruin is a game with much unmet potential. After clearing out the same area for the twentieth time, players will realise just how little effect they have on the gaming environment. No single enemy becomes interesting to corrupt or destroy when it is immediately resurrected by walking off the screen and returning. If only there had been a mini-map of some kind to keep track of how the world’s individual spaces connect, exploration would be more gratifying. If only the combat had been tweaked to allow greater chance for offensive rather than defensive attack, it would have been…

Game SkinnyMatt_Paprocki

4/10

Rack N Ruin is lost and confused in its own design, a helpless blending of top down adventures and retro shooters without any guidance to speak of.