I really like the Steam Free Weekend. It gives me a chance to play some games that I probably would never have tried if I had to pay for them. This weeks entry in the Steam Free Weekend is SpeedRunners.
SpeedRunners is a 4 player competitive platforming game developed by DoubleDutch Games and published by Tiny Build. DoubleDutch is based out of the Netherlands (it’s not just a cute name). DoubleDutch also has a free mobile game called 321Tap that looks like it might be pretty fun as well.
SpeedRunners is a couch co-op game for most modern consoles: Xbox One, Playstation 4, Linux, Mac, and Windows. The object of the game is to make your way around circular stages fast enough to eliminate the other players while not getting eliminated yourself. The way you get eliminated is to get caught offscreen, so keep up. The game boasts a co-op mode where you can play 2-v-2 online and thousands of user created levels to keep the game fresh.
I had some fun playing the single player campaign and I tried a few multiplayer matches online. As you can assume, for a game that came out on Steam in 2013, I got my ass handed to me online.
SpeedRunners has a healthy online community and is also an ESL-supported e-sport, which probably helped lead to me getting decimated online. Tiny Build had this to say about their player-base on their homepage for SpeedRunners:
What was a humble platformer is now an ESL-supported e-sport with over a million players!
It sounds like SpeedRunners has taken hold of a whole lot of people and I am glad that Steam’s Free Weekend allowed me to have some time with this game. I’m not sure if I would buy this game, it all depends on if I can get a regular game group set up in my new town. For now, I’ll stick to Nidhogg as my go-to couch co-op game but SpeedRunners definitely gave me a peek at a fun 4 person competitive platforming game that is easy to pick up and deep enough to spend countless hours perfecting.