Anyo and Rui [Kyle Kosma] - $0.99

It’s not too often that a developer takes an idea that hasn’t been overused, and expands on it an insane amount. Back in July, we reviewed the iOS port of Hanger, developed by Christian Ostman, a sort of Hook Champ meets Karoshi blend, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Well, it seems that there were also quite a few more fans of the game, and one of them just so happened to be a developer. Working on his own version of Hanger before the iOS port hit the AppStore, Kyle Kosma has just released Anyo and Rui, a Hanger-influenced game that’s a whole lot more than just a clone.

Anyo and Rui contains 30 levels spread out across 5 different worlds, with each level having 3 stars which you’ll be able to try and collect. The scoring system is a lot like Hanger as well, depending on how long it takes you to reach the end of the stage, how many stars you can collect, and how many body parts you loose while flying through the level. Aside from this, and the core gameplay, Anyo and Rui takes everything a step further. 

Granted, the level designs and environments in Hanger were all great, and added quite a bit of challenge, but there weren’t really any added mechanics, and not many environmental objects which you could interact with. That’s not the case with Anyo and Rui. Once you reach the 3rd world, you’ll be exposed to multiple different objects, and some pretty interesting gameplay elements like springs which you’ll need to land on from a certain height in order to make it over platforms, parts of the environment that fall after you’re attached to them for a certain amount of time, bubbles which slowly drop to the bottom of the screen, moving and rotating platforms and much more. 

The controls, after the 1.1 update, are pretty much just like Hanger’s, with one pretty major difference. You are able to swing left and right, and you’re given a button which lets you flick out Rui (the green rope lookin guy) and detach him from objects, but you’re also able to slide your finger from the attach/detach button up and down to move up or down Rui, making it easier to fling Anyo through smaller pathways, giving you more precision and accuracy. 

Along with the great controls, Anyo and Rui’s level design is just as good, if not better, than Hanger’s. Though the level’s aren’t as long, collecting the 3 stars and competing on the GameCenter leaderboards will require speed, accuracy, and multiple play-throughs, adding quite a bit to the replay value of the game. And with how long it takes you to get through each level effecting the final scores, there’s almost always going to be a better score that you can try and get, and a better spot on the leaderboards to try and reach. 

There are 6 boards included in GameCenter, one for each world as well as a Total Score leaderboard. There are also 15 achievements, with some of them being pretty hard to unlock, especially the ‘complete each stage in XXX world without loosing any body parts’ achievements. Coupled with being Universal and only priced at $0.99, Anyo and Rui is a great game to pick up for fans of Hanger, as well as gamers looking for a decent challenge, and a whole lot of replay value. Even though, unlike Hanger, there is no Endless Mode, and if you're not really big on bettering your scores, the game might just wind up sitting on your device, waiting to see if a content update appears, and just completing the game, without worrying about stars, should take around an hour and a half to two hours, it's still very entertaining. But if you're not a big fan of replaying levels to get a better score, Anyo and Rui might not be a game for you.

It’s games like this that make me happy to have the original, but even happier to know that there are still developers out there that can take one idea, and turn it into something else, expanding on it quite a bit. I’m sure there’s more that could have been done to the game to make it stand apart from Hanger, but after going through all 30 of the stages, you’ll have a hard time trying to think of them. Kyle Kosma has done a fantastic job with Anyo and Rui, and with more levels, worlds, mechanics and holiday themed additions in the pipeline (of course, like most indie games, I’m sure this depends on sales) it’s great to know that there’s a strong chance that more content will be added, because once you complete the game, you’ll definitely be wanting more.  

Posted in: $0.99, 4.5 Stars, Action, Arcade, Score-Chasing, Syntheticvoid, Universal