Runbow – Satura’s Space Adventure DLC Impressions – Is It Worth It?

While the game industry is continuing to move more towards online play in lieu of local multiplayer with every passing year, the Wii U exclusive Runbow proved that local couch multiplayer can still be a ton of fun. Coming from the indie developer 13AM games, Runbow offered a lot of content for both single and multiplayer, and now the journey is going skyward as the game heads out of this world in the Satura’s Space Adventure DLC.

One of the most effective aspects of Runbow is how well it worked for either one player or in a group. The multiplayer was a lot of fun as up to nine people could play at once in a few different game modes that included races, arena battles, and more. On the other side, the single player offered not just a gauntlet like challenge with the Bowhemoth mode, but also the rather lengthy single player campaign.

Satura’s Space Adventure wisely brings new content to both of these, with 36 new single player stages and 13 new multiplayer. The DLC features a little bit of a story where the base game’s antagonist Satura is now the lead. There isn’t too much here like in the original, but it still does enough to push the adventure along.

The premise involves the search for missing pieces of paper that have been removed from a movie poster, just like how the original adventure mode grid was laid out. The pieces are scattered across a 6×6 grid that, like before, is made up of stages that range from green, yellow, and red, which equate to easy, normal, and hard. However, you only have to actually finish the stages that lead the pathway to each piece, followed by making your way to the final boss stage. This means you can do this fairly quickly if you are good at the game, but the stages are all worth doing.

The individual levels really don’t look much different from the regular game, but the developer has once again done a fantastic job at coming up with more innovative puzzles and stages to keep us frustrated, but in a good way. Some of the stages can be quite easy, but some really will take some thought to advance. This is all wrapped up with one boss fight that is pretty well designed, but mostly felt like a few regular stages put together.

With the space theme in Satura’s Space Adventure, gravity plays a big role in this DLC as well. This is done in a few different ways, including stages with higher and lower levels of gravity, as well as a good number where you will be upside down quite a bit. These are meshed well with the continuous color themed stages that will keep you busy for awhile. You can also once again earn up to three medals per stage, this time using rocket ships, depending on your time, but this isn’t a requirement to advance or anything.

For the multiplayer side, the 13 new stages take similar mechanics as the new single player missions and mix them into the various multiplayer modes. It would have been nice to have been able to do some sort of exclusive multiplayer based on these levels, but that’s really nothing more than a mere nitpick.

Satura’s Space Adventure DLC is available for $6.99 individually, but you can also get a few other DLC packs available that can be bought separately or as one package with Satura’s Space Adventure. These include the Steampunk Pack, the Anime Pack, The Professionals Pack, and the Winter Pack, which add costumes and music to the game. While the characters themselves all play the same, it would have been nice to have at least gotten some new ones included in these, but instead we just get costumes that can only be used with the Hue characters and aren’t even that distinguishable.

While Satura’s Space Adventure is without question worth it with a solid amount of new content for the price, the other DLC packs really are not. If you really want the new costumes and music, it’s not very expensive regardless, with the full DLC bundle only being $12.99. However, the Satura’s Space Adventure pack DLC is a much better bargain and is a must purchase for anybody that had fun with Runbow.