After a critically-acclaimed PC release two years ago, Dustforce finally hit the console world with a PS3 release that featured cross-buy support with the Vita. In a strange move timing-wise, the game was just silently released onto the Xbox 360’s marketplace as well. There was no real hype behind it, although it was known that a version would eventually be released for the platform at some point after the Sony systems. For those who have never played the game, it’s a speedrun-focused platformer with fluid animation. Much like Prince of Persia two decades ago, you will be dazzled by just how smooth the animation is.
While PoP focused on realism, Dustforce’s animation focuses on plausibly-realistic cartoony animation. It’s full of exaggerated movements, but because of how smoothly they’re animated, they’re easier to buy into as being realistic within the game’s world. Getting from point A to B is crucial here, but so is cleaning the world of all of the clutter. People in this universe must be incredibly lazy, because they sure do take janitorial services for granted. All kinds of debris is left around and it’s up to you to clean it up. Much like an Angry Birds game, the more efficient you are, the higher your score is. That’s the key to unlocking new stages, so it’s imperative to do as well as you can. Unfortunately, like the other core gaming system versions, this one lacks the user-generated stages of the PC version – so you get far less value for your dollar on consoles. However, if you prefer to play the game on a TV without having to go through a clunky-looking HDMI setup for your laptop, then it’s a worthy tradeoff.
