Red Dwarf XII: The Game – A First Look Reviews Posted by Jonathan Capps on 21st November 2017, 10:07 A few days ago the Red Dwarf XII mobile game was released. This time round the episodic format has been replaced with a more open free to play model giving you a handful of endlessly repeatable mini-games that give you points to unlock one of a tonne of playable characters. This weekend I sat down to have a first play of the game, and I have recorded this momentous occasion for your viewing ‘pleasure’. I’m planning to write up something a little more substantial once I’ve had a chance to put some serious hours into the game, but for now my initial impressions are very good indeed. The pairing back of the scope and giving greater focus to a few mini-games, coupled a better than average free to play model and a very generous and fun unlocking system has produced something very pleasing indeed. For any general chatter around the new game please do point yourself towards the ‘Let’s Talk About‘ thread in the forum but in the meantime I hope you enjoy my rambly first look.
Well… not to put too much of a downer on things, but it is a bit throwaway and not much fun. Tried the maze runner first – played about a dozen games, and most of the time i felt like i swiped in time, but it just didn’t react fast enough – perhaps alternative controls, such as a tap on the left/right to move would work better. But either way, it’s not something I would come back to – there’s no progression, it’s just endless, which would be ok if it were enjoyable, but… Next, the quiz. Played 15 rounds, which was pretty easy for most fans. Then came some obscure questions (what colour was the iron ffs) which is just daft. But round 16 keeps repeating itself so stopped that now, which was ok as it was becoming repetitive at that point. Finally the asteroids thing. Played it twice. Controls were horrible IMO, and the camera was too close so that you could see where they were coming from unless you shot everywhere at random. But I did save some random ship before I quit. Maybe there’s more to it. I’ll have to see if I can get the inspiration to try that again. So… the game for XI had lots of faults, and was very frustrating in places, but I had some enjoyment from it. Alas not with XII so far. I’ve gone back to replaying Wheres my Water now when i’m bored lol
Gave it a quick go the other day, and didn’t actually realise there was more than the runner game. That was a poor-man’s Temple Run, with some rather daft shooty bits, but it was reasonable. I enjoyed it more than any of the levels that i played through in the other game (although, I gave up on that half-way through Samsara).
You generally aren’t going to get Half-Life tier gameplay from a free mobile game – if it helps pass the time while waiting for a bus/coming home on the train that’s the best you can hope for really. I’m downloading it now
honestly i preferred the XI game, the episodic format of it just appealed more to me than the repetitive mini-games of the XII game
>You generally aren’t going to get Half-Life tier gameplay from a free mobile game I compared it to Temple Run, a free mobile game.
I am eager to see what the quick play level for Retro Rimmer looks like. If its the same one as captain lister then its just the normal Red Dwarf XII template level
Halfway through, I went back to play the game myself, I hadn’t realised that there were different settings for different characters. As for unlocks, I’ve unlocked a couple of soundbites and a picture or two. Not sure if the soundbites have been taken directly from the episode and cleaned up, or rerecorded for the game. The former, I imagine. Annoyed that I haven’t unlocked Ray Peacock or Snacky, obviously. I have got Retro Rimmer and Aniter though, who runs through the M-Corp ship,which is pretty.
Just unlocked the Twentica Policeman,and the quick play has us running down the street. I think that’s about half a dozen different run locations now. Great range.
I love the skutters trundling down the street in the Twentica location. Still enjoying this. I don’t like the shooty bits of the running game but agree you need something to break it up a bit. Maybe if it was just split into levels? Greatly amused that the Lister from the Mr Rat dimension is “Nice Lister”.
How many levels are there to the quiz? My OCD compels me to complete it, although it’s utterly tedious.
How many levels are there to the quiz? My OCD compels me to complete it, although it’s utterly tedious. 16 at present. It increases the level number after this but doesn’t actually provide new questions.
I’m up to Level 22. Still the same questions. Figured I should stop playing the quiz, really, and wait til there’s some new ones.
Prefer XI but that was a paid game, for nothing this is a perfectly enjoyable diversion if you like Red Dwarf. My main gripe is the controls. The swiping in the maze running is not fun, doesn’t always register the correct gesture and I’d much rather just have a d-pad on the screen somewhere. Looks very nice though.
I’m not too keen on the game unlocking stuff I’ve already unlocked. I unlocked Ankita twice, the Cat twice and the soundbite of Lister saying, “Rimmer so full of gas,” twice and decided to stop playing as a result. Feels like getting nowhere so what’s the real point? It’s been quite fun in a slightly repetitive way but knowing it was unlocking other features gave it a point. Now I’ve accessed three same things twice I see no point continuing.
I’m not too keen on the game unlocking stuff I’ve already unlocked. I unlocked Ankita twice, the Cat twice and the soundbite of Lister saying, “Rimmer so full of gas,” twice and decided to stop playing as a result. Feels like getting nowhere so what’s the real point? It’s been quite fun in a slightly repetitive way but knowing it was unlocking other features gave it a point. Now I’ve accessed three same things twice I see no point continuing. Same. Get my 500 sparkly whatevers, let’s see who I unlock, oh I’ve already got that. Not bothering now considering its a bit of a slog to even get the sparkles in the first place, especially the space bit. Appreciate the graphics and the effort that went in, and there are a lot of characters but I much prefered XI’s format.
Agreed, I’ve unlocked characters twice and it feels like getting those extra ones is going to be harder now. I’d like to see if there are more ship designs to play on with the arrival of new characters, which has kind of kept me going, but it’s been off-putting getting the same rewards twice.
I agree, it’s annoying, and it happens almost everytime I play…but it doesn’t cost you anything. You get your free 400 credits, you watch a video for another 100, and claim your prize. It costs you nothing, you do it twice a day. Okay, at the moment, I might only get something I haven’t already got once in probably about every four days, but sod it. It’s a bit of fun.
Yeah I know it doesn’t cost anything and I did say it was repetitive in a fun way but when it gets to the point where 8 out of 10 times the game unlocks something you’ve already got, it it does feel a *little* like a pisstake. That niggle has unfortunately taken the fun out of the game for me.
276. I’ve got 59 of the 75 unlockables, might as well keep going. It’s especially annoying when you get Lister who is already unlocked at the beginning of the game.
So yeah, this and the XI game have quietly disappeared off Google Play, not seen anything about it anywhere. Anyone know why? Licensing? Guess we’re not getting the updates for the missing episodes in the XI game then haha
It’ll end up like Flappy (Jack) Bird, where people will be selling phones that still have the games on them for tens of pounds
If you’ve got them on your Google account you can still download them, you’re SOL if you never got round to downloading them though. To be fair I don’t think it’s in the same realm as PT or the Scott Pilgrim game or anything, XII especially.
The Scott Pilgrim game controversy was such a trip for me, because I played that game and didn’t really think much of it, so it was funny to see people so up in arms about it. I get it, though.
If you’ve got them on your Google account you can still download them, you’re SOL if you never got round to downloading them though. Ah, well that’s good at least. And Android apps are pretty easy to pirate, so there’s that. I know I’ll treasure my digital copies of Red Dwarf XI and Red Dwarf XII: The Games forever. Who knows how long it’ll be until we get another Red Dwarf game where you can play as Ziggy Briceman? Also, I assume the iOS versions have been taken down too?
If you’ve got them on your Google account you can still download them, you’re SOL if you never got round to downloading them though. Ah, well that’s good at least. And Android apps are pretty easy to pirate, so there’s that. I know I’ll treasure my digital copies of Red Dwarf XI and Red Dwarf XII: The Games forever. Who knows how long it’ll be until we get another Red Dwarf game where you can play as Ziggy Briceman? Also, I assume the iOS versions have been taken down too? Yes if you search for red dwarf in the App Store you get only a BBC Quiz game, which looks as fun as it sounds.
I assume Apple works the same way, on your account you’re fine, but I don’t own any Apple products to check and Apple are weird and don’t like their customers so who knows.
Scott Pilgrim was a wonderful game, but maybe aimed at/appreciated by a very specific generation. I still have it on my PS3.
I’ve still got the Scott Pilgrim game, redownloaded it after it made that comment. Loved it. Hopefully PS5 will have backwards compatibility with PS3 games so I can keep it on something that’s actually plugged in and not gathering dust.
Which generation lol, I’m 24 rn and was pretty much the target demographic for the movie. I loved the movie and went to see it twice, glad other people enjoyed the game x
Which generation lol, I’m 24 rn and was pretty much the target demographic for the movie. I loved the movie and went to see it twice, glad other people enjoyed the game x Surely the target demographic for Scott Pilgrim is people between Scott Pilgrim’s generation in the film and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s generation. You’re about 10 -15 years out.
Though Scott Pilgrim leaned heavily on 80s nostalgia stuff like Donkey Kong etc, I feel the target demographic was much more 90s kids who thought all that shit was really cool and quirky, especially with the teen romance plot it had and the style of humour, etc. I’d think people who genuinely grew up with the stuff depicted in the movie would be a bit on the old side for the plot, but idk. It was certainly enormously popular with my generation.
Surely the target demographic for Scott Pilgrim is people between Scott Pilgrim’s generation in the film and Bryan Lee O’Malley’s generation. You’re about 10 -15 years out. Yeah, most of the references I think are aimed roughly at someone born in the early 80s. The Scott Pilgrim comics are great. The movie I thought was just ok (and I’m usually a big Wright fan), but at least it opened it all up to a slightly wider audience.
And certainly the game leant on stuff like River City Ransom, Streets of Rage and Mario World in a way that again would appeal to that slightly older generation. I don’t want to make this another generational argument though. It’s great that it cuts across generations in its appeal, and those references are accessible enough that you don’t have to have grown up in that era to get them.
As with most adaptations, I thought the movie pretty much butchered the source material. Plus made Scott Pilgrim a cheating, selfish prick played by Michael Cera (barf). Definitely Wright’s weakest film.
Cera was miscast, yes. It made Scott feel a bit too much of a low-key asshole rather than manic and oblivious as in the comics.
I appreciated Wright’s fast, quick cuts more when they were grounded in ordinary environments (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver), in Pilgrim it seemed diluted into more pedestrian comic action fare I’ve seen too much of before and since.
Speaking of Scott Pilgrim, caught this song in my recommended recently. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TSKizLRFbTo
>Plus made Scott Pilgrim a cheating, selfish prick played by Michael Cera I mean, aside from the Cera part, all this stuff is present in the books, too. Scott’s charming, but he’s undeniably a cheating, selfish prick. Him realising this is kind of the arc of the whole thing, and why the “Sorry about ME!” moment to Kim in the last book is so good. The biggest problem the film has for me is that because it was written before the last two books came out, it points itself towards a completely different resolution, and then has to suddenly clunkingly gear change to get to the same one as they books. They should have held firm and stuck with the Knives ending, it made far more sense for the film as was, and I don’t think it would have betrayed the books to make such a big change (when there were already big changes elsewhere).
It’s definitely present but I think he’s a lot more charming and likeable in the books and so gets away with it a little bit more, which actually makes that late moment work even better.
It’s a shame it’s unlikely that the XII app will never be completed I think being delisted makes the “it’s unlikely” redundant. I’m surprised no enterprising types have ever made a decent PC game in Unity or something.
Many have said this before, but when they were still in-business, Telltale would’ve been a perfect choice for a Red Dwarf game. They were basically the modern point-and-click game makers.
It’d be a lot easier now with modern development tools, I could make a (crap) FPS Red Dwarf game in my bedroom on Unity if I had the time, I’ve made very basic VR games on it before and I have no applicable qualifications. There are templates and control schemes and everything. Little to no programming required really, just basic, literally stuff that used to be in BASIC, you’re if/and/go to stuff. If you watch those game jams it’s incredible what can be done in a short amount of time.
I think money is a big issue. if Red Dwarf made ALOT back in profit then alot of money would be put into produce cool things like games. but i ain’t sure it does, so these things are only produced fairly cheap in order to make sure any profit is made back at all.
