Game Reviews

Toad Rider

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iOS
| Toad Rider
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Toad Rider
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iOS
| Toad Rider

What's the difference between a toad and a frog?

Answer: not an awful lot when you get down to it. In fact, the two belong to the same basic order.

You'll reach a similar answer to this toad-related question: what's the difference between Toad Rider and any other generic endless-runner you care to mention?

Dennis Hopper

In Toad Rider you play the part of an anthropomorphic toad, who must hop on a rocket bike and escape from a bunch of bothersome scientists and the futuristic traps they've laid out.

Our warty pal is a cool customer, in a late-'80s cartoon character kind of way, and the game's crisp art style is quite pleasant.

Of course, we're not short of 'quite pleasant-looking' endless-runners these days, so we'll move onto the gameplay. And Toad Rider's gameplay offers very little new of interest.

The main mechanic here is a swipe-initiated dodge up and down between several lanes. This is necessary in order to avoid obstacles and projectiles, as well as to hit assorted transit points (such as jumps and pipes).

You can also jump, perform point-boosting stunts, and charge through glass walls. Further into the game, it's necessary to shake off a bike-riding pursuer, which is a pretty neat idea.

Hop it

There are coins to collect, of course, as well as two virtual currencies that tie into an IAP-fuelled funding system.

Would it surprise you to learn that you can spend premium crystals to resume from where you died? Or purchase head-starts, score multipliers, and other power-ups with the coin currency (but lots of 'em)? No, didn't think so.

Let's be clear that Toad Rider plays perfectly competently. But that's just not enough to get us hopping around - not in this over-filled genre.

Endless-runners these days must either be exceptionally fun to play or feature a unique and worthwhile twist in order to stand out among so many similar creatures. As Toad Rider does neither, it ends up being just another familiar-looking toad, destined to be mistaken for a frog.

Toad Rider

Toad Rider might position you as a toad with attitude in this slick endless-runner, but its lack of originality makes it more of a chameleon against a backdrop of so many similar games
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.