Runbow

Runbow is a racing platformer built on a single brutally simple idea: the background color keeps changing, and anything that currently matches that same hue stops existing. The platform you were running on turns into nothing the instant the scene shifts to purple, and the player falls. The goal is to reach the bell at the end of the track before everyone else, which in practice turns into panicked jumping, shoving, and loud finger-pointing at everyone around you.

The game bet everything on the sheer scale of local multiplayer — a big group gathers around a single console, with one player holding the GamePad and the others Wii Remotes or the Pro Controller, letting an unusually high number of characters fit onto a single track at once. Alongside the race to the finish there are also arenas, a king-of-the-hill tug-of-war for a raised spot, and other competitive modes, plus a solo campaign with time-trial challenges that works as a decent accuracy trainer. The characters are largely guest heroes from other indie games, which turns the roster into a small parade of the indie scene of its time and a pleasant game of recognition for those in the know. Unlocking further fighters and cosmetic extras keeps motivation up even outside a party setup.

Visually, it's a flat, sharply colored stylization with character silhouettes, deliberately kept simple — because in the resulting chaos, readability is the one thing that matters. The accompanying music is energetic and uncomplicated, matching the fast pace well. Critics received the game favorably and praised mainly the originality of the core idea and the fun of large matches; criticism targeted how much of the magic the game loses in single-player and how the gimmick repeats itself after longer play. Today, Runbow is an example of an independent game that found exactly the audience it needed on Wii U. In a party setup it can get a whole room laughing within ten minutes, and it belongs among the titles where nobody needs the rules explained — just point at the screen and hand someone a controller.