The first impression we get looking at FC Barcelona Ultimate Rush is that it is another endless runner game with the runners being footballers instead. However, once we start playing the game, the subtle changes to known gameplay and the various nuances come to the fore, making the gaming experience a memorable one.
The game has been developed by Gamehour, an official game developer of Barcelona Football Club and brought to the web by Poki, a Netherlands-based cross-platform game publisher. This makes the game an official game of Barcelona FC, while the access granted to all the players by the club along with the jerseys helped enhance the gaming experience. It is available on Android and iOS platforms as well.
The basic gameplay involves running along the streets of Barcelona collecting gold coins, dodging obstacles and vehicles on the road. The novel touch comes in the form of footballs placed along the run which enables the player to aim at bull’s-eye on wooden boxes. On hitting the bull’s-eye, power-ups such as coin magnet and super strength get unlocked.
On occasions, the power-up takes the player to a bonus round inside the Camp Nou with the audience cheering from either side, while the player can hit perfect headers for bonus points. While the game is a football-related game, the fact that it does not require prior knowledge of the game or the players is a huge selling point to non-football fans as well. Further, the background music has a distinct Spanish flavour as well, adding to the experience.
The game features a “Quest” mode, for which the official synopsis reads,“Barcelona’s famous monuments have been stolen, and only Barca’s superstars can save them! Rush through 3D recreations of real-world locations like Barcelona’s Argole, Gothic Quarters and more on a quest to collect puzzle pieces and reconstruct the city. Upgrade your stars to improve their energy and skills as you run to victory!”
The Quest mode completely adds a new dimension akin to role-playing games, making the game stand-out amongst its peers in the same genre. The challenges get tougher on moving ahead and in order to finish the game, players should be sufficiently upgraded.
Coming to the playable characters, the game can be played as one of the members of the Barcelona team such as Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Neymar jr. and Andres Iniesta while former players can be unlocked in the game making it a nostalgic affair.
Each player comes with a unique special ability similar to a power-up which can be boosted over the course of the game. This is one of the rare games which contains a number of playable celebrities, although they belong to a single football team.
The game has already received widespread acceptance with the quality of the game and the large reach of Poki being major factors. Poki possesses about 30 million monthly active users on the website and hundreds of millions on the web, which is one of the prime reasons Gamehour has tied up with the Dutch game publisher.
“Gamehour is an experienced developer with a focus on high-quality sports games for mobile. Working with Poki to bring FC Barcelona Ultimate Rush to web gives us access to hundreds of millions of additional users. Aside from important additional exposure for our game and for the FC Barcelona brand, we expect that releasing on the web will be an important driver for mobile app installs,” explained Gamehour.
The Android version of the game has already seen over a million installs, adding credence to Gamehour’s claim above.
Wrapping it up, FC Barcelona Ultimate Rush is a new addition in the endless running genre with a delightful football twist. The game boasts of a good number of interesting features that makes the game different keeping it fresh. Further, the unlockables and upgrades keep the users hooked while the robust reward system ensures one does not feel frustrated at tougher challenge levels.
Overall, FC Barcelona Ultimate Rush is a smooth and sleek enjoyable game based on one of the most successful clubs in world football that thrills a fanbase of over one billion and definitely is worth playing even for people without previous football knowledge, making it a top addition to the genre.
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