ESPN Downtown Dash

Parkour, or free running, is a bit of a niche sport that has been seeing an influx of attention lately. Basically, Parkour is an acrobatic sport that has you passing through generally impassible areas (up buildings, over fences, and so on) by vaulting and jumping as fast as possible, and when done right, looks pretty darn cool. While it has yet to really hit over here in the States, free running has been growing in popularity in Europe, and has been showing up in several areas of pop-culture, from Nike ads to the upcoming James Bond movie.

So up-and-coming is this extreme sport that mobile game provider Pixiem has released a game inspired by it. ESPN Downtown Dash is a 2D free running platformer game with story-driven elements that has you leaping through a variety of urban courses. Unfortunately the mechanics of Parkour don’t exactly translate well to the 2D mobile realm, as the action just ends up feeling like half-baked platforming with sluggish controls.

Downtown Dash is split into two different modes: Challenge and Story. The Challenge mode has you basically running to the goal at the end of the course before the timer runs out, doing whatever tricks you can to get there faster. The Story mode uses a similar approach, albeit with a definite focus and goal. For example, one mission has you tearing through town to catch a purse-thief before he gets away (via a convenient time limit).

You have some basic Parkour moves at your disposal, meaning that you can run, jump and climb up ledges essentially. While there are a few extra moves that you can do by pushing the 5 key (these are environment based, as you can do flips over obstacles or bound up between buildings), and you do have to time your rolls when you land from a high height (by pushing the 8 key at the right moment), there really isn’t much to Downtown Dash other than running from point A to point B.

Graphically, ESPN Downtown Dash isn’t much to look at, with repetitive urban environments and simple character models. The environments are also pretty jerky and don’t really look as cool as you’d hope they would. The music also leaves a lot to be desired, with a blaring MIDI 80’s “butt-rock” lining out the soundtrack.

ESPN Downtown Dash takes an interesting sport that hasn’t gotten its just due and puts it in a format that will be readily available to both gamers and non, fans of the sport and otherwise. Unfortunately, the feel and excitement of the sport just doesn’t translate well to the 2D side-scrolling genre, and instead just feels half-baked.

Gameplay: 5.5
The controls feel pretty sluggish, and most of the gameplay is simply running from one spot to another and hitting the 5 key at opportune moments.

Graphics: 5.0
The environments look decent, but are pretty repetitive. The character models are also pretty simplistic, and are jerkily animated.

Sound: 5.0
80’s style hair-metal in MIDI form.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 5.0
An interesting idea to port a somewhat neglected sport to the mobile format ultimately gets lost in the translation.

Overall: 5.5
ESPN Downtown Dash does things a little differently and presents a sport that many people aren’t familiar with and puts it center stage. However, the 2D side-scrolling action doesn’t represent the sport nearly as well as it should, and feels like a rush-job.