Rock Adventure:

In Brief:
This is a type of runner game that I've not seen before. The reason I say 'type' of runner game is because you don't lose your life as soon as you crash, like all of the runner games I'm familiar with, instead your rock is weakened after each crash and can take several crashes before you lose the game . As you earn gold, you can purchase stronger rocks that can withstand more impacts.

This is another game from the developer Ashoot, who has previously given us Cemetery Warrior 1 to 5, Invention 1 & 2, Space Bandits, The Letter, and more recently Grimland and yesterdays Mr Cube as well as several others. Todays game is a 172MB download, and once installed is 341MB in size.

You can see a video of game play HERE

The Game:
The aim of todays game is to navigate your piece of rock along an ice filled gully and survive for as long as you can, picking up several different currencies on your way, and attempting to avoid various obstacles that will inevitably confound you .

Unfortunately, I found Rock Adventure virtually impossible to play because the path ahead was obscured by a thick mist that was only a few meters in front of you. This made avoiding obstacles; especially with my reaction times; which have slowed as I've aged, nigh on impossible; plus, the game was relatively fast-paced right from the outset. Consequently I was constantly crashing into obstacles before I'd even had the chance to react and I rarely survived more than several seconds (crashing into virtually every obstacle in my path),. I did manage to survive for over 30 seconds just the once before my rock was weakened to the point the game ended and that was more through luck and not skill. There is an indicator in the top left of the screen that tells you how weakened your ball is. When the red line disappears, you get a window popping up that says:

''Defeat (Dear Player! I should give you a lump of coal , but take this card instead}} - love game creator''

Plus there are three buttons to the left of the message that say Continue (watch ads), which appears to be disabled. Possibly this is enabled if you manage to survive the first level, where a save point may be created; however, this is just supposition as I was not able to complete even one level (assuming there are a series of levels and not a continuous single level) There's also a Restart and Menu button.

In the introduction above (below the download button and countdown timer it says there are only two buttons to use with this game i.e. A & D (moves rock Left & Right); however you use the Space bar to jump over certain obstacles; however, this appears to be bugged because more often than not the rock would fly off above the tree tops and just continue into a white out (see the last two images below) indefinitely (with the timer racking up many minutes) until you 'had' to close the game down by pressing Alt + F4 (unless you have a multi monitor setup, then you could press Ctrl + Alt + Del to access the task bar and close it that way. (Alt+F4 is quicker). The space bar is not mentioned in the introduction to the game, which you can read above; just below the countdown timer and Download button). .

These issues (at least for me) are a shame because, from what the introduction to the game states on the Itch.io web site (and above) , the game appears to have a lot of potential; especially compared to the runner game we received yesterday (by the same developer), with additional content such as using in game currency to get better balls of rock; e.g. Candy Rock, Gift Rock, Wood Flasher Rock, Mega Lava and Gold Rock; the more expensive the rock, the stronger it is meant to be able to withstand crashes and therefore you should be able to survive for longer. Also, maps are supposedly being introduced in an upcoming update; however, unless it's given away again at a later date once they are added, we won't see those.

There's also a secret, but you have to earn 150 stars to be able to reveal it. After over ten attempts I'd only earned 9 stars; though I did earn around 200 gold, so was able to purchase the next best rock (Candy Rock) above the default {standard) rock. There are several in game currencies that you can collect as you progress, such as gold coins, snow flakes, gifts, snowmen and stars; however, because I didn't progress very far, I couldn't say what you purchase with these these. The intro' above indicates being able to purchase achievements etc.

Notes on Security

I scanned a zipped copy of the installed game using Virus Total and it found zero hits from 60 antimalware engines.

You can see the results of the scan via the following link:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/dba268bc6d804752fc915e9b3bfe83e68897bb555b486afc9c056dc0272af192?nocache=1