Streamline
  • Home
  • Spotlight
  • Reviews
    • Action
    • Strategy
    • RPGs
  • Most Hardcore
    • Devices
    • Gifts
    • Gadgets
  • About Us
  • Android--Carrion--001
    Carrion Review
  • Odin: Valhalla Rising title
    Norse Mythology-Inspired MMORPG Odin: Valhalla Rising Launches This Month
  • Android-MythWalker-001
    MythWalker Expands Adventure With Over 20 New Story Quests
  • Tribe Nine feature image
    TRIBE NINE’s Chapter 3: Neo Chiyoda City Arrives
  • Android-Blade of God X: Orisols-001
    Blade of God X: Orisols Review
  • Android-Darkest Hero--001
    Darkest Hero Review
  • Bleach: Brave Souls feature image
    Bleach: Brave Souls Launches Gift Campaign With Smartphone Wallpapers
  • Collect Or Die Ultra Title Screen
    Collect Or Die Ultra Launches On Google Play And iOS
  • Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Android
    Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Review
  • Once Human Launches Cross-Platform Test
    Once Human Launches Cross-Platform Test for Mobile & PC
  • Archero 2 title
    Archero 2 Review
  • upjers feature image
    Upjers Brings ‘Love in Pixels’
  • Train Hero
    Train Hero Now Available On Steam And Google Play
  • Wizardry Varients Daphne title
    Wizardry Variants Daphne Review
  • STARSEED: Asnia Trigger001
    STARSEED: Asnia Trigger Review
Hardcore Droid
Hardcore Droid
  • Home
  • News
    • News
    • Spotlight
    • Interviews
    • Consoles
  • Reviews
    • Action
    • Adventure
    • Strategy
    • RPG
    • MMOs
    • Racing
    • Indie
    • Hardware
  • Best Of
    • Top 10 Games
    • Best RPGs
    • Best Action
    • Best Puzzlers
    • Best Strategy
    • Best Indie Strat
    • Best Indie RPGs
    • Most Hardcore
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Game Jobs
    • Archives
    • Attributions
    • Opportunities
  • Indie

Buddy & Me Review

  • March 3, 2014
  • Sam Riedel
Spread the love

android-buddyandme-arcade-thumbMainstream endless runners are getting pretty tiresome, for the most part: your Temple Runs and your Sonic Dashes. Underneath their glitzy graphics, they’re fairly repetitive and mainly ask players to simply aim for the next long string of coins. That’s why I was so interested in what Sunbeam Games (the new home of Metroid Prime and Halo 4 designer Jason Behr) would come up with after their Kickstarter was funded early last year. The end result was the new endless runner for all ages Buddy & Me, which is hands-down one of the best mobile games I’ve ever played. It just came to the Play Store this month, and Droid gamers are in for a treat.

Your avatar is a little boy (or girl, in a hopefully fast-approaching update) who has a recurring dream: every night, he wakes up to find that his room has been transported into a magical forest. His/your imaginary friend Buddy is always there—a giant, fat, furry orange creature who flies alongside you as you run through a series of platforms and tire swings to collect “star seeds.” These win you points and fill up a meter that, when activated, allows you to ride on Buddy’s back through the sky. This gives you the opportunity to collect more stars, power-ups, and some flying blue “angel bunnies” while the two-minute timer is paused. You can choose which path to aim for in order to gain different rewards; if you want extra time right away, grab blue stars. Green ones will give you a speed boost, and gold “x2” stars double every star seed you get for a short time. Bunnies are arguably the best bonuses, not just because they’re worth lots of points and increase your time, but because they’re so damned cute! They sing gently to refill the clock and chidingly pick you up when you fall off a platform. I can’t even handle it.

android-buddyandme-arcade-01

Before we go any further, though, we have to further address the intense cuteness factor present in Buddy & Me. I realize that this level of preciousness can often be choking, even nauseating, but in Buddy & Me it becomes endearing. In contrast to the detailed environments, your character, the bunnies, and Buddy have very simple and lovable designs. Some may take that as a mark of a low-quality game. But though they’re simple, don’t take the designs to be simplistic. Everything serves a purpose, as you’ll see when gliding down from the top of the screen by using your jacket for a parachute, all the while aiming to bounce off Buddy’s absurdly plump stomach. Dude eats too many star seeds. (Personally, I’m not super keen on parts of the Buddy design—his nose and snoutless face bothers me for some reason—but I can’t say that long-eared pudgeball isn’t adorable.)

Of course, I’ve only been talking about game aesthetics so far. What’s under the hood is even more impressive. As the AI builds new random sets of jumps and obstacles for you to navigate, it also analyzes your moves and adjusts the difficulty to match them. This ensures that no run is ever too easy to be interesting for veterans, nor too hard to force a rookie to jump ship. And while you may come to recognize how star seeds are placed in sequence most of the time, you will never know exactly what the screen will look like in five seconds. Adaptability and reflexes beat obsessive level analysis every time.

android-buddyandme-arcade-02

Even so, what keeps me coming back to play Buddy & Me again and again isn’t its creative gameplay—it’s how flat-out gorgeous this game’s design is. The scenery is lush, lovingly rendered from hand-painted art, and has far more depth than we’ve come to expect from the average 2D sidescroller. Exiting from the forest briefly, you’ll see one of several breathtaking vistas as the timer pauses to allow the bunnies you’ve collected to sing gently, adding five seconds to the timer per bunny. It’s not just about the break from running and jumping or the extra time, though. The real reward here is exploration—seeing a lovely, painted dreamscape before getting back to your obstacle course.

What I’m getting at here is that Buddy & Me doesn’t do anything wrong, and it gets more things right than almost all of its competition. It’s simple, nuanced, breathtakingly beautiful, and still growing—Sunbreak plans to add a girl character once they’ve fully implemented functionality for “The Boy” and a full range of Buddy’s assists, including shooting the player across the stage like a cannonball. But even if it never updated again, Buddy & Me would still go down in my book as one of the best endless runners ever. 

 

Is it Hardcore?
4

Adorably so.

Buddy & Me doesn’t just look good–it looks incredible, with gameplay to match for all skill levels.

Sam Riedel

is a freelance writer living in New York City, where he lives with his girlfriend and several guitars. He has been sequestering himself in his room to play video games since he was 8 years old, some more hardcore than others. He enjoys RPGs, strategy games, and every single thing related to Pokemon. Following Sam on Twitter (@SamusMcQueen) has been known to cause heart murmurs in Southern belles and small children.

Previous Article
  • Indie

Faif Review

  • February 17, 2014
  • Sam Riedel
View Post
Next Article
  • Indie

Gobliiins Trilogy Review

  • March 16, 2014
  • Joe Matar
View Post
You May Also Like
Android--Carrion--001
View Post
  • Horror
  • Indie

Carrion Review

  • Oula Onyango
  • May 7, 2025
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Android
View Post
  • Adventure
  • Indie
  • RPG

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Review

  • Oula Onyango
  • March 8, 2025
Shadow of the Depth-001
View Post
  • Action
  • Adventure
  • Indie
  • RPG

Shadow of the Depth Review

  • Oula Onyango
  • February 7, 2025
My Father Lied001
View Post
  • Adventure
  • Indie
  • News

My Father Lied: An Indie-Adventure Game Released

  • Oula Onyango
  • January 23, 2025
Athena Crisis Logo
View Post
  • Indie
  • Reviews
  • Strategy

Athena Crisis Review

  • Gavin Mastella
  • December 19, 2024
Sky Days of Nature Key Art
View Post
  • Indie
  • MMOs
  • News

Sky: Children of the Light Makes a Difference With “Days of Nature”

  • Mayra Reynoso
  • June 10, 2024
Yes, Your Grace Key Art
View Post
  • Indie
  • RPG
  • Strategy

Yes, Your Grace Review

  • Mayra Reynoso
  • May 16, 2024
Feature Image Methods Detective Competition
View Post
  • Adventure
  • Indie
  • Puzzle
  • Strategy

Methods: The Detective Competition Review

  • Tamanna Chandel
  • February 28, 2024
The Latest
  • Carrion Review
  • Norse Mythology-Inspired MMORPG Odin: Valhalla Rising Launches This Month
  • MythWalker Expands Adventure With Over 20 New Story Quests
  • TRIBE NINE’s Chapter 3: Neo Chiyoda City Arrives
  • Blade of God X: Orisols Review
  • Darkest Hero Review
  • Bleach: Brave Souls Launches Gift Campaign With Smartphone Wallpapers
  • Collect Or Die Ultra Launches On Google Play And iOS
  • Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Review
  • Once Human Launches Cross-Platform Test for Mobile & PC
Meta
  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Hardcore Droid
  • Reviews
  • Spotlight
  • Hardcore
Core Gaming on the Android OS

Input your search keywords and press Enter.