Scrap Divers

{Scrap Divers} from Danish {Gearhead Games} takes the classic autorunner and turns it, if not upside down, then at least bottom side up. It's a race to the bottom in the best possible way. Until you actually get far enough down and your fall is cushioned, not by a parachute or mattresses, but by advertisements for Temu and misleading mobile games.

Yes, {Scrap Divers} is available for consoles, but I was stupid enough to download the mobile version instead. I came to regret that later, but my initial impression is still extremely positive.

The premise of {Scrap Divers}, as in all good arcade-style games, is incredibly simple. You play as a robot who, as part of a futuristic entertainment programme, is thrown into a bottomless pit. And then it's just a matter of falling as far as possible.

By swiping right and left with your finger, you can avoid the many different obstacles that pop up along the way. The controls are sharp and perfect for a touchscreen. You may experience a slight delay, but this is not due to input latency. Each robot has its own weight and unique characteristics, and unsurprisingly, the small magnet robot is faster to move than the large killer robot.

There are ten different robots to unlock, and they all have different advantages and disadvantages that are not necessarily just about weight and speed. One is small and can therefore squeeze through the smallest cracks. On the other hand, it rotates constantly and breaks easily. Other robots are large and heavy, but durable.

Some robots also have multiple 'lives.' Since the robots are modular, they can survive minor collisions with obstacles as long as the central CPU is not damaged. However, if your robot loses too many of its body parts, it becomes difficult to control, creating some intense moments where you desperately try to stay alive while praying to your creator (human?) that you will soon encounter a repair power-up.

In general, {Scrap Divers} manages to constantly create an entertaining 'almost there' feeling. The level design is very varied, but at the same time pattern-based enough that you always have a chance. A good example is how the developers use coins. Sometimes they show the optimal path through a given obstacle (as in {Super Mario}), while other times, they warn of dangers, as some large worms apparently have a certain appetite for gold.

The visual variation is also great. From branches to cogwheels, fireballs and chains, many things can kill you, and many things will kill you as you descend deeper and deeper into the depths.

Since {Scrap Divers} is primarily a mobile game, don't expect to float all the way down to the centre of the earth on your first try. An average run or fall lasts anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute; if all goes well, you can get up to 2-3 minutes. However, the time never feels wasted, as you earn gold that can be used for new robots. And if you pass a checkpoint, you can choose to start from there next time.

The further you fall, the harder it gets. The difficulty level increases slightly each time you reach a new underground world, but as you get to know the new obstacles, you eventually get into a good rhythm and move on. The difficulty curve is therefore generally very balanced, at least right up until the end where a fiery hellscape suddenly makes things insanely difficult.

I understand that the last level has to be a little extra challenging. But unfortunately, the mobile nature of the game suddenly rears its ugly head here. It's bad enough to get a Game Over screen after 7-8 seconds of play, but when you also get slapped in the face with a 30-second ad, it feels like a truckload of salt in the wound. Several times, I turned off my phone's network. But that solution doesn't work either, because if you want to get through the last level, you simply need to get an extra life along the way, which again 'costs' you an advertisement.

In the end, I actually ended up upgrading, not to the ad-free version, but to the {Nintendo Switch} edition. It was money well spent, as the game without ads became a lot less frustrating. Unfortunately, the analogue stick controls are a tad too slow, but otherwise it's an excellent port, and fortunately there are still touch controls if you're playing handheld.