In theory, Sprint RPG is a tribute to the classic first-person dungeon crawlers such as Wizardry or the early Might and Magic titles. In practice, though, it’s more of a rhythm action game with old school graphics.

In this game, you’ll progress through a maze, combating skeletons and bats, picking up items and opening chests. All the while, a timer keeps running on top of the screen, telling you how much time you have left to make it to the end of the level.

 
Sprint RPG trailer

At first, this isn’t a big problem. You’ll have plenty of time to analyze the attack patterns of the enemies. Soon enough, however, things will become quite challenging.

You see, the timer also serves as your health bar, meaning not only does it keep decreasing over time, but taking hits will also make you lose a decent chunk of it. There lies the difficult part: The time limit always pushes you to move fast, but at the same time any mistake will cost you dearly.  As a result, you must really concentrate if you want to overcome the later stages.

626x0w 1 3
The timer also serves as your health bar

On top of that, the game will throw more and more surprises at you. In the early levels, chests simply contain items and you just have to hit them to get the loot before moving on. Later on, some might have monsters hiding inside to ambush you, so you must be ready to defend against their attacks and strike back at the opportune time. Each enemy has a unique attack pattern, and learning them will be the key to success.

Sprint Rpg
Learning enemies' moves will be crucial if you want to success

Despite the simplistic presentation, Sprint RPG has a surprising amount of content. There are plenty of skins for weapons and equipment that you can unlock, as well as tons of achievements to collect. If you are a completionist that wants to do everything there is to do, this game will surely eat up quite a bit of your time.

All in all, Sprint RPG is another quality game from Nitrome. It’s levels are well-designed and incredibly addictive, so much so that you’ll rarely feel frustrated by the difficulty. Instead, after every failed run, you will just want to hop right back in to give it another try.