The Amazing World of Gumball Games: School House Rush
Developer: Cartoon Network
Publisher: Cartoon Network
Price: FREE – Play Online Game Here

Overview

Usually you don’t really want to play a game that has to do with school, because, well you’re trying to escape the reality of school by playing games. However, The Amazing World of Gumball Games: School House, takes the idea of having a school at the centre of a game and makes it ridiculous and fun. Which fits in perfectly with the Gumball universe.

Gameplay

The school has started to flood! Which is not only every school kid’s fantasy, but also makes for an interesting gaming dynamic, with a whole lot of platforming involved as well as some innovative gameplay designs. Unlike normal schools, this one seems to have no ceiling and plenty of little suns floating around that you collect in order to get scored at the end of the game. There are so many, in so many places, that if you are one of those people who making sure that you get the highest amount as you can it will involve a fair bit of doubling back and exploring the huge amount of space within each level. If you simply move forward then the levels are of a fairly decent length and (mostly) fairly simple and straightforward to make your way through.

Instead of a set amount of ‘lives’ there is a life bar, which depletes every time you are hurt. To refill your bar you just have to collect one of the several hearts that are available on the levels. However if your life bar is already full then you can’t collect a heart, so you can’t save them up for a rainy day or anything like that. The hearts are plentiful in the levels, so you can usually find one if you’re in need of it. If you do end up dying, which can happen all in one go if you accidentally get caught in a trouble spot and bounce off it a couple times, then it isn’t that big of a deal. There are a huge amount of checkpoints you go past, it isn’t just one per level like you’d usually expect. Rarely does it have a hugely negative impact or send you back that far.

There are three levels in total to School House Rush, with each level having a boss stage at the end of them. Defeating the boss involves more of an avoiding of their attacks, rather than any attacking of your own. These boss levels didn’t offer too much of a challenge, and were generally easy to finish, and even if you do happen to fail then it’s just a matter of retrying the level. It is a generally forgiving game, and it doesn’t cause too much anger if you do happen to screw up, which is good given just how frustrating platforming games can get. The levels don’t really make much sense in terms of logic or the story line, such as the first one where you have to warn a teacher of the flood, but first you have to try to dodge detentions by letting your fellow classmates take the hit. But they were still quite enjoyable regardless.

Given the fact that there are only three levels, the game manages to cover a range of platforming types of levels. There is a normal rope-swing one, a water level, and an outside level with new dangers and things to deal with. It’s nice that even though the game is short they’ve managed to cover a range of basics for platformers.

Visuals

The graphics are in the style of The Amazing World of Gumball in that whole super happy, fun cartoon sort of look. Just like how the concept feels like a kid’s fantasy, the image of the school flooding, the happy suns, and even the dangers that you should be avoiding, are all entirely unthreatening.

Audio

The soundtrack is just as happy go lucky as the visuals, with the main feature being a recorder brightly whistling out a tune as your hero goes about trying to save the school from flooding. It’s a perfect match to the game, but the repetitiveness might get annoying after a while.

Overall

Overall, the game is a nice little snack of a platformer. It won’t take too long to complete, but you can make it take longer by actually trying to get all of the suns and explore the levels fully. It all just depends on how much effort and back tracking you are willing to do. It is generally easy to follow the intended route and getting lost won’t happen, or if it does it’s a matter of taking a path that’s right in front of you but requires some thought and skill.