Action Henk (2015)

This game turned out more fun then I anticipated and it was quite accidentally that I gave it a chance.

In short this is a 3D side platform race runner. Your aim is to get from start to finish in the shortest time available. To do that you've got to navigate the course and use various slides, jumps, boosts and a grappling hook to your advantage. Gameplay wise it reminds a sonic game. It's fast, it's not easy but really rewarding.

The environments are pretty detailed and colourful. At times I found them a bit too distracting but it's not a game breaking problem. The controls are tight, very responsive and make sense for the most part. Some slope jumps are not intuitive but you can learn them by watching the AI ghost runs. Sound design seems appropriate with the game's theme - bold, loud and cartoony.

The race length is long enough too enjoy and short enough to quickly restart when you fail. Getting a gold medal on the run at certain races is really challenging. Global score sheets are really nice addition as well.

This seems like a perfect fit for multiplayer although I've not tried it.

Overall enjoyed the game very much. And was happy to go trough all of the tracts. Can easily recommend to any sonic fans or people liking runners with tight controls.

Have you ever wondered what the toys in Toy Story did when they weren’t rescuing Buzz from their evil next door neighbor? I’m guessing they raced along with Action Henk all over Andy’s room on cool tracks made from blocks, car race tracks and all sorts of other toys!

Similar to a lot of other time trial games where you race against the clock to earn bronze, silver and gold medals, Action Henk mixes up the setting to something fresh and adds a “boss race” against another toy at the end of every section. It honestly reminded me a lot of Trials motorcycle games, but with focus on speed and finesse instead of the more skilled tricks you need to learn in Trials.

I cruised through the first 18 levels in just under a half hour, getting bronze or silver medals on most of them on my first try. The second section boss gave me a hard time, but I was able to beat her after retrying a bunch of times. I’m now at the point where in order to open up the fourth section I need to collect a handful more silver medals from levels I’ve already beaten to unlock it, which I think is going to be at least a little bit tough.

Action Henk is definitely a game I’ll come back to, it’s the perfect game to chip away at in short increments, replaying levels again and again to chew off fractions of a second to get higher medals. Definitely one to check out on Steam.