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Rising Islands

Pros:
Rising Islands Game Cover
53%Game Brain Score
gameplay, graphics
story, stability
56% User Score Based on 61 reviews
Critic Score 45%Based on 2 reviews

Platforms

PCWindows
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Rising Islands Game Cover

About

Rising Islands is a single player platformer game. It was developed by Lone Hero Studios and was released on August 1, 2016. It received neutral reviews from both critics and players.

Rising Islands is an adventure game where you'll have to combine fast-paced action with quick thinking. Jump, shift, grind, dash and wallrun through a fantastic world that is fraying at the edges. New challenges await around every corner.

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Rising Islands screenshot
Rising Islands screenshot
Rising Islands screenshot
Rising Islands screenshot
Rising Islands screenshot
Rising Islands screenshot
Rising Islands screenshot
Rising Islands screenshot
Rising Islands screenshot
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56%
Audience ScoreBased on 61 reviews
gameplay14 positive mentions
story5 negative mentions
  • Fun and enjoyable gameplay with a unique dimension-shifting mechanic that adds an interesting twist to platforming.
  • Good level design and flow in platforming sections, making it satisfying for speedrunning and casual play alike.
  • Appealing art style influenced by classic 3D platformers with nice character animations and an oriental-themed soundtrack.
  • Clunky, imprecise controls and problematic camera angles that frequently frustrate gameplay and movement precision.
  • Short game length with only 13 levels and limited story, which reduces overall value especially at full price.
  • Numerous bugs, glitches, and technical issues including crashes, poor optimization, and graphical inconsistencies.
  • gameplay
    35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Rising Islands offers solid and enjoyable 3D platforming centered on dimension-switching mechanics and challenging puzzles, making it appealing for speedrunning fans. However, its gameplay is marred by bugs, lack of polish, and somewhat simplistic execution, resulting in a fun but short experience with limited depth and technical issues.

    • “Rising Islands is a 3D platformer focused on fast gameplay optimized for speedrunning.”
    • “Simple parkour mechanics are quick to learn but also continue to offer a challenge at a steady pace.”
    • “Gameplay - Rising Islands plays like a typical 3D platform game: run, climb, and jump as you navigate through each stage from start to finish, collecting sometimes-hidden gems along the way.”
    • “Really nice baseline idea of gameplay, absolutely poor execution.”
    • “If you look at the trailers for the game closely, there is very limited actual gameplay shown, I think this is because the lack of polish would begin to show relatively quickly.”
    • “It contains 3 hours of gameplay at maximum, then you have been frustratingly misjumping a lot.”
  • graphics
    32 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics in Rising Islands receive mixed reviews, with praise for its art style and some character animations, but criticism for being dated, inconsistent, and plagued by graphical glitches and bugs. Performance demands are high, causing hardware strain and occasional crashes, while overall visuals feel uninspired and sometimes cheap, detracting from the experience. Limited graphics options and technical issues further impact the game's visual appeal.

    • “If you like fast paced games, nice visuals (warning: nice PC required for best visuals) and a fun puzzle platformer, this is worth a buy.”
    • “The art style is nice, and the mechanic concepts are good in theory but that's about it.”
    • “Despite this, I did enjoy the graphics and mechanics.”
    • “Everything is cheap; the graphics, the animations, the story, the dialogs, the character's movements, the camera being PS1 era level of bad, etc. The game looks rather decent even if unoriginal, basically it's a game where you use an ability on the go to make some elements appear and others disappear, and it's switched every time you use it and you gotta use that to run around and finish levels.”
    • “The environments are boring, the graphics are simply bad overall.”
    • “The movement is rather janky, the graphics are meh, and the animations are very mediocre.”
  • story
    21 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story is widely regarded as weak, unoriginal, and mostly irrelevant, serving only as a minimal backdrop to the gameplay. While some find it nonsensical or poorly presented, others accept it as typical for a budget 3D platformer where the focus is on gameplay rather than narrative depth. Overall, the story adds little value and is considered a throwaway element.

    • “I have seen many reviews criticize the story, and I have to say that is probably the dumbest criticism ever levied against a game like this.”
    • “Yes, the story is nonsense, but it does not get in the way, and this is a 3D platformer. They virtually always have a throwaway story; why should a game of this budget get held to a higher standard than the greatest 3D platformers ever made (yes, Mario, I'm looking at you).”
    • “As for the story elements, they aren't too bad, there are definitely spelling errors here and there, but you get the point the game is making. It's obvious the developer's native language isn't English, and to be fair, it's not a bad thing. The game elements themselves stand out enough to warrant this game a look.”
    • “Short platformer with minimal variety and annoyingly sloppy controls, poor camera positioning, and an awful story.”
    • “Everything is cheap: the graphics, the animations, the story, the dialogs, the character's movements, the camera being PS1 era level of bad, etc.”
    • “The story isn't great either; all you have to do is rescue crystals and relics from some evil guy, and the ending is a complete cop-out.”
  • music
    13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is generally praised for its enjoyable, oriental-inspired soundtrack, though many note that the limited variety and frequent repetition cause it to become tiresome over time. The lack of music and voice acting during cutscenes also detracts from the overall experience.

    • “But given the way it is, it has nice optics, enjoyable music, and a character that resembles Katara from ATLA (yes, that's what sold me, fight me) to recommend it.”
    • “Music is great, with a nice oriental theme, but there seems to only be one track through most of the game (and title screen), so it wears thin after a while.”
    • “That said, I love the soundtrack and hope to get it later on.”
    • “The music starts piercing your brain after the first loop.”
    • “The same music track repeats often in this game.”
    • “The cutscenes are really boring because there is no music and also no voice acting.”
  • stability
    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's stability is notably hindered by numerous bugs and glitches, including problematic controls, camera issues, graphical errors, and collision detection problems. While these technical flaws can disrupt gameplay and cause frustration, some players still find the core game enjoyable despite its instability. Overall, stability issues significantly impact the experience and detract from the game's otherwise appealing design.

    • “To make it short: I'd like to play this game, but the amount of precision needed to simply complete the levels is too high while the camera and movement controls are too buggy.”
    • “A nice effort just isn't enough to offset unreliable controls, wonky camera, glitches like falling through cracks, a finishing time with all achievements in under two hours and really bad grammar.”
    • “And while I like the art style and graphical feel of the game, a severe lack of graphical options and settings pulls it down a bit, though not as much as the tons of graphical glitches, bugs, and collision detection issues do.”
  • optimization
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Optimization is inconsistent across platforms; while some users report significant performance issues and potential hardware risks, others find the game runs smoothly on modern gaming systems, especially compared to similarly demanding titles.

    • “I can run Black Desert Online with everything maxed in remastered mode at 60 fps and that one's known for being unoptimized.”
    • “Rising Islands is a 3D platformer focused on fast gameplay optimized for speedrunning.”
    • “Game is unoptimized, can freeze your computer and potentially damage your hardware.”
    • “I can run Black Desert Online with everything maxed in remastered mode at 60 fps, and that one's known for being unoptimized.”
    • “I encountered a few minor performance issues on some levels on an old gaming laptop, but any new gaming machine should cope very well.”
  • replayability
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers moderate replayability, with limited incentive in the story mode but engaging time trial challenges and Steam achievements—such as collecting hidden crystals—that encourage players to improve their performance and revisit the game.

    • “The game includes Steam achievements that you'll gain by carefully completing the game (with one requiring collection of every hidden crystal), and also includes a time trial mode to increase replayability.”
    • “Not much replay value in story mode but time trials is good for a few goes trying to beat your personal best.”
    • “Replay value: 3/5 - speedrunning challenges.”
  • emotional
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users find the main character's animations engaging and visually appealing but feel that Rising Islands lacks emotional depth and player investment compared to titles like Prince of Persia (2008).

  • humor
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is praised for its humor, offering a funny experience even in moments of challenge and failure, which helps keep frustration at bay.

    • “I think it's a short, but funny game.”
    • “The funny thing about failing a challenge is that, while it can be frustrating as hell, it doesn’t have to be.”
  • character development
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The character development is noted for its strong Oriental influence, reflected in both the soundtrack and character design, adding a distinct cultural flavor to the game's presentation.

  • atmosphere
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users find the game's atmosphere enjoyable and pleasant, contributing positively to their overall experience.

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45%Critics’ scoreBased on 2 critic reviews
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3h Median play time
3h Average play time
2-3h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 3 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Rising Islands is a platformer game.

Rising Islands is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 3 hours playing Rising Islands.

Rising Islands was released on August 1, 2016.

Rising Islands was developed by Lone Hero Studios.

Rising Islands has received neutral reviews from both players and critics. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its story.

Rising Islands is a single player game.

Similar games include Outland, Scrap Garden, Apex Construct, Steel Rats, Toren and others.