Developer: BeHappy Studios
Publisher: Back To Basics Gaming
Platform: PC – Steam

There was once a time before Steam Greenlight and Steam Direct. Back then, getting your game on Steam was a real achievement based on Valve deeming your game worth being on the store (yes, somehow Bad Rats was “good enough”, but that’s beside the point). $1 Ride, shown on promotional materials incorrectly as 1$ Ride, comes from an era where Greenlight was a pretty safe ticket to publication on Steam – and it shows.

$1 Ride is incredibly simple. It’s a 2D vertically scrolling arcade-style game where your goal is to never let the space ship stop moving. This is accomplished by hitting boost icons when passing through a strip of various icons. Other icons include mud that slows you down, rockets that automatically fire if there are any in your possession, and some health.

As the ship goes faster and faster, the camera zooms out further and the strips of icons grow wider. The hardest part is that it takes a lot of skill to ever be able to collect multiple icons at once. Ever choosing something like the health means you’re giving up on another speed boost. Without speed, the game ends, so it’s best to always try to hit the speed boosts.

That’s all there is to it. After unlocking some in-game achievements, another ship becomes available. There is an in-game leaderboard. None of this correlates to Steam achievements or leaderboards. $1 Ride also grows stale quickly due to the slightly entertaining concept being marred by less than stellar execution. At least the name is fairly accurate as the game only costs $0.99, and is often discounted further.

1 out of 5 alpacas

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