Rise and Shine is a 2D shoot-em-up set in a world that pulls from gaming culture. Its gameplay and beautiful art style make it a blast to play.
I want to go ahead and get one thing out of the way…Rise and Shine is incredibly difficult and isn’t for the faint of heart. I played on the ‘normal’ difficulty setting and at times I wanted to throw my controller out of my 19th floor apartment window. The game is still incredibly fun despite this, and I enjoyed it a lot. The best advice I can give is to be patient and learn the exact layout of each and every stage.
The game begins with you, a young boy named Rise, facing an unbeatable enemy. You then flash back and witness the invasion of Gamearth by a deadly military force. They want to destroy the planet and you must stop them. Shortly after the game begins, you obtain Shine, your snarky pistol which has a mind of its own, literally, and you set out on your quest to save Gamearth. After exploring various settings and killing all those who stand in your way, you finally make it to what seems the end, but do you accomplish your goal of saving Gamearth? I’ll leave that up to you to find out.
The gameplay in Rise and Shine is one of a cover-based 2D side-scrolling shoot-em-up. Lots of dashes there. The mechanics are simple. You aim the gun and shoot while hiding behind cover. Each combat encounter is self-contained, similar to how Gears of War does combat rounds, and you eventually come across a monstrous boss you must destroy. Shine can be upgraded by finding chests that allow you to store an extra bullet in the chamber. Shine also gets various bullet variants along the way. Once you obtain several of these upgrades, you can do some serious damage to enemies and tear through waves quickly if you play well.
During my time with Rise and Shine, I experienced no technical issues. The art style is gorgeous. It’s detailed, crisp, and so colorful that it leaps off the screen. I loved the music as well. I found myself sitting on the title screen just so I could listen to it!
Earlier I mentioned the difficulty of the game and I think it is the biggest issue with it. Deaths are swift and can at times come out of nowhere. There were times in which the difficulty felt perfect, but for every moment like that, an insane difficulty spike was just an enemy encounter away. I felt like this disrupted the flow of the game and really brought it down at times. There is even a more difficult mode than ‘normal’. Ironman mode is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. You get one life to beat the whole game. I died over 100 times in my 2 hours with the game, so needless to say I won’t be attempting that mode anytime soon.
Summary
Rise and Shine is a fun experience, but its difficulty and short run time detract from the overall package. If you’re looking for something short to pick up and play, I definitely recommend that you pick up Rise and Shine and enjoy taking back Gamearth!
Jonathan was a regular ICXM contributor between 2015–2017, publishing 57 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @jtainsworth13.