Sunburn! Review

Sunburn! is probably the most tonally dissonant mobile game I’ve ever played; and it’s totally fascinating. Players are stranded in deep space with no hope of survival or rescue, so they must gather their scattered crew members in order to make sure the entire crew plummets into a star and dies together. Looking at the game, though, it’s plain to see that it has a sense of humor and whimsy even when dealing with such a dark concept. Luckily, Sunburn! somehow manages its darkness, humor, and general sense of design in a way that makes each level of fun, compelling, and emotionally weighty in all the best ways.

At the outset, players are treated to a cutscene that lays out the premise: the crew’s space ship gets struck by a comet, stranding all of them out in deep space. From here, players go through increasingly complex sets of puzzle platforming to gather the lost crew and die together. Attempting to complete any level without all crew members in tow results in a game over screen memorializing those left behind.

Control-wise, Sunburn! is a pretty tight experience. The game is controlled using two halves of the screen as movement or tilt directions (think Super Hexagon), while touching both sides of the screen simultaneously initiates a jump or jet sequence depending on context. While it seems like a simple scheme, players will find themselves in situations where they have to string together sequences of jumps, tilts, and jets to avoid premature death.

Aside from the grim concept, Sunburn! might be sounding like a run-of-the-mill platformer thus far, but don’t be mistaken – it’s more than the sum of its parts in more ways than one. The music is appropriately eerie and evocative, with sound effects that put real weight on each crew member’s death. Meanwhile the pixel-art aesthetic lightens the mood, particularly with the inclusions of characters like Porkbun, a cat crew mate. Beyond its style, Sunburn! is great about introducing new mechanics surrounding oxygen management, increased gravity fields, lava planets, etc at a pace that keeps things interesting without being overwhelming. And finally, the overall time-attack structure makes returning to levels feel worthwhile.

There is, however, one glaring issue with Sunburn!, which is the fact that the menu system is confusing and awkward. After setting the game aside, pressing “LAUNCH” on the main menu always starts players off on the first level. Further, selecting “SECTORS” brings up a list of levels, but there are no visuals to help players discern one from the other. The only thing guiding players along to find where they left off is a level number, name, and their completion time (if players had already played it). For a game that seems so well put together, these navigation issues stand out more than they might have otherwise.

Overall though, Sunburn! is definitely one of the weirdest and best platforming experiences to be had on iOS. It’s smart, funny, challenging, and pretty sad all at the same time in a way that makes playing it a complete delight.