One of the things that’s very liberating when making budget-priced games, is that they can afford to be very narrowly-focused. While that may mean failing to deliver a long-term experience, it can instead offer up some quality for the shorter haul. Hyper Mirror Run seems to be built on such an idea, and that’s to pit two players against each other in a head-to-head platforming rush, with the winner being the first to their respective flag in a series of increasingly-challenging stages.

That essentially means taking a side-scrolling platforming experience that should roughly be familiar to just about anyone and, as the title suggests, having each player on their own side trying to go as quickly as they can to win. It starts out simple enough, with the first order of business being to simply show mastery of jumping, obviously trying not to come up short, but also to be precise so as not to lose any momentum. From there, each level continues to raise the bar just a bit, adding different types of enemies, some simple weapons, and even including stage bosses at the end of each of the game’s 5 worlds and 55 levels.

Now, the issue is whether or not you’ve got someone who’s roughly at the same skill level as you to compete against. If you do, the game’s stock just went up because that could make for some tense and nail-biting play that you could break up over a few sessions even. If not? Well, there are some options for single-player against a bot opponent, whose skill level can be adjusted... but honestly at that point it isn’t so different from competing against the clock. That makes for a reasonably enthusiastic recommendation, but one that’s also heavily qualified. If you’re in the sweet spot for the game, it’s a great option that’s pretty unique on the eShop. If not, it likely isn’t different enough on its own merits to warrant playing it on your own.