General:

Rising Runner is a puzzle platformer with a true spirit of retro gaming. Although levels are in general pretty easy and short to finish, the Marathon Mode makes the whole game hard and challenging. Marathon is a default mode (most of the achievements can only be done in this mode) in the game where you have to finish all the 20 maps in a single run - if you run out of lives you will need to start all over again (don't worry though, run doesn't take THAT much time due to fast movement and short maps). This can be harder than you imagine because one wrong move can cost you a life. You can also play separate episodes to train your runs and explore the secrets in advance before starting the Marathon run. 

Achievements in the game are well designed, offering new challenges which makes the gameplay even more interesting. It took me more than 2 hours to finish the whole Marathon for the first time and I still didn't collect all the ducks in a single run and unlock all the achievements (which I plan to because FUN!). I should mention ducks! Ducks are just for extra points and achievements but you will want to collect them just to hear the ducky-quaack!

Did I mention the game also has a map editor? Yes, it does!

Replay value:
Game is hiding quite some secrets, including the special ones (peek at the achievements list). They are not easy to find and you will have to do some exploration. For extra challenge you should try to unlock all of the achievements which will give you plenty of replay value. I hope developer implements online highscores at some point so we can climb up to be the best ones.

Bugs/Crashes encountered: None

Overall: 4.5 (on a scale from 1-5)
Graphic: 5 (Really nice and consistent pixel art, like in old times)
Music & Sound effects: 4 (Sounds are great and music fits the game perfectly although it starts repeating over time. )
Gameplay: 5 (Challenging, good replay value (exploration/achievements) and really strong retro feel )
Other: 4 (pressing ESC in the game takes you to the main menu without a warning which made me lose my progress few times)

Conclusion: Rising Runner is definitely a true Indie Game gem worth playing and 5$ is a perfect deal for it, especially if you like retro games.

This is my personal opinion on the game and it was reviewed as "Retro game" (graphics, gameplay etc.)