I Hate Running Backwards

I Hate Running Backwards is a shoot 'em up game and a spin-off in the Serious Sam series. The screen continuously scrolls vertically, as the player character runs backwards towards the top of the screen. They traverse procedurally generated levels across five thematic environments, occasionally using vehicles. The player can freely move the character on the screen and shoot downwards with a fixed aim.

The character wields two ranged weapons that are fired individually. Running out of ammunition for the primary weapon reverts it to a pistol with unlimited ammunition. Further weapons and special abilities can be obtained through collectables. Using a melee attack, the character can deflect enemy projectiles and kill nearby enemies.

I Hate Running Backwards was developed by Binx Interactive, a Zagreb-based indie game studio founded in 2014 by Bernard Bachrach, Nikola Đurinec, Filip Kovač, Adam Mehtić, Denis Mraović, and Matko Šimecki. At the company's inception, its employees had little knowledge of game development and no funding, and many worked second jobs at other local developers and provided quality assurance to other studios, which often led to 15-hour workdays. Binx Interactive initially created mobile games, some of which were cancelled due to a lack of resources. The studio's debut game was Monster Loops, which it co-developed with the Serbian studio Mad Head Games for iOS.

In 2016, Binx Interactive travelled to the Reboot Develop conference in Split to exhibit Monster Loops. Some members of the studio approached Damjan Mravunac, the composer from Croteam, with a prototype of a mobile driving game. This prototype, created by two Binx Interactive employees in their free time, involved tapping the touchscreen to make a car turn, drift, and spin. Mravunac suggested several changes, which the team delivered three days later.

I Hate Running Backwards was named among the best games exhibited at the PAX East trade show by GamesRadar+ in April 2018, a month before the game's release. Upon release, the game received "mixed or average reviews", according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, which calculated weighted average ratings of 71/100 for personal computers, 63/100 for the PlayStation 4, and 65/100 for the Xbox One.

Robert Purchese of Eurogamer described the game as a "fun and fast" arcade game, akin to his experience with Broforce. Peter Glagowski of Destructoid commended the simple control interface and fixed line of fire, which he found made the game more navigable. However, he and Julia Gomez of Nintendo World Report faulted the procedural generation, including inconsistent placements of collectables and enemies, for causing difficulty imbalances between runs. Furthermore, Glagowski lamented that the progress required to unlock characters was unclear.