MainFrames Preview
Sometimes, simple is good. With AAA game budgets exceeding those of small European countries and telling Tolstoy-novel length stories, it’s good to be reminded that games don’t need complexity to be fun. Recently, I played a preview of MainFrames, an upcoming little 2D puzzle platformer. It’s the kind of game I can imagine someone sketching out on graph paper to show someone the concept.
Boxed In
I keep emphasizing the diminutive size and concept of MainFrames, but it’s really only relative to the behemoth games we’re used to seeing. There are actually quite a few clever little ideas in MainFrames. You play as Floppy, a cute floppy-disk-shaped character, navigating their way through a series of geometric forms representing monitors and frames and other computer bits and bobs. There are demons in your way, and MainFrames has a bit of humor, too, plus a cast of NPCs helping to drive the story along.
MainFrames aims to be a chill little puzzle platformer, and from what I’ve played so far it succeeds. Controlling Floppy and elements in the environment is simple. Most of Floppy’s moves are single and double jumps and other basic platforming mechanics. Sometimes the controls felt a little too loose, so that what should have been easy jumps became frustratingly precise. Then again, I might just be the World’s Most Inept Platform Gamer. I’m waiting to pick up my award any day now.
The goal of each screen is moving from left to right through a series of boxes and other obstacles. However, MainFrames folds in puzzles pretty early on. It doesn’t take long before Floppy is manipulating frames, avoiding death-dealing electrical shocks and timing jumps just so. While a lot of MainFrames’ basic concepts aren’t new, the mechanic of shifting around parts of the environment adds quite a bit of engagement.
No High-Count Polygons In Sight
You might guess that MainFrames embraces a retro pixel art style. It does. Floppy and other NPCs are simple characters with the most basic of facial features and objects in the environment are very basic as well. In contrast, the action is played out against some colorful landscapes which are a welcome contrast, adding some textural complexity to the geometric foreground objects.
MainFrames’ music is likewise full of retro-sounding chiptune cheeriness. It reminded me of classic 8- and 16-bit platformers. It’s also on the repetitive side, especially during platforming sections that demand a lot of concentrated practice. Overall, MainFrames’ audio design isn’t incredibly ambitious, but then, it doesn’t need to be.
Those of us old enough to remember the dawn of video games recall the pleasure of basic mechanics married to clever implementation. Those simpler times are what MainFrames reminded me of, in a good way. Wait, I don’t need to worry about branching skill trees, 10 different combos, and a joystick’s worth of inputs? Sign me up, at least for a little while. From what I’ve played so far, MainFrames might not be the only game you’ll ever need, but when you need a break from one of those lifestyle-sized, AAA powerhouses, MainFrames will fit the bill.
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