Life is busy, free time is short, and there are a hell of a lot of games coming out… More than any person could ever play, let alone finish. I do my best to keep up with the neverending flood, but there’s only so much one man can do. In an effort to be more nimble with my coverage, I’ve decided to roll out This Is Not A Review.
Like the title says, this is not a review. The content of this column will be general impressions, ideas, thoughts, and any random thing that pops into my head after spending time with the non-review game in question.
The subject of this installment? Type:Rider from CosmoGrafik, published by Plug In Digital. (PC, PS4, Vita, iOS)
Games that are about fonts and the development of language — specifically printing and lettering are pretty rare, at least as far as I’m concerned. I’m trying to think of another one, and the only one that even remotely comes up for me is Typo Man on the WiiU. As such, Type:Rider has pretty much got this genre to itself.
The game puts the player in the role of a colon (yes, the punctuation mark made up of two dots) and they travel mostly from left to right through semi-abstract areas was made up of letters, images and historical documents that relate to the development of printing, letters, and typography.
The game almost seems like half a Limbo-like and half a history lesson, which is a neat mix — I can genuinely say that some of the unlockable documents and excerpts scattered around as collectibles contained a ton of facts, some familiar (what up, Johannes Gutenberg!) and quite a few that I never knew about
The music is nice and relaxing, the gameplay never gets too hard, and the art style is pretty great. It’s quite interesting to see all the different elements normally relegated to schoolwork and text being interwoven into a platformer-style experience.
If you’re someone who has an interest in language, typography, or titles in the Limbo-like genre, this would be a good one to check out.
Transformers fan. MOTU stan. Black Lives Matter, pro-LGBTQIA. Anti-fascist.
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