Playing Every Game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
PEGBRJE: ‘Gambol’ and ‘EMUUROM’
NO MURDER ALLOWED.
Gambol is a platformer created by HyperFunk, the solo indie moniker of V. Mike Pickering from the USA. Players will take on the role of a cute little gumball named Orange, tasked with finding their friend Blue for… well, reasons. And those reasons are not important — time to JUMP.
Inspired by the many speed-centric precision platformers that have made their way in to public eye, players will throw their little gumball across the levels towards a blue goal circle while trying not to die. As a gumball, Orange comes equipped with triple-jump technology indicated by the symbols on the bottom right.
What makes things wild is that Orange does not need to ‘land’ to regain these charges, but instead come in to contact with any surface that will not kill them. This means that any wall, ceiling or platform edge will give Orange back two jumps, so the high-flying can continue. This works great when ‘running’ along the ceiling to avoid those spikey enemies or getting into position.
Levels scale in difficulty by adding new challenges, such as keys or disappearing platforms, but the collectable triangles will always remain a staple of each level. Acting as the coins — but being too cool to be circular — each level will have a set amount of them that the player can grab. If all the triangles in a level are grabbed, players are awarded with the satisfaction of completionism (and points). They are completely avoidable if one (such as myself) does not want to collect them out of fear of dying or laziness. Just know that there will always be the lingering ‘could I have grabbed them?’.
Boasting 130 levels and over 2000 triangles to collect, Gambol is a dream platformer for those that wish to play all of the precision platformers. Its aesthetic is cute thanks to its 90s inspiration, and with full input customization you’ll be able to bind the buttons to whatever you feel comfortable. If you need another game like Super Meat Boy to fill your time with rage and ‘one more try’ mentalities, then this might be the game for you.
EMUUROM is a Metroidvania created by borbware, a solo indie developer. Utilizing the TIC-80 fantasy console (that’s a first), players will assume the role of Maire the retrobiologist as she dives in to a computerized world thought to be extinct.
In this strange and wonderful world of Emuurom, Maire will navigate through different biomes in order to find a way to escape — seeing as her trip unfortunately became one-way due to a data corruption.
Fans of Metroidvania games will recognize the massive interconnecting areas, where Maire will jump through multiple platforms and regions in order to simply get over a single wall that she just barely couldn’t reach. Backtracking is a core feature. While the map is not necessarily going to help players remember where everything is, it will give a sense of direction and understanding as the map continues to scale.
The farther the player goes, the more Maire will need to rely on the new abilities that she gains. But here is where EMMUROM differs heavily; combat does not exist. Maire does not have a single violent bone in her body, she does not carry a weapon, and the majority of wildlife are content with allowing her to roam freely. Some might even assist in certain circumstances, like the eagles giving her a lift or the plants allowing her to bounce. This does beg a small question, however; if there is no violence of any kind, how do players ‘progress’ in the ways that are traditional to Metroidvanias?
Enter the scanner, Maire’s trusty tool and the mechanic that flips the entire game on its head. This scanner allows Maire to scan any and all wildlife, learning about its properties while documenting it so that even if everything goes extinct there will be records. For those of us that enjoyed looking for small lore tidbits in our open world games, this will immediately lead to many hours ‘wasted’ by just scanning everything and anything to learn about the lush world that borb has created. There are snails that like to be pushed around, cute birds that will make journeys, and even plants that will whisper checkpoints in Maire’s ears.
This on its own is amazing and fun, but it is only half of what makes the scanner special; upon beginning to scan a creature, it will activate. For example, the birds only fly if Maire is standing on their heads, but if a scanner is pointed at them it will begin to fly towards the light. Many creatures will attempt to move towards the scanner if able, even if their movement has nothing to do with their abilities. Once a scan is complete however, that creature will be frozen in place for a short duration to allow for Maire to read its lore, but also to be able to use it as a stationary creature.
Once this is realized, the map explodes with potential; worms that move can now be stopped so that Maire can set up a massive bounce from above to cross a ravine, birds can become midair platforms to make dangerous jumps. The world is now that much more explorable, and it didn’t even take a single attack to do so.
I don’t think I’m selling this mechanic hard enough, because it is ridiculously fun to somehow combine a tool that opens up a world both in terms of mechanics and worldbuilding. Maire is able to document all of these gorgeous creatures while you get to utilize their helpfulness to keep going and keep learning more. It’s a symbiotic relationship put on full display in a video game about a lost environment full of these relationships. It allows for a game that does not need violence of any kind to give the same world-bending that Metroidvanias like to boast.
While it is still in development — currently the game is just a demo — it is more than enough to convince anyone that enjoys Metroidvanias to follow this title. Even those that don’t enjoy can soak in the design decisions and try their hand at a game that doesn’t need you to be good at fighting and jumping in order to explore. Hopefully Maire is able to get back home, but also get all of that sweet, sweet research.
