Game:

Type:Rider (2013)

Category:

Review

Duration: 2:19

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174

Created by COSMOGRAFIK, Type:Rider pens itself as a typographic video game, but in reality it's a time trial based platformer with tons of character. The object of the game is to reach the end of the stage, while collecting all of the letters, asterisks, and ampersands. Each level is based on a typeface, such as Helvetica, Garamond, or Times, and you can unlock interesting historical facts by collecting the asterisks. The game comes with 10 levels that are broken down into 4 stages, plus a separate 10-level speedrun course. But really all of the levels are speedruns since they have leaderboards for each stage. There's water, electricity, cats, and other hazards to deal with like nails, and bottomless pits, but the checkpoints are close together, and there's a quick restart that works for most of the stages. The player controls a pair of rolling dots by moving the thumbstick, pressing x to jump, and they can be rotated with the triggers, and that's all there is to it. It takes a few seconds to get going, because the dots are weighty and require momentum to get up to full speed. Some people might find the movement too sluggish and heavy, but after getting used to it, I believe the devs did a good job connecting the controls to the incredibly well designed levels. Each level looks beautiful with incredible attention to details, and not just visually, but mechanically as well. Every stage can be played as a time trial, and once you start shaving seconds, and tenths off you're time you'll appreciate how much thought went into the level design. And the music is really good and each stage has it's own theme. There's also some puzzle elements, but they're not too difficult to figure out. Overall, Type:Rider is absolute must try if you're a fan of platformers or time trials. It's also one of the few games to include unlockable history lessons that are actually interesting. I would be happy to buy a DLC with more fonts like Arial and Courier. Which typefaces do you think they should add if they decide to go with a DLC? Take the poll, and start a dialogue in the comment section.

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