Mainframes presents an intriguing premise: What if your PC desktop was its own game world? Taking on the role of a cute, anthropomorphic floppy disk called, uh, Floppy, you set off on a journey through multiple ‘biomes’ of increasing complexity in which PC windows (or frames) are traversed to reach your goal.
Though very light on story, French developer Assoupi introduces a handful of quirky characters both friendly and not-so-friendly. It’s a charming presentation that’s almost reminiscent of FEZ, though we wish a bit more was done to flesh out the world. As it stands, the main draw here is the gameplay itself, and thankfully it does a great job at keeping you engaged for its relatively short duration.
Essentially, the PC windows act as platforms; some remain static, others move around, and a few of them can be directly manipulated by either Floppy’s movement or your own ‘desktop user’ input from afar. Running on the spot might make certain windows expand upwards, thus revealing a hidden key, or you might wish to move a window from one side of the screen to another via the right analogue stick to better enable a safer, direct route from point A to point B.
It’s all context-sensitive, so your ability to interact with the environment very much depends on the type of puzzle presented. Thankfully, there’s a great deal of variety and we almost never felt like we were retreading old ground. Puzzles rarely outstay their welcome and there’s always a new, quirky obstacle that you’ll need to figure out to proceed.
Unfortunately, several difficulty spikes proved quite frustrating in what is otherwise a pleasantly breezy platformer. With games like Super Meat Boy and Celeste, you know what you’re getting yourself into; if we were to visualise the difficulty curve for those titles, it would be a fairly steady incline with a few minor peaks and dips. With Mainframes, that line is all over the place, lurching upwards at random intervals before settling back into its groove. It’s nothing that should dissuade you from trying it out, but just be mindful that it can really beat you across the head when you’re least expecting it.
All told, Mainframes is a solid recommendation if you’re after a new precision/puzzle platformer that tries something relatively fresh with its desktop-bending premise. We would have liked to have seen a few clever nods to real-world software brands to really take advantage of its setup, but with its pleasant pixel-art visuals and gorgeously laid-back soundtrack, it’s a good way to spend a handful of hours. Just watch out for those difficulty spikes; they can be a real downer.
