Tag: arcade

Speed Limit V2 – High Speed Boogaloo:

Back when we were not in the grips of a global pandemic, which honestly feels like a decade ago – I went to EGX in London. Thankfully, I was lucky enough to receive a press pass and I got the chance to talk to some awesome developers about their games. My longest interview with developers were with the crew from Gamechuck, which lasted over an hour! We ended up talking about the various projects they were working on, the origins of those ideas, future plans and what they wanted to get across to their players in the long-term. We have stayed in contact since then and the crew has been great at keeping me aware of their upcoming releases and demos, which we have covered before on the site.

If you cast your mind back to early March of 2020, you will remember that I released an article about Speed Limit – the high-paced arcade inspired game that reminds us what travelling on the Tube could be like if acted upon the internal rage we all feel at people’s behavior on public transport. Well, this week the full game is being released across all platforms and I was lucky enough to receive a review code for this awesome game! Honestly, I was made so happy that I was offered a review code, first time in the history of Mind Games that I have been offered one rather than applying through a system. It is the little things that make us smile.

Two totally not shifty people sat on a train.

Of course, a lot has changed since the demo of the game was released last year but feel free to go read my piece on that and come back to this when you are done. Totally not trying to encourage people to read more of my articles. Wink wink, nudge nudge, guilt guilt. Anyways, lets talk about Speed Limit and my time with the game, as well as some interesting things that I highly encourage you to check out for yourself.

The core gameplay of Speed Limit can be summed up with one sentence – keep pushing on, regardless of what is close behind you. Regardless of agents with grenades, bikers with a death wish, aggressive jets or the various railway signs waiting to decapitate you, your goal is simply to keep moving. Your main weapon is your trusty pistol, which has infinite ammo (thank god) and can take down your standard enemies in one shot, like a gun would actually do in the real world, come at me video games. And no, you cannot just stand there and shoot the conga line of death following you along the train until they are all dead, trust me, I tried. They are infinite. They are inevitable. You stay in one place for too long, you are dead.

…remember to duck

Where Speed Limit really shines is in its timing. Every time you die, you learn more about the level that you are playing. You discover the number of guards in a train carriage, the location of barriers that you could crash into on the road, the movement pattern of enemy helicopters. The more you play Speed Limit, the calmer you are. It is an intriguing experience to say the least, especially since during my first playthrough, I panicked and screamed a lot as I sprinted down the train carriage, with like twenty knife wielding men chasing me. Now, when I play that level, I move almost rhythmically, dodging and weaving like I am Neo from the Matrix.

GET AWAY FROM ME

Gamechuck have taken all the good points from the arcade games of old, such as a kickass soundtrack and unique mechanics that do not get overused to the point where they are not fun anymore, and turned it into a high-paced, action packed romp through childhood nostalgia but without the dodgy control schemes and constant drainage of our loose change. Even the transitions between levels feel smooth and badass, as you ramp your motorbike into a helicopter or hurl yourself from the roof of a moving train into a passing car. Honestly, I felt cool and I am sat writing this article in a hoodie with my weekly dungeons and dragons’ session in about an hour.

VROOM VROOM NERDS

The more runs of Speed Limit that you play, the more detail you notice. Suddenly you think to yourself, why is that helicopter crashed over there? Why is there a hole in the roof of this train? Why are all these government people trying to kill me? Why do they have throwing knives? Why are the battleships on some mundane river near the city? Who was that person at the beginning? Now, I am not going to spoil it for you. I feel that it is something that you need to witness yourself, after all, it took me by surprise. There are not many games that I can outright say that you should play instead of watching footage, but Speed Limit feels like one of them. From time trials to achievements, there is so much to this little indie game that there is no way that I could get through it all in an article. Plus, there is an achievement for ruining the paint job on an enemy’s vehicle in a particular stage and that genuinely made me laugh when I received it.

Look at that sunset water. So pretty. Goddamit.

You have boss fights, kickass music, cool level transitions, intriguing story clues, unique level mechanics and a beautiful art style inspired by the arcade games that a lot of us grew up with. What more could you want?

I want to say a massive, massive thank you to the whole crew at Gamechuck for being so awesome throughout all our conversations and interactions, as well as sorting out a switch review code for me amidst the chaos of the world. They are an amazing indie company that deserve all the love they can get, and I guarantee they are worth every penny you might spend on their games.

Have a good week all,

CaitlinRC.

Speed Limit – The Underground Just Got Interesting:

If you’ve been following my site for a while, you’ll have noticed the frequent mention of a company called Gamechuck. I had the chance to meet a few of their team at EGX in October and have been consistently impressed with the high-quality games and hardware that they produce on a regular basis. We’ve talked about some of their older works such as Vape Escape before and recently I got to look at a preview of their newest creation – Trip the Ark Fantastic.

I’m always excited to see something new from the Gamechuck crew, so when I spotted an email in my inbox last week from them, I was excited. Their letter of love to the era of arcade games, called Speed Limit, released its trailer and demo as of today! (March 12th). It’s a high-paced, run-and-gun, action filled arcade game demo, available on Steam for you all to enjoy – click here for that – https://store.steampowered.com/app/1058280/Speed_Limit/

Watch the trailer here!

I got a little sneak view at Speed Limit when at EGX. I was terrible at it, but I enjoyed it immensely. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain:

A daily train commute gone wrong: Speed Limit is a one take, non-stop arcade experience that never slows down. An old-school shooter boiled down to its core elements: Hard. Fast. Addictive.”

Have you ever been on the London Underground and been ambushed by dozens of soldiers dressed in full SWAT gear? Me neither. Though I probably wouldn’t be that surprised if it did happen. The Tube is known for it’s weird and whacky events after all – such as a goth and his surfboard, a satanic doll and people bringing various …adult art pieces onto the train. Seriously, I don’t know what it is about public transportation that inspires commuters to try weird and whacky things. Then again, the Internet wouldn’t be the same without it.

Check out the making of video here!

Simplistic, fast-paced and addictive gameplay is what makes Speed Limit so intriguing to me. You will die, a lot. Not as often as Dark Souls or Cuphead but Speed Limit is very much trial and error experience. You’ll become a professional in the first few sections of a level, charging through train carriages, shooting bad guys and dodging bullets like you’re in the matrix, then suddenly faceplanting off the roof and being crushed the wheels of the train. You know, just normal things.

Speed Limit isn’t about learning a mechanic and just charging through every level as quickly as possible. It’s about adapting to what is front of you. As soon as you get used to one level style, it’ll throw you into another – forcing you to start that learning curve all over again. It takes everything that was brilliant about arcade games and adds that modern zeal to it.

James Bond eat your heart out.

Every frame is hand-drawn by the phenomenally talented artists at Gamechuck, with such detail that it boggles the mind. The one thing that it doesn’t take from the arcade era, is the tendency to steal all your money. If you die, you start the level over from the last checkpoint. You don’t have to put in additional coins or run to find more tokens before the timer ticks down and you lose all your progress.

I’m not going to reveal too much about the game itself as I believe that it is well-worth playing yourself, even if just for the banging soundtrack. It’s a hard balance to nail – creating a soundtrack that doesn’t frustrate you after listening to it on loop for ten minutes. They’re talented folks, what can I say.

Subtle agent reading newspaper is subtle.

If you’re curious about how Speed Limit was created, the Gamechuck crew are releasing a three-part documentary series talking about the whole process, so it’s worth looking at! Especially if you’re interested in game design.

Anyways, apologies for the shorter piece this week – partly not wanting to spoil the demo experience for anyone and partly because I’m running a production this week, so I’m sat writing this whilst waiting for some set pieces to dry!

Till next time,

CaitlinRC