It’s not every month that we get a new 2D indie platformer with a distinct art style. MainFrames looks unique, hits the ground running with a killer premise, and leaves your screen before any design cracks begin to show. That’s sort of refreshing.
This game, published by The Arcade Crew and developed by Assoupi, hasn’t had the most extensive marketing campaign, with only one reveal trailer and one release date trailer making the more casual crowd aware of its existence. Placing most chips on its viral potential is a risky move, yet the positive buzz surrounding the previews and the demo released in late 2024 is encouraging. After playing through the whole adventure myself in roughly three hours, I could see it becoming a sleeper hit.
While the charming trailers and other promotional materials released so far suggest this is a mostly relaxed outing that’s putting chill vibes and clever puzzles over everything else, you’d be surprised by how momentarily hard it can get. I’m saying “momentarily” because, unlike in modern platforming classics such as Super Meat Boy, you’re likely to overcome the challenges MainFrames presents after a while and without punching the nearest wall in the process.
At worst, there’ll be times when MainFrames tests your patience or introduces a hard-to-digest mechanic which takes a while to fully click together with what you already know. But it’s not a crushingly difficult game, and the extremely breezy pace and its control scheme, coupled with instant respawns and checkpoints in each room/screen, help the experience move along before things get frustrating.
Floppy’s basic actions are running, jumping, and sort-of-dashing forward. It’s a simple affair which translates into an easy-to-pick-up platformer. Generally, these moves need to be used in conjunction with icons and windows found within each frame. The game’s central gimmick is using a PC monitor and the insides of a system as the many scenes for Floppy’s journey. For the most part, Assoupi made great use of this concept, which applies to both the (admittedly thin) plot and the level design and structure. Sometimes, it’s easy to identify missed gameplay opportunities, but given how the developers have skillfully avoided repetition and trimmed any potential fat, it’s hard to be annoyed by the things MainFrames doesn’t want to do.
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Daemons (background processes) are at the center of Floppy’s romp. While some characters offer guidance, plenty of those programs are even more lost than our hero, so a secondary task throughout the whole journey is saving as many of them as possible. It doesn’t directly affect the ending or progression, but some of the most enjoyable areas involve figuring out safe routes for them toward a digital elevator that can take them to the safety of a lively break room.
Players who want to make a beeline for the ending can safely ignore these challenges, but achievement hunters will want to clear every room. Moreover, there’s a super hard achievement which requires players to finish the entire game without dying even once (there’s quite a bit of trial-and-error in this one). Needless to say, speedrunners and the hardcore crowd will fall in love with MainFrames… if they give it a chance. Oddly enough, there are zero (as far as I can tell) achievements tied to regular progression.
By the time you reach the end, it’s hard not to look back and realize that, yeah, the best bits of the game were actually the ones that nearly made you lose hair. Many rooms you can just breeze through with a basic understanding of mechanics, such as resizing the windows based on your movement or dragging them around, but some of the trickier screens land in that sweet spot of putting pressure on the player without feeling unfair. I’d say a lot of playtesting time went into this one.
Accompanying all the wall-jumping and window-multitasking, MainFrames introduces a number of colorful desktop backgrounds that are never distracting (besides one level which actively tries to make you feel dizzy) and blend together well with the elements at the forefront which Floppy needs to interact with. Likewise, the cheerful soundtrack never felt overbearing or “overly cool” for what’s largely a chill and focused adventure.
Not as pleasing were some unfortunate bugs that made Floppy not react to any inputs after dying and forced me to reload certain screens several times from the main menu, which is especially bothersome when you’re dealing with a hard section, or repeating loading scenes that didn’t match my actual progression through the eight major levels. While I didn’t experience any game-breaking issues myself, one or two solid patches would be welcomed.
In the end, MainFrames is the rare sort of indie release that both feels professional and knows not to punch above its weight. It has a clear central idea and hits the right notes without getting itself into too much trouble (unlike Floppy). I wouldn’t describe it as “cozy” given how much it can kick your ass, but it’s an easy suggestion for anyone who’s looking for quick and gorgeous platforming thrills with a perfect amount of complexity.
MainFrames is out today, March 6, on PC and Nintendo Switch.
