MainFrames Hands-On Preview – The Life of a Floppy Disk
MainFrames is a platformer set inside the windows and desktop of a PC monitor. You control the aptly named Floppy as you jump from window to window, bumping on icons and finding other computer-related applications as a pixelated scene smoothly scrolls in the background. There are many puzzle elements thrown into the mix, meaning that it’s not just about timing and accurate jumping, but also being resourceful with the window movement and having a keen eye to understand how we can adjust the screen in order to reach the exit – or one of them, since you may spot additional gateways in one area.
Drag and Drop
If we squint, we can see a little bit of Super Meat Boy in MainFrames, minus the gore and frantic speed. This is shaping up to be a clever, offbeat game, one that regularly throws quite a few different mechanics at the player right when they thought it was all under control. It’s a bit wacky for sure, with some odd characters and transitions reinforcing the idea of a computer where everyone is at work, as Floppy tries to find their place in this world. It’s one of those games with the potential to not only break the fourth wall, but shatter it into pieces, something that we could already experience during this very short playable demo.
For most of the screens or areas, there won’t be anything such as solid ground – you make your way across windows, using wall jumping whenever necessary, until you reach the passage to the next screen. Sometimes it’s as intuitive as making a few jumps; other times, you have to carefully inspect the options and tweak some functions to allow you to reach the exit. When twists like moving windows around or expanding the window’s width or height come into play, things become more complicated and often require some precision jumping and perfect timing. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of some mechanics and understand how they work correctly, such as running to expand the windows, and frustration may be a part of the game here and there, as if you miss a jump, you likely die and reset for that screen. While the game is being described by the developers as cozy, this label does not apply to all the screens, you can be sure of that.
Wall jumping is a recurrent technique that somehow didn’t feel intuitive during our playtime. The potential for unwarranted deaths is huge, both by falling out of the screen or due to touching a glitch that results in insta-kill. Maybe this could be down to a skill issue, but the need for a quick jump and direction press didn’t seem prone to gather consensus here.
Other than that, our Floppy is a resourceful little disk. It has no double jump ability – at least so far – but it’s capable of a little spin that works as a short glide, useful to cover a bit more of distance. The bump icons will give it a boost in the indicated direction, often requiring some fast icon switch that balances skill with trial-and-error gameplay. Occasionally you’ll be tasked with rescuing other apps by dragging their characters into an elevator.
There are other mechanics in store for Floppy that we couldn’t try in this short demo, surely things such as vertically flipping the screen or mirror controlling a character, adding to the mix and diversity of what is said to be a short and sweet journey.
A Mainframe With a Few Twists
A retro platformer with some interesting puzzle ideas, MainFrames is unlikely to win game of the year, but could be a fun and clever little romp for those in the lookout for out-of-the-box adventures. Or maybe I should say inside-the-screen adventures? Whatever your preferred label is, and despite some potential frustration with wall jumping, this is shaping up to be a clever little app.
MP1st was given access to a preview build of MainFrames. MainFrames is launching for PC in Q1 2025.
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