FutureGrind

Review by Paul Fiander on Nintendo Switch

​Available on: PS4, Switch, Windows 
Developer: Milkbag Games / Publisher: Milkbag Games 
Release Date: Tuesday, January 22nd 2019

​From Ollie Ollie to the Trials franchise the stunt platformer has had a great run in recent times. The pick up and play nature of the games mixed with their mechanics and of course replayability have made the genre a must purchase for many players. FutureGrind enters this genre with a lot of competition but it has one hook that really stands out and that is the unique makeup of the characters bike. 

As you will be able to make out from the GIF’s and other images contained within the article you ride a bike that has a free wheeling axle. This allows you to spin the wheels and ride your bike on both one or two wheels. This in itself is a fun way to ride however as you get into the game you find the ability to rotate the wheels is the central conceit of the game. The tracks are made of rails that you can perform a vast array of tricks on. the clever part is they are colour coded to link with the wheels on the bike. This adds an almost puzzle element to the game as you have to find a path from start to finish surviving the different colour rails as if you hit the wrong one you will explode in a glorious explosion. There are little additions to this like a white rails which act as a neutral landing zone but each are explained both in the intro to the track and in the Grindpedia you find on the games opening menu.

​​The game in itself is focused on a single player campaign. There is a narrative that goes along with this but honestly I’m not sure it is necessary. The game in itself is more than enough even though i would love to have online leaderboards available to find out where I stack up against the rest of the players in the world (I’m guessing it will be pretty low but it’s still nice to know). There are challenges related to each track with the simplest being survive the track (not always an easy thing to do), moving upwards to avoiding white rails to performing tricks and beyond. Each track gives you a new challenge and i especially love the waterfalls which alter the colour of your wheels making you alter your preplanned ideas on the fly.

The central and most important part of the game is accessed by using the R button (on the switch), a quick restart. When you fail and fail you certainly will you can allow the game to go to a restart menu which can be helpful in allowing you to recognise your mistakes, but hitting the restart is a quick way to get back into the action and by quick i mean instant. It sounds odd but the reason this is key is the nature of the beast in terms of failure. By getting back on the horse it allows the player to overcome the frustration of waiting for the level to load which many can use as an excuse to stop playing. I appreciate this and the only issue with it is has been accidentally bumping the button when i’m playing in handheld mode.

​Visually the game runs well on both Switch modes. I prefer playing these games on handhelds as I feel they are more responsive. The joycons allow for a nice feel though the game only makes use of the basic input. The bright colours are a joy and you will be seeing neon colours a lot throughout. The backgrounds are nice without being too detailed but again you will be concentrating on the next rail (unless you are like our writer/podcaster Jon who loves looking at the background of games). The audio has an electric beat that is pleasant but this is not a game where I personally need the volume to be up as I prefer to concentrate on the action.

I’m going to insert a direct quote about the game from Milkbag co-founder Owen Goss, “FutureGrind has a color blind mode that lets you override the game’s default colors and pick the colors that work for you. We realized a one-size-fits-all approach wouldn’t work, so we’re putting the control in your hands so that as many people as possible can enjoy the game." Although I have not made use of this facility it is lovely to see developers caring about players experience and I tip my hat to Milkbag for adding this feature

Overall with around thirty tracks and five bikes Futuregrind certainly has a challenge that most will enjoy. The story is by the by with the real meat being the desire to score the highest you can on each track. There are trophies at the end of each stage but the real competition is trying to beat your last attempt and the game certainly feeds into the need to succeed. FutureGrind is a game worth taking notice of and is priced to allow it to be that secondary game that you turn to when you have less time, though be careful as you can sink a lot of time in just trying to complete the tracks.