Ministry of Broadcast

The Good
* Clever writing and narrative

• Tense, challenging platforming with step-based movement

• Satisfying puzzles and level design
  
  The Bad
  * Some extremely frustrating platforming sections

• Very little voice acting

• Generic sound and music
  
  The Bottom Line
  The decade’s first cinematic platformer has officially arrived in the form of Ministry of Broadcast Studio’s eponymous debut title. Set in an Orwellian dystopia, the game provides both the tense platforming, light puzzle solving, and stiff challenge one expects from the genre, along with a heaping helping of darkly comedic humor and twisted satire of the circus we call politics.

  You play as an unnamed redhead living in a post-apocalyptic dystopian state separated by a large wall. He wants to cross the border so he can see his family again, but to do this he must compete on “The Wall Show”, a deadly reality show, for the public’s entertainment. Navigating many tricky arenas and hazards, he must make his way past guards, dogs, alligators, and other hazards, all while keeping his body, and his sanity, intact. Along the way, your character will be guided and interact with a talking crow that may or may not represent his conscience.

  In terms of gameplay, Ministry of Broadcast displays an extremely deep understanding of the classic cinematic platformers. Movement is step-based and requires deliberate climbing, sprinting, and jumping with occasional trial-and-error. The movement feels solid and weighty, allowing you to make jumps with precision while still playing much like the classics. Climbing is responsive, and the jumps never seem unfair even when they feel impossible. Those who have never played these kinds of games before will understandably call the movement bad, since its realistic speed, friction, and jump distance are a far cry from most conventional platform games. However, players familiar with games like Prince of Persia and Flashback will feel right at home, and this game plays just as well, possibly better than those.

  Unlike its forbears, you cannot duck or roll, though you never really need to do so. There isn’t much in the way of combat in Ministry of Broadcast. You don’t have any conventional weapons for much of the game, though there is at least one section that is definitely a homage to Flashback. Instead you’ll take advantage of the environment to get past enemies and other obstacles. Ministry of Broadcast also incorporates puzzles and occasional stealth sections throughout. The puzzles aren’t too difficult but they feel satisfying to solve. Usually, to get past obstacles, you’ll have to ruin someone else’s day, whether that be letting them run into a pit of spikes so you can run across their bodies, using them as bait for guard dogs, or even starting a riot. Your character shows absolutely no qualms about any of this, he’s just out for himself. It’s more than a little disquieting to see your character’s humanity slip away as he tries to get as the state’s rules press down on him more and more.

  There are at least a couple of sections of this game that are extremely difficult. The first is a section where the entire level is dark except for a small pocket of light. It is hard to judge how much speed your jumps should have, and the light will make random directional changes that are unexpected. The other extremely tough section involves lots of fast platforming on construction that is crumbling apart, which is ncredibly confusing to navigate correctly at first try. These sections made me want to throw my controller against the wall with how difficult they were, but eventually I was able to power my way through them.

  While Ministry of Broadcast doesn’t have quite the same level of rotoscoped animations as its forbears, it still delivers lots of great little details. If you bonk your head against the wall, you character’s head will squish momentarily. When stepping on icy platforms, the character will pause momentarily before moving forward. If you move too fast, he will slip. Of course, no cinematic platformer would be complete without its fair share of grisly death animations, and Ministry of Broadcast is definitely no slouch in this department. If you jump too high off of a ledge, both of your character’s legs will be broken with gory results. Icicles can split your head in two. Piranhas and alligators are looking for dinner, and their meal is you. At one point, you can literally die from boredom if you happen to trap yourself under a very specific platform in the middle of the game, which shows just how meticulous the developers have thought about ways to die. Every death is a stark reminder of the unwavering cruelty of the oppressive regime. Your character’s is always ready with a sarcastic quip to comment on any situation.

  Ministry of Broadcast offers a clean, pixel-art look. It mostly operates in a wintery, industrial setting, though you’ll also venture through TV sets and sewers. There are loads of pop-cultural references sprinkled throughout, from The Shawshank Redemption to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The game even pays homage to the genre’s grandaddy, Prince of Persia. I ran into at least one glitch where the camera failed to scroll to where my character was in the room, but a reset quickly fixed it.

  The sound and music re solid if not entirely memorable. There’s a slight rock undercurrent to the soundtrack which is mostly sparse throughout the game, while the sounds are basic but effective. The writing is actually pretty solid throughout the game, so I was a little disappointed at the near-total lack of voice acting throughout the game. There actually is one scene with voice acting, from a character who is otherwise not heard when speaking, and its presence completely caught me off guard. Apart from a few screams and yells, and some muffled speech in the background of one scene, the use of voice is very limited. The fact that the developers managed to include voice acting for that one scene makes me question why they simply couldn’t have done it for the entire game, or at least for that particular character.

  Ministry of Broadcast is, in my opinion, the first great game of 2020. Its low profile and total embracing of an otherwise niche style of gameplay means that it won’t gather the mainstream attraction of other indie games, but it absolutely deserves to be better-known despite feeling incomplete in a few areas. It’s writing is sharp and clever and full of character, and it offers plenty of satisfying cinematic platformer action to sink your thumbs into.