Mainframes Review
Mainframes competes admirably with the best of the genre In terms of precision and gameplay originality. However, living in a post Celeste world, just being a hard as nails precision platformer isn’t enough these days, there is the need for a well rounded experience to pair with the demanding gameplay of the genre.
This is exactly where Mainframes finds itself, which is a shame, because the experience is precise, succinct, had charm, and even hinted at a poignant story about redundancy and corporate greed, which is extremely relevant. These breadcrumbs were relegated to few screens during the whole game and without a rich and engaging story, Mainframes doesn’t feel like a complete package.
Precision platformers don’t necessarily need stories, but for me, like Pandora’s Box, once you have experienced them with deeply engaging plot, it’s hard to fully enjoy them without one.
FLOPPY DISK
While most games are constantly getting longer, it becomes harder to be able find the time to enjoy all of the great experiences that are constantly releasing. In 2024 there was something along the lines of around 20 000 games released on Steam alone. This is why I love short games that you are able to complete in a day or two or even possibly a one sitting. There is a sense of accomplishment that you can associate with finishing something, whether its a book, a job around the house or a game.
Some of the best games of all time are short and succinct experiences. Games like Inside, Journey, Firewatch and Celeste come to mind. Mainframes might not be the same emotional journey as these other titles, but it is short, extremely satisfying and it’s only around ten dollars.
Mainframes is an adventure about a floppy disk trying to make his way through windows of a desktop computer that is clearly undergoing some technical difficulties. This is pretty much the extent of the story that will propel you from one screen to the next.
MainFrames is a concise experience, which means there isn’t much time to waste and as a result, within minutes, the platforming becomes difficult. However, with most precision platformers, there is only one golden path. Part of what makes MainFrames unique is the amount of accessibility it has. To begin with, in the settings menu, at any point you can turn on or off the unlimited jump option or the invincibility option. More importantly, without changing the settings, and one of the best things about MainFrames is that for most stages, there are usually two ways to find success. There is usually the obvious and more difficult path, but there is also a less obvious and easier path that requires more thinking.
As with the best entries in the genre, there needs to be excellent controls, which holds the player accountable for success and failure. Not only are the controls precise as they need to be with the right amount of weight, but for the most part they are also simple and only require you to use the jump button.
Keeping the controls simple is a way to remove barriers that push back on players as the demanding platforming sections will do that. A few of the other ways that MainFrames tries to limit resistance is that upon death, respawning is instant, which allows you to keep the rhythm.
The world of mainframes is laid out with a hub in the center and 7 levels. Each level will take you approximately 30 minutes for a total of around 3 hours. Each level is mostly thematic in the type of challenge that it will pose, but also each level usually had an end boss in the form of a difficult section that required flawless execution for a sustained length of time, which were very challenging and rewarding.
CRITICISMS
When it comes to precision platformers, the story aspect can vary drastically. On one side you have something like Celeste that uses a deft touch to discuss mental health with the result being the story aspect being your driving motivation as much as the gameplay. On the other hand, it can just be a basic premise such as your loved one has been kidnapped, taken to a castle and needs to be rescued by you.
The biggest issues with mainframe is that there is almost no motivation outside of seeing what the next mechanic will be and if you can complete it. This is unfortunate because there was strong potential for something as across some of the stages you uncover emails between coworkers of the computer you are living in. These emails intrigued me and I wanted to find out more, but nothing more came and it felt like a missed opportunity to tell a deeper story.
The other issue that I had was that after completing, I wanted to return and find all of the secret areas that I missed or decided to skip in the moment. Unfortunately, after the credits roll, you only have the option to reboot your last save, which will just take you back to the very moment before the credits or start a new file. If there is another way to revisit each world from the hub map, it was very unclear. When talking about unclear and confusing, it was never obvious when you were on the golden path and when you were on a challenge room.
CONCLUSION
Mainframes is a very good precision platformer, it just isn’t a complete experience.
What MainFrames lacks in story and cohesion, it certainly makes up for in other areas. On a precision platformer level, Mainframes was challenging, unique and delivered plenty of dopamine hits after completing stages that initially seemed impossible. The controls were spot on, the pixel aesthetic was very nice, the score was charming and there was hints of a relevant story about corporate downsizing, but unfortunately remained largely unexplored.
If you are just looking for a demanding precision platformer, MainFrames is only about ten bucks and will give you those endorphins you are looking for. However, if you are looking for a complete package that offers an engaging story to pair with excellent gameplay, Mainframes came up a little short.