Forza Polpo
PC
Developer/publisher Monte Gallo
Format PC
Origin Italy
Release TBA
Forza Polpo is, you may be startled to read, a post-apocalyptic game. Set in 1990s Japan following the invention of an energy source that ripped the planet asunder, it casts you as a lone survivor trapped in their bedroom, exploring through the eyes of a guntoting delivery drone. So far, so 2020 – but if this is the apocalypse, it’s the apocalypse at play. The environments are blissful, antigravity toyboxes of girders, traffic cones, trees and police cars, floating against hot afternoon skies like crockery flipped from a tablecloth by an inept magician. The palette is a giddy tumult of pastel pinks and greens, equal parts vaporwave and Studio Ghibli.
There are no human beings to encounter here, but there is an immense amount of warmth and bustle. Children cheer off-screen as you scoop up collectibles. Enemies, ranging from angry-eyebrowed mecha birds to pop-up turrets, exist as much for ambience as threat, drifting towards you or coughing up missiles from afar. Kiosk machines dispense energy pills along with bursts of fizzing J-pop. There are beachballs to knock into automated scoring nets and parasols to bounce on. Even your bullets sound joyful – they tinkle apart on impact like pieces of candy.
Forza Polpo’s cheeriness amid disaster reflects the buoyancy of its creator Cristiano Graziani, a digital VFX compositor for cinema whose credits include Ethan Hawke flick Getaway. “I’ve always been amazed by the fact that mother nature keeps being wonderful despite our state of mind or feelings,” he says. “This is fascinating and frightening at the same time.” It also reflects Graziani’s youthful adoration for two overlooked giants of early 3D console gaming, Nintendo’s Pilotwings and Sony’s Jumping Flash. Both games hinge on the thrill of falling toward a diorama-esque world, the view framed in Jumping Flash by a pair of robot feet – a touch faithfully preserved in Forza Polpo. “The connection between Jumping Flash and Pilotwings for me is the sense of freedom given by flight,” Graziani goes on. “I’ve always loved to fly, but I’ve also suffered from vertigo, which is why I think I’m tied to these two videogames. They managed to bring to life, in a safe environment, everything that scares me but which I love at the same time.”
Powered by Unreal Engine, Forza Polpo is Graziani’s first self-led videogame project. “I started to work on it during weekends and in my free time and it came naturally to do something related to flying – I had also just bought a drone – and to use battery dissipation as a pivotal point.” The game’s robot star is an eccentric presence, dinky enough to fit under a park bench and equipped with a HUD that jolts about like a mech’s cockpit. It’s based on both Jumping Flash’s Robbit and manga heroes such as Doraemon, Fujiko Fujio’s time-travelling cat robot. “I wanted a cheerful, carefree character without any violent features," Graziani explains.
While sturdy enough to smash through cracked surfaces given a sufficiently long drop, Polpo has a short operational lifespan. Movement, jumping, firing and receiving damage consume energy, while pink capsules, blowing up enemies and extended freefall recharge it. This lends a bit of focus to exploration without tying your hands too firmly. Polpo also unlocks a double-shot when your energy is maxed out, and there are power-ups like rockets, an electricity blast and a super-jump to gather as you search for the shimmering blue cubes that unlock level exits. Graziani is planning for the game to have around 16 levels, from airplane hulls to coin-op arcades, with a Pilotwings-style scoring system to encourage replay.
Forza Polpo’s nostalgia for a more carefree breed of platformer is especially enticing after a year of lockdown, but at the risk of putting words in Graziani’s mouth, we think there’s a bit more at stake here than retro escapism. The robot drone is often represented in videogames as a death-dealing eye in the sky, beholding a world it has no part of. Forza Polpo’s incarnation is, for that reason, quietly subversive – no high-tech vulture but an agent of innocent curiosity, delighting over spaces that are both ruins and childhood memories, floating on the breeze.
Even your bullets sound joyful – they tinkle apart on impact like pieces of candy