GDC 2018 preview: The Messenger

After previewing the game at GDC 2018, I have one question: can I coin the term GaidenVania ahead of the launch of The Messenger?

During GDC week I attended an off-site event called The Mix. Though there were many amazing games on site, one in particular really caught my attention. I could not actually see the game when I walked in but saw it was surrounded by people wearing Limited Run hoodies and Devolver Digital shirts. I am a big fan of Limited Run’s physical edition games and I consider Devolver Digital the Interscope Records of gaming, so figured I would go on and check it out as well. The game they were checking out, The Messenger, may be Devolver Digital’s next big publishing hit.

Sabotage’s The Messenger is an 8-bit retro Ninja themed platformer that eventually evolves to become what I would call a 16-bit GaidenVania game. During my hands-on demo I was able to play through the a few portions of several levels in order to get introduced to the game’s great art style, game mechanics, and awesome retro music from Rainbowdragoneyes.

One mechanic that I remember fondly as a kid playing Ninja Gaiden on the NES was the wall jumping, and Sabotage makes jumping the first secret Ninja skill at your disposal. The Cloudstepping mechanic as it is called is an attack based multi jump mechanic. When you strike something, you can use it to activate a chainable jump that can help you get over enemies as well as hard to reach areas.

With your cool ninja self you enter the next screen to see that some demon lord has come to destroy your world. That is when you thoroughly get handled by the demon lord until a warrior comes to save you and dubs you The Messenger  to save this world. It’s a lovely nostalgia-filled cheesy premise full of tropes, but as I progressed I saw that maybe there is more than meets the eye. Without spoiling much, the game has an interesting time travel element to it and certain abilities will allow you to see levels in unique ways. Also the game has some very Matrix-like elements to its story.

As far as the actual gameplay, using an Xbox controller made for a very responsive experience while the Cloudstepping mechanic made for some great chain attacks. Eventually, items I would get like wall claws and a wing suit showed just a taste of the various Ninja tools available in the game. The shop in which you can get those items also plays a part in the overall humor in the game as well as helping the story progression.

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Director of the The Messenger, Thierry Boulanger, took the time to open up the team’s debug menu in order to show off a few later levels, including one in which you race and fight against a futuristic dragon and one that seemed to conjure up memories of Mega Man 2 in both its art style and difficulty curve.

Getting a small glimpse into the 16-bit GaidenVania part of the game that occurs later was eye-opening. Taking a view at a later game map showed me that the 16-bit portion is not a small part of the game but almost an entirely different game experience akin to flipping the castle in Castlevania: SOTN.

When I spoke to producer Martin Brouard and director Thierry Boulanger I told them that I would love to play this game on the Switch. They responded at the time telling me they had no plans to bring the game to Switch as of yet, but were very happy with the success so far partnering with Devolver Digital for publishing. Well, I tell you the team at Sabotage can sure keep an NDA! They announced The Messenger for a summer release on Switch the very next day.

The Messenger  is already an awarding winning game coming away with several honors at the 2017 Montreal Indie Games Festival. The game also came away with the Judge’s Award at the Mix event I attended during GDC last week. For what I played during the event The Messenger seems very deserving of those honors as well potential future awards. You can check out The Messenger on PC and Nintendo Switch this summer.