Type:Rider

Genre: Platformer

Players: 1

.

Review:

Type:Rider is a physics-based Platformer released on PC and mobile devices in 2013, ported to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2016, and then ported to Nintendo Switch in 2019. In this game, players control a colon, that bit of punctuation with two dots that’s right in the middle of the title of Type:Rider, moving around as if the two dots were wheels connected by an invisible line. Players move this colon through each stage, trying to collect letters, asterisks (this thing that looks like a star: * ), and ampersands (this thing often used in place of “and”: & ).

Type:Rider is clearly focused on its theme of text and typefaces, with each of its stages based on a specific font, and loosely exploring an era in the history of the written English language. Visually, this is represented with a mix of 2D and 3D visuals shown in silhouette so as to all look like flat black markings, with stages built from jumbles of letters, and backgrounds decorated by examples of historical texts and important figures in the history of English writing, all backed by largely atmospheric music giving the game a reverential feel.

The effect is truly excellent, really making this game feel like a visual testament to the history of the written word, and my only frustration here is that this game doesn’t take this tour of writing to its logical conclusion and include actual biographical essays or video essays actually discussing these people and events and their significance. I suppose interested parties can do research on Wikipedia or something, but it’s a real missed opportunity not to include it here.

Since this isn’t aiming to be a museum piece, we must look at it as a game, and in this regard it’s somewhat lacking. The issue here is that this is a physics-based game where the physics are inconsistent and unreliable, making for frustrating missed jumps and repeated deaths, and even when the game works as intended, there’s nothing truly exceptional in the gameplay here.

I can’t help but be frustrated by Type:Rider, because it feels like it just needed to go a little bit farther to be a much better game. Fix up the physics to make the game play better and this could have been a fun but simple Platformer. Add in biographical information to make this game a virtual museum tour of the English language. But do neither, and this remains a game that seems loaded with missed opportunity.

tl;dr – Type:Rider is a physics-based Platformer where players control a colon (this thing –> : ) rolling through a history of the English language. The presentation here is stunning, but it falls short of being a true tour of the written word by not containing actual biographical information, and the platforming itself is woefully flawed due to the physics at its core being inconsistent and unreliable. Those fascinated by text and fonts may still find this game to be a visually-pleasing diversion, but it’s disappointing that this could have been something much greater than it is.

Grade: C

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}