To Infinity And Beyond
Much like the Defunct review, this entry in the Steam Racing Fest is not a "racer" in a traditional sense, but the rush I felt while playing felt satisfactory and familiar. Infinity Girl is a mix between an endless runner, a roguelike, a racer, and a rhythm game all at once. Needless to say, this is a very ambitious project.
The premise is simple. You are Infinity Girl and your goal is to run through several stages and reach the end. Along the way, there are hazards, sharp corners, and broken paths that act as obstacles. There are boost rings and rails to grind that increase your speed.
You Are A Human Metronome In Space
The main method of moving in this game is dashing. By pressing any button along with the beat, your character will move, swerve, and boost accordingly. The beat signature is simple and easy to follow although there are variants to the beat the further the player progresses. As mentioned, there are falling blocks that will impede your path, and getting hit will cause you to lose a life.
Falling, of course, will also lose a life and you have limited lives available. Lose them all and it's game over. I'm not sure if "space" is the best term to describe the aesthetics of Infinity Girl. It's more like subspace, as you're going through environments that would feel right at home in a game of Rez. Speaking of Rez, that's not a bad comparison to make as that game is to rail shooters as this is towards "runner" games.
There Are No Bananas To Collect Here
The Girl behaves similarly to that of a character in Super Monkey Ball, which is also the vibe I get when controlling my character. There is a translucent sphere surrounding her as well as the player slingshotting off of walls at any given time. Much like Super Monkey Ball, the physics in the air differ from the ground as The Girl is floaty, using the momentum of her speed to travel.
This is important when it comes to broken bridges as the only method of travel is a ramp and a burst of speed. Usually, the game is generous to give you boost rings to alleviate this, but it can be tricky to hit them all. It's best to save your boost for these sections as well as angling yourself to safety.
Choose Your Power Up Wisely
At the end of each stage, the player can choose one of three rewards that will carry over their current session. These rewards cost coins, which can be earned by collecting them as you travel across the bridge. Some of the coins will require the player to shy a little bit away from the main path.
It becomes a risk vs reward factor as the player has to decide if getting coins is worth the risk of getting squished. Some of the power-ups will increase your dash speed, the distance traveled via boosting, and turn sharply. Depending on your playstyle, you may want to move fast but you also may want to remain in control.
The visuals for Infinity Girl are beautiful for an early alpha build, which leads to my final thoughts. While the game is in alpha, there's a lot of content within the game as it is. Maybe in the future, we can expect to see different skins for The Girl. We may even see some of our rewards carry over through subsequent playthroughs as seen in most Roguelikes. Infinity Girl shows a great deal of potential across the many genres it represents and like other games I've looked at this week, I await to see the final product!
Infinity Girl currently has a demo on its Steam page.