Brutal platforming games are nothing new to the industry. Super Meat Boy, Celeste, Dead Cells, and even Hollow Knight are all shining examples of how to craft a tough — yet rewarding — platforming experience. Ministry of Broadcast tries to up the ante by delivering social commentary and dark humor, all wrapped up in a beautiful pixelated package. While it falls short in a few categories, it's still an engaging title that hardcore platforming fans will enjoy.

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Pixelated Hunger Games

The narrative of Ministry of Broadcast is half the game's appeal. Players take on the role of a shoeless, nameless, red-headed character. He is a "contestant" on a game show, a game he hopes to win so he can go see his family who are located on the other side of the wall that divides his country. The story is played out over several cutscenes and short dialogue segments that do a good job fleshing out the world. A few of these sections in the later game tend to drag on a bit longer than they should, taking you away from the gameplay, but they never linger so long as to become overtly annoying.

via Ministry of Broadcast Official Website

As you make your way through the story, you'll find yourself guiding fellow human beings in front of attack dogs, leading them onto spikes, or generally causing bodily harm to everyone around you — all under the guidance of a talking crow. It's a brutal (and bizarre) game, one that becomes even more gruesome after Day 3, but it's all well-done and meshes with the overall theme of Ministry of Broadcast. It bills itself as a title that is, "Rife with dark humor, sarcastic quips, and a general absurdity of the system." And that is all totally true. However, at the end of my five-hour playthrough, I found it to be lacking in depth. Although several hot topics are mentioned — such as free-will, the meaning of life, and the reign of authoritarian governments — the story never seemed to dig deeper on most of these subjects.

Puzzling Platforming

Those mixed feelings about the story carry over to the gameplay. A large portion of Ministry of Broadcast is immensely enjoyable. It's filled to the brim with sadistic, yet extremely well-designed puzzle sequences. These appear at first to be straight-forward tasks — as most of them revolve around hitting levers in a specific sequence — but become increasingly complex as you make your way towards the end of the show. Thankfully, these segments make up the majority of the game and you'll always be excited to see what comes next. There are enough new ideas peppered throughout the short experience that nothing wears out its welcome, and it keeps you interested until the very end.

via Ministry of Broadcast Official Website

However, the game also involves several race-against-the-clock platforming segments. This is where it falls flat, as the platforming controls in Ministry of Broadcast are not refined enough to handle these intense sections. Often, I would know exactly where I had to go, which platform to jump to next, only to die because of clumsy controls. There are only a handful of these challenges, but they are by far the most annoying part of Ministry of Broadcast. Of course, the game can't be composed of only puzzles — otherwise, players would burn out quickly — but these speed-running portions are not the answer. If a sequel is to be made, the developer needs to rethink these segments or do a bit of tweaking to the platforming engine.

I can best explain the frustrating controls by comparing Ministry of Broadcast to the early Assassin's Creed titles — while the controls work under most circumstances, anything requiring quick reflexes is prone to mistakes. Too often you'll want to do something, only to have it foiled by the wonky controls. Combine that with odd level design — such as dark rooms or even a segment where you can't see your character while he is in a shipping container — and you've got a recipe for frustration. While many of the deaths were simply my lack of skill, too many were attributable to poor controls and a janky movement scheme.

via Ministry of Broadcast Official Website

In It Until The End

As much as the game gets wrong, there is still a lot to like. The graphics and animations are stunning, the humor is top-notch, all of the puzzles are incredibly inventive, and the minimalistic HUD does a great job of keeping you focused on the action. It says something about the game that no matter how many times I died — even if it felt unfair — I found myself wanting to push forward and see how the story played out. The game is short, clocking in at around five hours, and doesn't offer much in the way of exploration, so it's a great title to knock out in a few playthroughs on a rainy Saturday. Even though it's not perfect, Ministry of Broadcast is a show I couldn't stop watching.

A PC copy of Ministry of Broadcast was provided to TheGamer for this review. Ministry of Broadcast is available on Steam for $14.99, while a Nintendo Switch release is planned for later this year.

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