Ministry of Broadcast
Nintendo Switch

Developed By : Ministry of Broadcast Studios
Published By : Hitcents
Category : Pixel, Platformer, 2D
Releaes Date : Apr 30, 2020

The future is a great unknown that just about everyone loves to speculate on, whether it be personal ideas or trying to scope something out in the bigger picture. Video games like to tiptoe into the future, and you can pull any number of these materials to find a future that looks epic and promising, or bleak and filled with struggle. Ministry of Broadcast looks like it could easily pulled out of a future imagine by George Orwell, and it’s one that wouldn’t be pretty at all.

The Wall was built, almost out of nowhere, and it split the country in two. In doing so, our red-haired friend was split from his family. To reunite with them, he volunteers to be one of the latest contestants on The Wall Show. If he can win, he’ll gain his family and freedom on the other side of the wall, but once he enters the show he realizes that it might not be such an easily obtainable goal.

To escape, you’ll need to survive through the show’s many arenas. These arenas are tough, puzzled out platforming areas that one might assume were designed to be excruciatingly tough. Almost like they didn’t want people to escape to freedom? You’ll need to navigate our ginger friend through tons of cruelly invented traps for a hopeful taste at life on the other side of the wall.

As you begin, the puzzles will have very in-your-face solutions like pressing a switch, or jumping a series of gaps. Progressing deeping into the game show will get you tougher puzzles where you’ll find yourself wandering far far away, only to eventually loop back and complete everything. You might even end up needing things that don’t seem important at all.

A lot of the keys to your solutions will be the items in your environment. People are bound to show up occasionally as well, and they can help you with your predicaments, whether they know it or not. Usually not. The arenas are patrolled by Wall guards who will slap you down if you try anything you’re not supposed to, so you can set others up to take the fall for you. Or, if you find yourself dealing with a particularly long spike trap, a few extra bodies goes a long way.

One great thing about Ministry of Broadcast is that even though its a side-scroller and done in a bit-style, you can totally immerse yourself in the game. You’ll never have to deal with constant annoying pop-ups to display tutorial helps, and if there’s ever any text dialogue from an NPC its very minimal. When the game does try to help you with hints, these will be blended into the environment itself, so pay attention to every bit of wall you come across.

I’m a sucker for a good platformer, and this game is a great platformer. Like most side-scree platformers, there’s only one way to do the things you have to do, so you won’t be able to cheese any solutions or skip around things. Checkpoints are frequent in the levels, which is awesome because some areas require a bit of trial and error. So if you are any sort of platforming fan, don’t let this game pass you by.