03/03/2025
THIS WILL CONTAIN POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE MINDWAVE DEMO. You have been warned.
I recently finished the demo for Mindwave, a psychedelic, warioware-like game on Steam. The demo itself is very short, I think I finished it in about an hour or so, even with my many flubs at the boss fight and my multiple runs. Despite its short playtime, it is jam packed with visual candy and wonderful music, and of course, microgames.
The whole demo takes place in the first floor of the MINDWAVE games held by Mindscape Co., the evil corpo that runs and created the games itself. These are a series of microgames based off the headspace of certain contestants in the game itself, the concept itself is very interesting and leads to some questions -- which I’ll try to get into later.
Immediately, the visuals drew me to play the game, I was very intrigued by the art style they went for, which I can only really describe as "pixel art", though I'm not very knowledgeable in that so I'm not sure if it's totally applicable. All that said, the pixelated, colorful, and psychedelic style and effects present in the game paired with the expressive and smooth animation gave me a lot of good eye candy to enjoy. As early as starting the save file you get a good taste of the dynamic visuals and style of the game
You play as Pandora.
Pandora is blunt, laid back, and prefers to keep to herself (she doesn't even seem to like being there), maybe to keep out of trouble or solely out of overstimulation, can't say I don't relate on that though LOL. She seems particularly ambivalent/actively dislikes the games and the company as a whole, and is only in it for the money, she seems dead set on the belief that she'll lose on the first floor -- which encompasses the entire demo -- and just wants to get it over it.
I definitely want to see more of her and her character development, she's a pretty good character at the moment, a quiet "cool" alternative type who has a niche interest in cartoons, and a real socially awkward person, which leads to some really funny interactions in the lobby even if some of it is at her expense. Her blunt, rough exterior contrasted by her stumbling around trying to talk to people is very endearing, and her disdain for the games itself is charming.
On the other hand, we also meet Smalls, who acts as a foil of sorts to Pandora. He dresses in a similar fashion to Pandora, but is much more laid back and socially capable, he's the one who pushes her to talk to other contestants (as a strategy and in general). He's also a pretty charming character, he bounces off Pandora's isms and complements her character well. He also seems to be the only person she likes, at least as far as we've been shown.
There are a lot of other characters in the lobby you get to talk to before the game proper starts, and they're all very fun and charming, however you can only talk to 2 per run so I've had to do multiple to talk to them. That is to say, it's rewarding to do so as you get a lot from these characters. Although the main content of the game is the Warioware-like microgame frenzy, the lobby gives you a lot to enjoy as well, the characters you talk to introduce a lot of interesting aspects behind the games, and the interactions Pandora has with them is a huge plus, you get a lot more from the demo from going out of your way to talk to them.
Now, for the actual bulk of the game itself, the microgames. The first floor is based off Abbie's mind, a character you actually get to talk to in the lobby. She is generally very sweet and innocent, thus her microgames reflect this, with soft pastel colors and cutesy themes. The games are a collection of random sweet activities such as brushing hair, playing a crane game, catching candy, sorting bunnies, and even caring for some tamagotchi-like creatures.
The game's visuals really shine here, it's very stylized and cutesy in a way that just works perfectly. Even in the in-between transitions during microgames, the animations are very expressive and cute, they don't cut any corners on it.
Interestingly, there seems to be a friend character with red twin buns constantly present in these microgames, perhaps they are a close friend of Abbie's?
I've never played a microgame...game like this before, so my first jump into the game was very FRANTIC and crazy, in a good way, the short, fast-paced, and fun microgames paired with the absolutely tooth-rotting sweet tone of the soundtrack makes it such a fun (and frenzied) experience. The game doesn't let up or slow down, but levels up and gets even faster, spawning pop-up ads that block your screen and hamper your gameplay unless you close them. It was stressful but boy did it make it more fun.
Now, you'd expect a sort of twist in this level where she was secretly depressed or miserable, where a creepy analog horror-esque creature appears to distort her mind and way of thinking, but no, she is just genuinely like this, it never gets dark or grim, the stage stays the same, and it leads to her losing immediately. I respect the devs for not going this route, I think it was nice that Abbie is just a nice girl who is a little naive but is just very kind.
The game ends with a final boss stage, which I admittedly lost to far too many times. After this you have beaten the first floor, and the demo is over.
There's a lot of interesting concepts brought onto the table with this short and sweet demo. For one, the game literally requires players to plug themselves via their 'neural networks' to play, and much like many a Meta social media platforms today require people to give full legal access to their data -- in the case of the game, their 'gameplay') -- when joining to train their "MINDWAVE NEURAL NETWORK".
Who knows what "gameplay" actually entails and means behind all the legal hullabaloo and lawyer-speak present.
Another is that the games take place in the mind space of the people partaking in the game, and while Abbie was sweet, what would it have been like if it was someone more violent, angry, or hateful? Pandora herself points this out a few times even early on.
As well as the possible physical effects playing the game that seem to affect Pandora directly, even during her first time on this rodeo.
It's never stated directly, but I can't tell if Abbie was purposefully the first level selected by Mindscape, or if it was random chance and she just so happened to be picked. Nonetheless, it's a good way to build anticipation, who knows what character you'd have to play through next and what their headspace will be like.
Overall, a short but efficient game. Definitely hooked me into it and kept me interested as to what it can develop into and if the other characters will also play a bigger role or be potential floors and stages in the future, as well as where this whole concept will go, playing the mind game olympics can certainly only go well, surely! Definitely worth a try if you have the time.
