Kickstarter continues to serve as the ultimate bastion of nostalgic gameplay, and that trend is continuing with an announcement from Midgard Studio; Hover: Revolt of Gamers, their spiritual successor to Sega’s streetwise action-adventure game, Jet Set Radio, is fully launching on Steam for PC and Mac on May 31st! The game is currently available on Steam Early Access, where it costs $19.99 USD/$21.99 CDN, and also boasts compatibility with VR headset, Oculus Rift.
Alternate versions of Hover: Revolt of Gamers for Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch are also in development, and are planned for release later in 2017. The Nintendo Switch version was only recently announced at Nintendo’s online ‘Nindies’ showcase during this past February, and appears to be replacing a previously planned Wii U version. This jump to Nintendo Switch for Hover: Revolt of Gamers follows suit with other high-profile indie titles like Yooka-Laylee, Stardew Valley, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Rive, all of which cancelled their formerly announced Wii U builds in favour of Nintendo Switch editions.
Hover: Revolt of Gamers serves as a free-running, fast-paced action-adventure platformer, which stars a series of fast-moving gamer protagonists that are rising up to take back their city from a totalitarian anti-video game regime. To do so, they’ll need to fight the power by retrieving confiscated video game hardware, freeing detained gamer citizens, and working towards dethroning the city’s crooked new mayor. If it sounds like a perfect fusion between Jet Set Radio and Mirror’s Edge, with a proud pro-gamer twist, that’s certainly because it is! One of the game’s Kickstarter stretch goals even successfully allowed for Jet Set Radio music composer, Hideki Naganuma to compose the soundtrack for Hover: Revolt of Gamers, making it as close as we’ll likely get to a third proper Jet Set Radio game.
While Mirror’s Edge saw a long-awaited new series entry last year in Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, Jet Set Radio is among many beloved gaming IP’s that has been put on ice by its handler, Sega. Originally known as Jet Grind Radio in North America, when it first launched for Sega Dreamcast in 2000, Jet Set Radio starred Beat, a fast-skating, graffiti-tagging protagonist that worked to inspire his city to take back their freedom with his allies, similar to Hover: Revolt of Gamers. Only one sequel, Jet Set Radio Future, was ever released, with Sega even going as far as to dismiss any subsequent pitches by other studios for a new Jet Set Radio game, with the furthest effort being a rejected proposition for a follow-up on Nintendo’s Wii.
Keep skating to Eggplante for all major news and updates on Hover: Revolt of Gamers, and other promising indie game projects.