MainFrames review — Screen junkie

Have you ever been messing around on your desktop, highlighting boxes and spamming the tab button while thinking to yourself, “Man, this is really fun, but you know what would be even more fun? Jumping into the computer as a little guy and parkouring all over my desktop screen”. Enter: MainFrames. MainFrames is not a complicated game, though it has more than enough depth to carry you through its approximately three to four hour playtime. 

MainFrames was first announced in August 2024 by indie developer Assoupi. Published by The Arcade Crew, MainFrames promised to be an adventure-platformer with engaging systems and stand-out style. After spending some time with the game, I can safely say that it delivered on those promises in stride. 

Honestly, what you see is what you get with MainFrames. This is a tried-and-true platformer; if you don’t enjoy games like Animal Well, Ori, or heck, Super Mario Bros 3, you’re not going to like this one. What MainFrames does differently is marry its presentation directly to its gameplay. Platforms are desktop windows, dragged across stages by a mouse and altered with clicks and scroll bars. You are literally inside the computer – like, not in a metaphorical way. MainFrames capitalizes on the childlike wonder we all had with chunky desktops some 20-odd years ago by letting you play out the fantasy of running around the virtual world of a personal computer, physically diving into files and gallivanting across links.

This is a throwback 2D platformer, and what would a throwback 2D platformer be without a mascot? Floppy, the cute and cuddly floppy disk player-character, inhabits the world of an office computer. Floppy runs, leaps, and double-jumps his way across stages with the help of player clicks and drags. The levels do not remain static around him but instead open up as the player interacts with the stages directly through easy to identify systems, such as arrows that provide jump boosts or gear icons that rotate platforms. Pathways are revealed and removed as Floppy and the player work together on the fly, making for a truly unique adventure that refuses to get old during the playthrough. 

Platforming in MainFrames is synonymous with puzzle-solving, as I often encountered stages that made me take a step back and think before attempting. Trial and error leads to new techniques, and when combined with speed and agility, leads to depth. That is what I think MainFrames nails – the feeling of mastery not just because you play quickly and accurately, but because you’re able to realize each stage’s marriage of systems and puzzles while playing quickly and accurately. There are also a few secrets to uncover, which are neat little easter eggs that keep you checking every possible path.

Arguably the most memorable aspect of MainFrames is the art style. Remember when you first started using computers and were in disbelief that the screen could produce such vibrant, responsive images? MainFrames remembers that too, and translates that memory in a way that I never thought could be done justice. Colorful background screens reminiscent of default Windows desktops adorn every stage and bring you right back to your earliest days of designated time on the family computer. Characters, like Floppy himself and the entities he interacts with, are beautifully animated, with bit-style movements and actions that look like they were pulled straight out of a PC game from 1995. The pixelated world had me intrigued every time I opened the game, and single-handedly makes the price of entry worth it.

There is a small, thrown-together story in MainFrames that serves more as justification for diverse gameplay ideas rather than narrative intrigue. Floppy needs to work alongside a small cast of characters (caricatures, really) to bring “daemons” (Viruses? Glitches? It’s kind of unclear) back to the home base. Though I did find the story a bit “meh” and the punny jokes a little forced, I really liked the systems introduced by daemons. Each daemon Floppy encounters is sort of tied to him until he reaches a certain point in the stage. The catch is that every daemon functions differently; one might be on a movement timer, one might walk on the ceiling while you walk on the ground, one might orbit around you; it’s unique every time. Their inclusion is such a fun complement to the already excellent platforming, and I’m really glad they’re in the game.

Performance and optimization are also top tier. The target 60 frames per second was incredibly consistent, and I never experienced a single crash or bug throughout my time with the game. Which I found really weird since this is a love-letter to the old, bug-ridden operating systems of yesteryear (I’m just kidding!).

MainFrames let me reminisce on what it was like to interact with computers for the first time. It is also a fantastic and engaging platformer that looks great visually. I had an awesome time with MainFrames, and I think platform enjoyers, and newcomers, will have an awesome time with it too.