Few game companies are brave enough to go head-to-head with the release of Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6, but that’s exactly what publisher Devolver Digital is doing with the launch of Volvy’s Adventure: Reslimed on November 19.
Billed as a “remaster of the second remake of the original monochrome action-platformer starring the most famous video game mascot of all time,” Volvy’s Adventure is actually almost none of those things. The original “Volvy’s Adventure” doesn’t exist. This isn’t a remaster but an entirely new and original game. Volvy, while actually being Devolver Digital’s tongue-in-cheek platformer mascot, is obviously not the most famous of “all time.”
So what is Volvy’s Adventure: Reslimed, actually? It’s a Game Boy Color-style 2D platformer coming to Steam from developer Doinksoft, the studio behind 2D sidescrollers like Gato Roboto and Gunbrella. Volvy himself is a rat-esque (I think?) creature with one big hand and one small hand.
Like any good platforming mascot, Volvy dashes and jumps through levels while collecting items (in this case, onions), bouncing on the heads of enemies, and battling bosses. Occasionally, Volvy transforms into a hulked out alter-ego called Swolvy capable of smashing through anything that gets in his way.
It’s all a little absurd, but that’s also what makes it fun. While much of the marketing and the entire premise of Volvy’s Adventure: Reslimed comes off as a meta-video-game-industry joke, the actual game on display in its debut trailer looks like a rollicking good time.
Volvy’s Adventure: Reslimed is immediately reminiscent of its Game Boy Color-era inspirations, with a vibrant art style, a popping soundtrack, and kinetic movement. Volvy can dash through the air with his giant fist, burrow underground, or hover like a helicopter using his tail, and the trailer shows how all these abilities can all be chained together.
GTA 6 will certainly be hogging the headlines when it releases in November, but the open-world crime simulator isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, is $80 (or $100), and isn’t releasing on PC at launch. Volvy’s Adventure: Reslimed, at only $5, offers a nice bit of counterprogramming then for those who are looking for something else to do November 19.
Surprisingly, Volvy isn’t the only one bold enough to release on the same day as GTA 6. The Binding of Isaac: Repentance+ Online, a port adding online co-op, is also releasing November 19.