Netflix’s new endless runner featuring four characters from its original series is the latest project from one of its creative teams.
The game doesn’t have a title and the concept is very simple, but it’s a cute experiment that uses characters and settings from four of the company’s original shows: Stranger Things, Narcos, Orange is the New Black and Marco Polo. In the Stranger Things stage, players take on the role of Mike Wheeler, jumping over scientists and officers that stand in his way. In the Orange is the New Black stage, players must jump to collect chickens — an important, ongoing arc from the show’s first season — and jump over various items.
Each stage differs slightly from the others, but the core concept remains the same. The stages also feature chiptune versions of the theme songs associated with each show. Personally, the Marco Polo stage is the most fun, but Orange is the New Black has the best music.
With that being said, the game isn’t an example of a great design. The response time between hitting the space bar to make your character jump and the avatar actually performing the act feels delayed. With some of the objects being too large for the character to jump over in the first place, this will lead to some frustrating gameplay early on — especially in the Marco Polo and Orange is the New Black stages — and quite a few restarts.
This isn’t the first time a team at Netflix has come up with an interesting project related to the streaming service. In December 2015, the company created a pair of high-tech socks that used a sensor to figure out when you’ve fallen asleep while watching something on Netflix. The moment it realizes you’ve conked out, the socks stop the program from playing.
Currently, Netflix is only promoting the game on a few of its social media channels, including its Asian Twitter account. The game is available to play in North America, however, and there isn’t any text to contend with, so don’t worry about language barriers.