2026
By: Alexander Holmes
Windfolk is a pretty simple dogfighting game.
Flying around with your jetpack is snappy, responsive, simple and intuitive. Firing your weapons doesn't demand a high degree of accuracy, to make the fast-paced and close-quarters shootouts manageable. There is no ammunition to count, but every gun has an active, timing-based firing mechanic that keeps the action from being mindless.
If you’re looking for an arcade action-shooter in the skies, Windfolk has something for you to fill a weekend.
If you are looking for an unexpectedly deep and heart wrenching story, Windfolk has even more.
You play as Esen. And from her irreverent snark and shocking blue dreads, she gives the impression of a late 90s, early 2000s platform mascot character.
Yet one with a much more tragic backstory.
The opening cinematic immediately informs the viewer that the story of Windfolk is drawing heavily from historical themes that matter a lot to black folk.
The first images we see are of Esen living in a prison cell, and being experimented on in a strange red-and-grey laboratory. Calling to mind the prison industrial complex in the United States being used to legally maintain an enslaved work force (go reread the 13th amendment). As well as the abuse of imprisoned black people for medical research under false pretense, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
A group called The Coalition is taking the blue Trydian stones, a life giving energy source created by the goddess Än in myth, and transforming them into an energy source for their experiments and weaponry. The Coalition colonizes and assimilates other cultures, while purchasing locals into slavery under false pretenses.
Despite the light and cartoony art style, the game refuses to softball the drama of its narrative. Still, it is presented in the package of a Saturday morning cartoon; a TVY7 affair. Helping in no small measure by Stephen Hughes, famed for such roles as the Quiet Robe in Metroid Dread or Eviterno Father of the Penitents in Blasphemous 2. His performance of Batrax giving a Grandpa Max from Ben 10 flavor here. And Scott Abraham Singer as the villain Russell, who has voiced in both Blasphemous 2 and Crisol Theater of Idols. Less is known about Maria Jenell other than one short film voice acting credit. With Windfolk lacking a proper IMBD profile, it is hard to find further details.
Esen, and her mentor Batrax, argue throughout most of the missions. Esen trying to prove herself as capable, while feeling Batrax is overbearing and overprotective. Batrax seeing Esen as hot-headed, taking unnecessary risks by breaking protocol, even though she gets the job done.
I have read some reviews of the game from other outlets, and quite frankly they come off as whiny. Either complaining about the protagonist being a “brat” as a problem rather than recognizing the starting point of the character arch. Or saying the voice acting is bad or disinterested when talent like Stephen Hughes is on the project. These reviews read as ignorant. Unwilling to meet the game at the level of its intended aesthetic, and not open to delving further into the story.
One of my personal highlights was level 3, a boss fight against a missile-loaded cargo airship, which challenges the player to use the boosts, and dodging alongside regular flight to pursue the boss around a level they've already had the chance to survey through a series of prior dogfights. In the combat arena, this boss limited player movements by creating burning spheres throughout the air. Really challenging if I had bothered to learn the movement systems in the previous two levels. Difficult enough that I had to retry from the checkpoint a couple times before I found my strategy.
In Chapter 5, a tunnel maze took advantage of the 3 dimensions available to them to create a space that was legitimately challenging to navigate. The trick of simply placing a hand on a wall and following the path didn't help that much, but I kept at it until I found the hidden collectible I felt would be there. When the tunnel started collapsing, I was certain I wouldn't be able to navigate back out in time. But the developers at Fractal Fall were clever, and collapsed the tunnels such that it would lead you to the exit. So it became a matter of flying through narrow curves more than your three dimensional memory. And the boss fight in the chapter that followed, without spoilers, was seriously intense.
The story ends on a note that I think can speak to the hopes of an African Diaspora person. It is a reconnection with old culture, but from a new and personal perspective. I think it is clear that Fractal Fall very much wanted this game to set up a franchise, and there is a lot of potential here to be built on. And I really hope they get that chance with another project.
Thank you for reading
Take care of each other
And stay true.