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Cinematic platformer Ministry of Broadcast is coming to mobile

Cinematic platformer Ministry of Broadcast is coming to mobile

What with the recent release of games like Stela and Little Orpheus, as well as the relatively recent remaster of Flashback, I'd definitely argue that cinematic platformers are having somewhat of a resurgence on mobile at the moment. It's perfect timing for mobile then, that Ministry of Broadcast, is heading to mobile phones later this year.

Ministry of Broadcast is a game that we've been watching for a while - first noticing it when it entered into our Big Indie Pitch at Sweden Game Arena back in 2018. In the time since it has launched on Nintendo Switch and PC - but we're pleased to announce, exclusively as part of Pocket Gamer LaunchPad, that the platformer will be making its way to iOS later this year - and we've got some teases of what it will look like.

For those of you who don't know much about Ministry of Broadcast it''s a platformer which centres around a lowly citizen within an authoritarian government who simply wants to reunite with his family. The issue is that the family are on the other side of The Wall, and the only way through is to sneak through a series of puzzling encampments... oh, and as a further twist, it's all televised for the nation's entertainment.

This means that at its best moments Ministry of Broadcast feels like a self-aware attempt to rekindle the cinematic platformer genre, and even at its weaker moments, it is actually quite forgiving due to its generous checkpointing.

I've said Cinematic Platformer a lot during this article, and I actually say it quite a bit when I write. That's due in part to me being around when the genre was a buzzword. There's a lot of debate about what makes a game slot into the genre, but they're normally platformers which feature puzzle aspects based on their slower, more deliberate (and often motion-captured) platforming. Classics like the first Prince of Persia, Out of This World and Flashback are often cited as the starting points for it. In many ways, the early Tomb Raider games, as well as the Oddworld series and Heart of Darkness, gave the genre a second resurgence in the late 90s - and I wouldn't be surprised if the developers chalked up a lot of these as influences.

Ministry of Broadcast will be launching on the App Store later this year, with a targetted September release.

Head to the Pocket Gamer LaunchPad hub to find all of our exclusive announcements from our three-day event.
Dann Sullivan
Dann Sullivan
A job in retail resulted in a sidestep into games writing back in 2011. Since then Dann has run or operated several indie game focused websites. They're currently the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket Gamer Brands, and are determined to help the site celebrate the latest and greatest games coming to mobile.