Surf a magical archipelago in Wavetale, a former Stadia exclusive coming to Steam
Explore the stories of a magical sea in an action-adventure 3D platformer.
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Thunderful Development’s former Stadia exclusive Wavetale hits Steam this week, bringing its island-hopping story to the broader world just before Stadia’s demise. Wavetale tells the story of Sigrid, aided by her wave-surfing shadow, on a quest to save a magical and ruined archipelago from its own past.
It’s definitely an example of the genre of open-world exploratory platformers and action games that have proliferated in the wake of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but its stylish world and creatures do have a charm distinct from those games that are blatant copies of previous concepts. It’s especially notable that it has two main ways of getting around: Speeding across the waves for one, and swinging with your net for another.
Wavetale also focuses on its cast of weird island-dwellers, like fashion desinger fishermen, cheeky surfers, and grumpy grandmas. There are obviously pirates, too. It’ll release on Steam on December 12, 2022. It has full controller support and is currently listed as Playable on a Steam Deck.
It’s nice to see another Stadia exclusive that’s not going down with Google’s ill-fated game streaming ship. Horror gameGylthas been saved, but Splash Damage’s party shooterOutcasterswill die with the platform. Stadia itself will close down in January, and Googlewill refundall hardware and software purchases. That came as a shock to developersat the time, who had no idea Google was killing the program many were actively developing for.
Thunderfulis also the publisher of games likePlanet of Lana,LEGO Bricktales, and Cursed to Golf, that one game aboutgolfing through purgatoryeverybody seemed to like so much.
Thunderful has produced a series of shorts about Wavetale: One highlighting thenarrative creation, another for themusic composition, and a third for theartistic concepts.
You can findWavetale on Steam.
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Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he’s not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.
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