This is Niche Spotlight. In this column, we regularly introduce new games to our fans, so please leave feedback and let us know if there’s a game you want us to cover!
Today’s Spotlight is Desert Child, a sci-fi racing adventure game by Akupara Games and Oscar Brittain that released back in early December.
The game is inspired by anime from the ’80s and ’90s, and features a lo-fi hip-hop soundtrack. You can check out the launch trailer above.
In the future, Earth is becoming increasingly inhospitable. The world’s elite have moved to Mars, and the government has begun to offer a subsidized program to allow citizens to relocate at a reduced price. After a few years, however, the government suddenly announces that the program will be ending in two weeks, leaving the rest of humanity stranded on Earth.
You play as a broke hoverbike racer trying to earn enough money for a ticket by any means necessary. Take on odd jobs and upgrade your bike to win increasingly lucrative races so you can buy your ticket before its too late.
Desert Child is available on Windows PC, Mac, Linux (all via Steam and GOG), PS4, Switch, and Xbox One for $11.99.
Here’s a rundown of the game:
You’re broke, you’re hungry, and your only friends are a vintage hoverbike and a bowl of ramen noodles.
In Desert Child, you are a young and talented hoverbike racer who needs to figure out how you can scrape enough cash together through racing and odd jobs to punch your one-way ticket to the Red Planet to enter the biggest race in the universe, the Grand Prix.
The world as we know it is slowly starting to become uninhabitable, as many people on Earth have moved to Mars for a better quality of life, thanks to a government subsidy that assisted in relocating citizens by providing affordable passage. After several years of running this program, the government announces that in two weeks, tickets to Mars would go up in price, making the exodus to the Red Planet unobtainable for regular citizens.
You’ll deliver pizzas, collect gun parts, hunt bounties, and make some fans along the way. In between races, you’ll explore colorful cities where you can repair and upgrade your bike, dine on the local cuisine, and fight your way through gangsters, bounty hunters, and all sorts of interesting characters, just so that you can have a decent meal and keep your bike running.
Nothing’s free in Desert Child.
Key Features
- Hunt bounties, deliver pizzas, throw races – do anything you can to earn cash
- Explore a pixel-art solar system inspired by Cowboy Bebop, Akira and Redline
- Customize your beloved bike with Guns, Amplifiers and shameless advertising
- Dine on a range of interplanetary cuisine with sweet buffs to help you win
- Master deep combat and racing mechanics and define your own style
- Race, shoot, and get better! Designed for replayability, with secrets that keep you coming back
- Chill to a original lo-fi hip-hop soundtrack
- Challenge your friends through local multiplayer
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