Just Because a Game Has Style Doesn’t Mean It Must Lack Substance - Data Wing Review
If you took one look at some of the screens I’ve posted here from Data Wing, the arcade racing game from developer Dan Vogt, and assumed this was just one of those cool, flashy score chase games and nothing more, I would totally understand. It’s got all the telltale signs: the neon color palette, the effortlessly cool club music soundtrack, the barely-there user interface, and the simplistic, two-button control layout. It’s got to be one of those indie games that’s all about looking good and not so much about saying anything, right?
Well, not so fast. I can appreciate a great game that mostly focuses on looking cool, but I have to admit that my true passion with gaming lies in titles that have a little more depth to them. And to my pleasant surprise, Data Wing has that depth by way of a shockingly emotional narrative about AI programs (and people) just trying to live their lives.
In Data Wing you control a tiny triangle who the characters refer to as “Triangle.” Solid name! Triangle is flying around in what appears to be some sort of funky cyberscape, and you can turn it left or right by tapping the appropriate side of the screen, or you can brake by holding down both sides at the same time. Soon after the game begins, you’re introduced to Mother, an AI program represented by a simple emoticon, who informs you of your purpose: You are to follow Mother’s orders to deliver data packets from area to area.
In practice, delivering data packets plays out in a few different ways. Sometimes you’re navigating a maze-like course just trying to get to the end, while other times you’re racing against other triangles to deliver the packet first. And occasionally you have to survive time attack challenges, where you must reach the finish line of a level within a set amount of time or before the timer counts down to zero. And occasionally Mother throws in a binary math challenge, just for fun.
Where Data Wing’s momentum-based racing truly gets devious, though, is the addition of gravity. Many of the game’s levels allow for free movement using the rocket flame bursting out of your triangle to propel you. But from time to time—and more frequently as the game progresses—you’ll come across a level that has 2x, 3x, or even 3.5x gravity. In these courses, the only way to proceed is to use the game’s unique and highly satisfying boosting mechanic: By dragging Triangle’s flame along a wall, essentially drifting right next to a wall without crashing into it, you gain speed and momentum that can take you swinging around corners and zooming upwards, even when the gravity restrictions try to keep you grounded.
It’s in these gravity challenges and some absolutely devious collectibles that Data Wing warps from an already non-traditional racing game into something altogether different, almost more like a strange puzzle–platformer-racing hybrid with realistic physics. And believe me when I say that these courses get tough, at least for the not-so-scientifically-inclined among us (i.e., me). I encountered numerous levels that took me an embarrassing number of tries to complete and, alongside the bumping bass of the game’s music, were accompanied by a soundtrack of unnecessarily numerous swear words.
Despite my frustration at these moments, I want to emphasize that Data Wing is actually astoundingly user friendly in its design. Yes, levels can be challenging, and yes there are optional objectives that I didn’t even come close to clearing. But the game features a restart button that begins you back at the start of a level almost instantaneously, and besides that, a successful run through any given level in the game rarely takes more than 30 or 40 seconds, sometimes less. Those two design choices make the “screw up lots and repeat the level” loop much more bearable than it would have been with any other type of game.
It’s kind of amazing that I’ve gone this far into the review with only mentioning the story in passing, because it really is the star of the show. If Data Wing existed exactly as it is but without any dialogue, it would still be a totally fine, fun game. However, the story presented here really elevates it and turns it into something special, something that actually got me a little choked up at points, and something that I’ll be thinking about for much longer than I would have if this was just an everyday score-chase.
I won’t go into too much detail, so as to not spoil any surprises, but suffice to say that the benevolent AI gimmick that Mother has falls apart and turns into something much more sinister pretty quickly. As you progress, you meet another AI program, discover details of your own past and true purpose, and even begin to learn about the life of the mysterious “User” who owns the machine that these AIs are bumping around in. Most of the dialogue here is spoken by artificial intelligences, by literal programs, but make no mistake: This is a deeply human story that’s likely to connect to anyone who’s ever raised children or, heck, anyone who’s ever been a moody teenager before.
Of course, the best and most inexplicable thing about Data Wing is not how it transcends its first impression or how it proves that a game can be stylish while still having something to say. No, the best part is how it does all of that while being 100%, no-serious, I’m-not-joking, actually free. Like FREE free. There’s no ads playing between levels. There’s no purchase required to unlock the full game. It’s just free.
Sure, it only takes a few hours to complete, but I would not have begrudged Dan Vogt for charging a couple bucks for the high quality game and narrative he’s crafted here. That he’s not even doing that much is wonderful and commendable, and it cements Data Wing from “you should probably check this out” to “you have no excuse not to play this absolute gem” territory.
SCORE: 5 OUT OF 5
PLAY IF YOU LIKE:
• 2001: A Space Odyssey or any other sci-fi stories of rogue AI. Data Wing moves in a different direction than the Stanley Kubrick classic (based on an Arthur C. Clarke classic), but I have a soft spot for tales of artificial intelligence gone wrong, so Data Wing hooked me in a similar manner.
• The F-Zero games. Data Wing’s stripped-back, top-down view and focus on puzzles obviously provides a distinct experience compared to Nintendo’s legendary futuristic racing series, but it’s probably the closest I can think to an existing game that captures Data Wing’s sense of high-speed-to-the-point-of-basically-losing-control.
💬 If you’ve played Data Wing, let us know what you think in the comments. And if not, share your favorite high-speed racing game!
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