Game Freak's Giga Wrecker Gets Another Chance on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4

Giga Wrecker, a puzzle-platforming game for PC by Game Freak, is coming to consoles as Giga Wrecker Alt.

There's a good chance the original Giga Wrecker passed you by when it arrived on PC in 2017. Even Metacritic lists a mere three reviews for the game. Considering the hype and fervor that pours across the internet when Game Freak shows off anything to do with its best-known franchise, Pokemon, the persistent quiet surrounding Giga Wrecker feels strange.

That might change when Giga Wrecker Alt. comes to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 "soon." The hefty user base for both consoles means lots more people will get a chance to experience the dark but strangely compelling sci-fi world it's built up here. The game's main character, Reika, uses the broken landscape to her advantage by using her ARCHE attachment (that's "Arms Creating and Handling Effect," write it down, there will be a test later) to make weapons, platforms, and tools out of the rubble that's literally everywhere. Giga Wrecker Alt. is teeming with bloodthirsty mechanical lifeforms so the situation certainly calls for heavy armament, so to speak.

We gave a shout-out to Giga Wreckers when it first arrived in 2017. "We love Pokemon, but want the world to know we're not just Pokemon," Hiromi Ogawa, a visual effects designer at Game Freak, told Jeremy Parish at the time. "We love to make other games, too."

Indeed, Game Freak is a talented studio that deserves to be recognized for all its contributions to gaming. Pocket Card Jockey, a wild mash-up between Solitaire and (get this) horse racing, enthralled Kat and I through 2016. And while Pokémon Gen 8 is inarguably the biggest thing on Game Freak's plate, you'd do well not to turn your back on the unorthodox RPG town sim planned for the Nintendo Switch.