‘Pokémon’ developer Game Freak releases ‘Giga Wrecker’ on Steam Early Access

By Brad Jones August 19, 2016

Giga Wrecker - Announcement Trailer

Game Freak, the development studio best known for its work on the Pokémon series, has released a new game via Steam Early Access. The new title is called Giga Wrecker, and is a 2D action game that blends platforming elements with intriguing puzzle mechanics.

Giga Wrecker casts players as a cyborg girl who has the power to create various weapons from rubble and debris. The protagonist can repel the game’s invading force of murderous robots by experimenting with different armaments and their effects — and perhaps find a few secrets tucked away in the environment as she does so.

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Established in 1989, Game Freak has been the primary developer of the mainline Pokémon series since its inception in 1989. Although the developer is best known for its extensive work in collaboration with Nintendo, Giga Wrecker is not the first release to skip that company’s hardware.

In 2015, Game Freak released Tembo the Badass Elephant for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. However, that game was published by Sega, whereas the studio has made the decision to self-publish Giga Wrecker — a role that it has only filled once before, for the Japanese release of 2013’s Pocket Card Jockey.

The fact that Game Freak is acting as both developer and publisher may well have influenced its decision to release the game via Steam Early Access. It seems that this was the correct choice — the studio published a technical issue notice earlier today in response to reports that the game was crashing for players using Windows 8 and above.

Despite these initial teething troubles, Game Freak’s stellar reputation suggests that Giga Wrecker will be a must-play title once these technical problems have been ironed out. The game is available now via Steam, and is priced at $15.

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