When you’re a king you get to decide all kinds of things. One of the last things you get to decide is where you want to be buried. And if you’re the king in Chariot, you get to decide — as a cantankerous ghost — that you want to be buried with vast riches. The task falls upon the Princess and her fiancé to deliver the mortified monarch to his final resting place while collecting treasure on the way.
While Chariot is a platformer thick and through, it’s not your average genre entry. The two character system is tied directly into the need to transport the titular chariot through the level. The two characters will need to push and pull the rolling sarcophagus across fiery pits and up sharp cliffs together. The game isn’t co-op only, though, as there is a single player mode for those who would rather play solo.
One of the coolest pieces of the game is the ability to use rope. Players can pull or hang from the dead king’s mobile tomb utilizing a magic rope that can be loosened or retracted. This leads to sections where one player will sometimes have to scout ahead without the cart and the other player, then toss the rope down and haul both the cart and their partner up to a new vantage point. There are all kinds of creative applications planned for this element, which could be the defining feature of the game.
Collecting treasure will sometimes cause enemies to swarm the party, usually when you’ve scored a particularly valuable batch. The shadowy foes will need to be beaten back or else they’ll steal your wealth. Combat is not a particularly deep affair, but it is a welcome distraction from the platforming at times. It can be quite intense carrying around a decaying dictator.
Chariot will be launching this Fall on Wii U, Xbox One, Playstation 4 and through Steam (though which specific PC branches are not known).
