Lo-fi pixel art action adventure game Ratcheteer DX will launch for Switch, PC and Mac via Steam, and Mac via Mac App Store on March 5, publisher Panic and developer Shaun Inman announced. It will cost $12.99 with a limited time launch discount price of $9.75. A demo is available now for PC, and progress from the demo will carry over to the full game.
Ratcheteer DX is an updated version of the 2022-released Playdate Season One title Ratcheteer, now in color with various filters, a CD-quality stereo soundtrack, and additional languages.
Here is an overview of the game, via Panic:
About
Ratcheteer DX puts you in the boots of a young, inexperienced mechanic who lives underground in a world that has forced humans to shelter and hibernate from a deadly never-ending winter. Across various regions and dungeons, you will get to meet kind strangers, discover new helpful tools, and take on challenging bosses. Ratcheteer DX is an updated edition of the 2022 Playdate Season One favorite, Ratcheteer, now in color with various visual filters, CD-quality stereo soundtrack, and various new languages.
The surface has been claimed by an Impact Winter, but beneath the ice and earth, mankind hibernates. As a young apprentice mechanic, you wake up in the dark. The Power Plant is offline. The Water Treatment Plant seems to be too. The Cryo Colony is in danger!
What begins as a simple trip to fetch your mentor’s wrench sets off a winding journey through the caverns below to a vast Snowcean above to rescue friends, foes, and strangers alike.
Along the way, you’ll find and master eight unassuming tools, each opening new paths for exploration. Starting with just the Crank Lantern to light your first steps into the dark and the Wrench Sword to swing at what you find lurking in it, you’ll be bounding, drilling, gliding, stomping, and dashing your way across the world of the Ratcheteer by the time you reach the end.
Originally released for the black-and-white Playdate, this updated version reimagines the game in full color with a CD-quality stereo soundtrack and support for 10 languages.
Key Features
- Explore more than 250 rooms across six regions and six dungeons.
- Master eight unassuming tools and maybe even an alien language.
- Challenge six unique bosses. (Can you find the secret boss rush time trial?)
- Play in full Color, Pea Soup green, Playdate gray, or high contrast black-and-white (with optional scanline, grid, and dot overlays).
- Listen to Matthew Grimm’s 8-bit masterpiece with CD-quality stereo sound.
- Experience an original story in 10 supported languages.
Watch a new trailer below.