'Kinetic arcade action game' Violet Cycle launches from Early Access

Violet Cycle creator Marek Budik told us its eclectic style was influenced by the likes of Hyper Light Drifter, Transistor, Bastion and Nuclear Throne when we spoke with him last month. He also said that while Violet Cycle's stay in Early Access had been fruitful, he wanted to keep it as short as possible. That incubation comes to an end today as Violet Cycle officially launches on Steam for $10—discounted to $7.50 through February 9. 

Billed as "a kinetic arcade action game," Violet Cycle is built on hack-and-slash combat with an interesting overheating limitation born of its robot-like protagonist. You can only do so much before you overheat, but you can improve your attacks by making clever use of the game's tiled ground. With the exception of water tiles that cool you down, these tiles let you move in different ways, like sliding across ice or down conveyor belts. You can further tailor your tactics with customizable headrigs (don't call them hats) with different properties. 

There's more than a bit of roguelike to Violet Cycle's DNA as well. Its enemies are procedurally generated from a pool of heads, legs, weapons and colors which yield different abilities and approaches. Designing the enemies played a big part in settling on the art style, Budik said, which he lovingly describes as "retina-searing." 

Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.

Latest in Action
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The First Berserker: Khazan review - Blade Phantom
How to claim The First Berserker: Khazan pre-order bonus and deluxe edition DLC
gta 6 trailer
Publishers 'don't want to be anywhere near' Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches: 'It's proving to be very stressful'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
Latest in News
An Enshrouded player in a recreation of Erebor from The Lord of the Rings
Kings under the Mountain! 33 Enshrouded players spent 10,000 hours to recreate this iconic location from The Lord of the Rings
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened