In Bread & Fred, you’re tied to a different penguin by a really brief rope, and also you’ll want some critical teamwork to make the climb. So, Ana and I (Nicole) are taking up our impressions collectively, as a staff. Consider this story because the rope tying us collectively to carry you our ideas on the sport’s chaotic platforming. We’re every writing a paragraph after which letting the opposite take over; Ana’s paragraphs might be in italics.
Bread & Fred was launched in Could by a three-person indie staff referred to as SandCastles Studio, and it has been vastly well-liked on TikTok since. It’s a recreation that’s excellent for the web in the identical methods Fall Guys or Overcooked are: It requires talent, however even the worst gamers are rewarded with slapstick animations of squished penguins and hilarious falls.
I can solely take a step or two till the rope goes taught, and I’m caught in place till my companion makes progress on their finish. Actions like fundamental jumps to a close-by platform require a stage of coordination typically hindered by stream latency and potential lag in voice chat. My companion and I keep in fixed communication. All of this simply in order that we will climb just a few measly meters.
![An image of two penguins tied together by a rope in Bread and Fred. They are walking along an icy platform while climbing up a mountain.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uwqoWSNr8lwTEAby18NkRfah5ZU=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24771716/ss_eb02a5f9ac463c9a57fe074db2475388b94300a9.jpg)
Picture: SandCastles Studio/Apogee Leisure
It’s onerous. The platforming appears to be like comparatively easy, however deceptively so. What appears to be like to be merely leaping over gaps is made sophisticated by the brief rope. Fortunately, Bread & Fred does have a number of choices to make the sport extra approachable — one essential instance is a checkpoint system you can activate within the choices menu. It means that you can put a flag within the floor, which acts as a spawn level should you make one disastrous fall. (We made loads of these as we began our journey up the mountain.) Bread & Fred additionally has a helpful in-game countdown timer, too, which turned important for exact, coordinated leaps, however we developed our personal system for areas that required one among us to anchor on a platform whereas the opposite swung wildly to get sufficient power to fling each penguins to the subsequent step.
We don’t ascend the mountain in a short time, however the recreation slowly begins to click on. We transfer in sync, and ultimately, every of our penguins appears to be like like a veritable shadow of the opposite. After dozens of tries, we make an extra-long leap that requires exact timing each on the a part of the anchor penguin and the swinging penguin. (Nobody will get to slack off on this climb!) We use these swinging physics to fling us each to a cave wall. I maintain on to the wall whereas my penguin companion swings to the opposite aspect. After finishing an in depth collection of inauspicious jumps, our penguins give one another a thumbs-up, and we proudly put a flag within the floor to mark our progress.
![An image of two penguins climbing a mountain. The two are tied together by a short rope. One is clinging to the wall of a cave and the other is swinging by a rope.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/C61FOr5fmOuWOqw_GXEtMB1YmTM=/0x0:3840x2160/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3840x2160):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24771627/ss_0d68f7d9555858d657f716d2f2933603210c6125.jpg)
Picture: SandCastles Studio/Apogee Leisure
It’s tremendous satisfying to get to these factors and to rejoice, however Bread & Fred is nearly much more enjoyable to observe another person play — you get to luxuriate in another person’s errors. That is the place its recognition on TikTok and different social media platforms is available in; you get all of the goofs and not one of the face-first falling. Folks wish to joke concerning the recreation ruining friendships, one thing akin to Mario Social gathering. That type of engagement is an enormous a part of the enjoyable of all of it, watching or enjoying, creating moments the place you may poke enjoyable at your mates and rejoice your massive wins.
Bread & Fred is obtainable to play on Home windows PC by way of Steam. It’s received on-line multiplayer and distant play, in addition to a single-player mode.