Almost as much as actually playing the things, an important part of loving videogames is often being part of the communities that grow up around them. Indeed, finding a way to discuss this shared passion with strangers plays a major part in many of our formative online experiences. That might mean scrolling through social media or comment sections, or lurking on a forum or even – for those of us of a certain generation – a bulletin board. While its story might take place in 2003, Videoverse speaks to a more universal experience by being set in its own digital world, one that exists separately but adjacent to all these real virtual spaces.
You're cast as 15-year-old Emmett, a big fan of the Kinmoku Shark gaming system, and in particular its killer app, Feudal Fantasy, an epic historical JRPG about warring ninjas. As a result, you're a regular visitor to the console's built-in social network, Videoverse. But with the forthcoming release of a new gaming system, Kinmoku's hardware is facing obsolescence – and along with it, so is Emmett's online community. That's more or less the story of Wii U's long-extinct Miiverse, of course, yet Videoverse's pixelated, lofi presentation is more a throwback to AIM, MSN, Bebo, MySpace, and other fallen Internet giants of old.
