In a world where games like Only Up or Getting Over It catch on and become hits, it’s always struck me that bouldering/rock climbing games should be more of a thing. Perhaps the absurdity of the setting is what helps other absurdist platformers/climbing games make it, or maybe having climbing only be one part of the experience — like in a Tears of the Kingdom or Assassin’s Creed — is a better way to go about things. Still, we haven’t had many attempts at realistic climbing games, which is why it’s nice to see New Heights: Realistic Rock Climbing and Bouldering on Steam right now for Next Fest.
You can play it right now for free. It also has a release date of July 6, so the full release is right around the corner. I’m not sure if this will be the game that finally brings us a new sub-genre in sports video games, but I do hope developers like Wikki Works take more swings at this because it does seem like climbing mechanics remain very popular with a wide range of folks.
