Developer: Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg
Publisher: Finji
Release: Out now
On: Windows, MacOS, Nintendo Switch
From: Steam
Price: 11/$15/ 12
For the first three and a half billion years of its history, life on earth was fairly dull. It was, essentially, a load of little blobs mucking around in a great big sea. But then, five hundred million years ago, the Cambrian Explosion happened. Despite its name, it was not a sick wrestling move, but a sudden evolutionary riot, in which life diversified into a bewildering array of new and complex forms. These new creatures competed, and the winners – vertebrates, arthropods, molluscs and a bunch of worms – set the blueprint for every animal that existed thereafter. That s the nature we re familiar with; endless variations, but all on a surprisingly limited set of themes. And it s great. But sometimes, just sometimes, you look at the sea and wonder what would be in it, if a different set of animals had ended up winning that primordial arms race.
Wilmot s Warehouse gives me that feeling. Admittedly, it has absolutely nothing to do with the history of life on earth (although my warehouse does contain both dinosaurs and mammoths). It does, however, give me the feeling that I m playing something from an alternate universe where the fundamental tenets of videogames evolved very differently indeed. And whatever universe he hails from, Wilmot is a bloody lovely ambassador.