The Switch isn’t short of fighting games; if you want to duke it out as adorable animals, heroes in a half shell or beloved Nintendo characters, the console has got you covered. But what if you wanted something a little softer? Something that has all the hallmarks of your favourite fighting games, but without the intense violence that (understandably) underlines the genre? Pillow Champ looks set to fill that niche in Spring 2024.
We had a chance to check out the game in an online presentation and, on the surface, this is a straight-up fighter. It’s “Street Fighter with pillows,” the Frosty Pop developers told us, and we can see why. You choose to play as one of eight pillow-wielding warriors and your goal is to use your bedtime bludgeoning tool to wish your opponent ‘nighty night.’
So far, so fighter. But the devs made clear that this is a game that is looking to “deconstruct the genre” as much as it plays into it.
Kicking off the genre reconstruction right from the jump, Pillow Champ is a game about peace. In the game’s fictional world, poverty, hunger and war have all been eradicated thanks to the invention of the Pillow Champ League. People take their frustrations out using feather-filled rectangles instead of something more malicious and the world is a better place because of it.
Through the game’s two story modes that will be available at launch (the team plans to release more in the future), you will be able to see the impact of the League from the perspective of both its founder, Marcus Duckworth, and from those who fight in the counterculture, underground pillow fighting scene.
For a little more information about some of the game’s other features and a look at some screenshots, check out the following from Frosty Pop:
FEATURES
• Master the skills of 8 pillow-wielding warriors to become the ultimate Pillow Champ!• Smack your way to the top with robust single-player options including a career mode with upgradeable character skills, and an extensive story mode (2 character stories included at launch)!
• Move sets and animations inspired by various cultural dances, martial arts, and exercises.
• A set of hilarious, heartwarming stories about finding your passion, keeping it, and defeating the pillow-wielding ninjas who would stand in the way of your dreams.
• Pillow fight your friends in local multiplayer, and challenge the world in online multiplayer supported by rollback netcode!
• Character stories created by prolific game writer Xalavier Nelson Jr. (Hypnospace Outlaw, Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator, etc.)!
• A soundtrack you will listen to while you work or play!
• A man entirely composed of pillows. Somebody free him from this torment. Please.
Instead of appealing only to the fighting fans out there, Frosty Pop told us that it has adopted a “Nintendo approach” to Pillow Champ’s development, looking at what the likes of Splatoon did for the third-person shooter as inspiration for how the game could appeal to a new, untapped audience.
This isn’t to say that there won’t be room for those well-versed in the genre, mind you. Flipping to the cool side of the pillow, the developer told us that it has consulted professional fighting game players to ensure that this brawler still has the level of complexity to keep things interesting and accessible.
Frosty Pop has placed culture and representation at the forefront of the game’s design, with both the characters and their movesets drawing on real-world inspiration in the hope of integrating “everyday people into the game” — something that we love to see!
We don’t have a precise release date for this one outside of Spring 2024 at the moment, but we will be keeping an eye out over the coming months for a better idea of when Pillow Champ will be swinging onto Switch.
Does Pillow Champ look like it will be up your street? Plump up your thoughts in the comments below.
