Gargantia: Sky Courier browser game launched online

Video games take many forms in this era of PCs, consoles, smartphones and so on, but bridging this gap is the humble but ever-more powerful web browser.

As a result, and with an eye towards promoting Internet Explorer 11, Microsoft have taken the intriguing decision to team up with Production I.G. to create a web browser game based up Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet, a series coming to the UK later this year courtesy of Manga Entertainment.

The Microsoft Windows Blog explains more:

With legions of passionate fans around the world, anime is one of Japan’s top cultural exports. Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet follows Ledo, a young soldier from space who wakes up and finds himself marooned on a post-apocalyptic, watery Earth. Growing up in space, and knowing nothing but battle, he is a stranger in a strange place, where humans are forced to live on huge interconnected fleets for survival and travel from ship to ship using surf kites, a cross between a surfboard and an ultralight aircraft. In Sky Courier, you get to play the role of Ledo as he explores his new home from the sky while piloting a surf kite with the help of his friends and an occasional hand from his AI companion, Chamber.

Sky Courier has two modes: story and mission. Story mode interweaves the action with an adventure game featuring original cut scenes and voiced dialogue from Gargantia’s voice actors. If you want to get right into the high-flying action, select mission mode and start flying. There is also a third mode – free flight mode – which lets you fly around and leisurely explore the beautiful world of Gargantia.

With high-fidelity 3D graphics and smooth touch-based gameplay, Sky Courier pushes the limit of what is possible with the web today. You can see all of the beautiful details in the game, from the many cloud formations to the wind shear that tries to knock you off your route and the birds that cross your path as you navigate the skies. The game beautifully recreates in real time the subtle but essential look and feel of the anime series – the sky, clouds, lighting and ocean have been carefully crafted to match the unique vistas of the Gargantia world. The game also recreates the hand drawn anime style with sophisticated toon shaders for the silhouette and character lighting on Ledo and his surf kite.

The game is available to be played in both English and Japanese, and via mouse and keyboard or touch screens - although the game is optimised for Internet Explorer 11, it appears to also work with the latest version of Google Chrome and will most likely function with other browsers to boot.

If you want to give the game a try, you can do so absolutely free from this web site. Why not let us know your thoughts if you do?