Feperd Games, the solo developer behind the Sonic the Hedgehog-inspired 2D and 3D platformer series, Spark the Electric Jester, revealed their next project back in 2023, titled XF Extreme Formula. The game has been in paid early access on Steam since 2024, meaning that anyone can purchase and try an early version of the game; despite this, Feperd Games has been actively developing a planned story mode for XF, which has been keeping fan excitement high through monthly sneak peeks at the progress being made on the LakeFeperd YouTube channel. Progress is understandably slow due to Feperd Games’s status as a solo developer, but as of just five days ago, XF Extreme Formula received a release date trailer revealing new story mode gameplay alongside the planned release month for the first two chapters of the game’s main story mode, titled “Chapter” 0 and 1.
A racing game with a story? Yeah, it’s one of those, or maybe it’s good this time?
Feperd Games states in the description of their latest trailer, poking fun at the fact that games in this same genre often don’t go the route of a story-driven narrative for good reason. The developers behind Nintendo’s F-Zero attempted this in F-Zero GX on the GameCube and F-Zero: GP on the Game Boy Advance, but the series has notably declined since those releases, as its creators have stated they no longer know where the series can evolve. Other game series in the futuristic racer genre, such as Psygnosis’ Wipeout series and Shin’en Multimedia’s Fast series, saw a similar fate. The primary pitfall that games in XF’s genre land in is that they lack variety in ways to play, often due to a lack of unique modes or interesting mechanics.
XF Extreme Formula, however, is in good hands in this regard. From the trailer footage, we see several different ways the game is intended to be played throughout the story mode. As opposed to simply controlling a car and seeing the player character exclusively in cutscenes or as a static image, you will get the chance to explore and meet the residents of the city where XF takes place on foot. Not only this, but it looks as though there will be moments in gameplay where hand-to-hand combat will be necessary, as opposed to gameplay being left merely up to the conflict seen on the race track. Feperd Games has effectively turned what is being marketed as a racing game into both exactly that—a true-to-form breakneck speeds futuristic racing game—and a 3D beat-em-up action adventure game with a cast of characters to reflect that.
With the first two chapters of XF Extreme Formula releasing this October, fans of high-octane gaming and blink or you miss it visuals are sure to eat this new release by Feperd Games right up.