As mass layoffs ravage the industry, this free Pikmin-inspired indie game is here to let you fling co-workers at management in an effort to unionize
Aug. 1, 2024Labor Power is a browser-based gem “dedicated to class solidarity and the betterment of working conditions”
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you stop to think about it, Pikmin’s brand of minion-throwing strategy lends itself quite nicely to games about power dynamics.Overlordhad you cosplay as an unstoppable evil boss who uses pesky goblin critters to do his bidding, for example, but one new indie game reverses the trope.
Inspired by Pikmin, Labor Power is the free, browser-based, pixel art strategy game about unionizing an entire office. One day, your character decides he doesn’t want want to wait another 45 years to reach retirement age - he wants to feel human again now. So, off you go to pull co-workers away from their desk and storm the office floors until you reach the main boss, The Devil, capitalism personified.
The Pikminishness comes in with blocks/doors that can’t be moved/unlocked without the right number of co-workers, and you can also fling them at security guards for a quick stun.
A game about unionizing is particularly relevant today as, y’know, a record number of video game developers have been subject tomass layoffsandstudio closuresthis year, with Destiny developerBungie laying off another 220 employeesjust yesterday.
Many teams have instead taken the Labor Power route - not by chucking co-workers at middle management - but by unionizing. Days afterBethesda Game Studiosstaff organized to form a massive “wall-to-wall,” cross-department union,500 World of Warcraft developers joinedthe growing list of unionized game staff.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that’s vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he’ll soon forget.
The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles strategy game kills Splinter and Shredder before a moment of gameplay happens, all so it can tell its own story
Free-to-play tactical RPG Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium is out now on PC and mobile
As if The Outlast Trials couldn’t get any more deranged, the horror co-op game’s big new update adds more tooth guns and lady who lives in the walls
