Parcel Corps preview: Jet Set delivery service

Playing 20 minutes of Parcel Corps with director Will Barr, it was clear to see the team’s passion for the game.

Parcel Corps / Secret Mode

There are only two games in the Jet Set Radio series, but given the effect it has had on pop culture you’d think there were many more. Its cel-shaded animation can be seen in games like Borderlands and Wind Waker. The soundtrack’s mix of musical genres can be seen in Kingdom Hearts and the later Persona games. It feels like there are more than two Jet Set Radio games because developers have been paying homage to them for more than twenty years. Whether that’s in small ways like those above, or more clear influences like with Sunset Overdrive, and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.

I start with this because Parcel Corps has been compared to Jet Set Radio on a bike, and it’s easy to see why this comparison has been made so often. It has a cel-shaded art style, and it features grinding around a city, pulling off impossible tricks, and moving at super-fast speeds. However, this isn’t the only comparison that can be made. You will make time-limited deliveries like in Crazy Taxi, and it features wacky characters like in Banjo Kazooie. Parcel Corps takes all of those old-school influences and mashes them together for something new.

Parcel Corps / Secret Mode

In Parcel Corps you play as a delivery driver, who thanks to late-stage capitalism, has to make their deliveries in a matter of minutes or even seconds. The courier makes connections with the businesses in the area, like a chip shop owner with a fish head, and you’ll deliver their goods to desperate customers. You gain speed, grind down rails, and ride up walls in order to get to the finish line in time, all the while learning the ins and outs of the city map to find the best shortcuts. You do all of this while taking in Parcel Corps kooky, reference-heavy humor.

Playing 20 minutes of Parcel Corps with director Will Barr, it was clear to see the team’s passion for the game. Barr is wearing his signature skintight courier’s uniform that he wears in all of Parcel Corps’ trailers, and he’s talking about all the details of the game at rapid speed. He wants to make sure that I don’t miss a thing. The way my courier moves looks nothing like the slick moves in those trailers. I look more like Neil Armstrong than Lance Armstrong, launching off into the sunset as I’m bodied by another car. There is a clear level of skill needed to pull off all of the game’s smooth movement, and I can imagine it will feel very satisfying once you get there.

Parcel Corps / Secret Mode

In this short amount of time it’s hard to get a full handle on the game, but from this snippet Parcel Corps has a lot of promise. You don’t have to take my word for it, you can try it for yourself as there is a demo out now. You can also wait until its out on September 3 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam.