Everyone Wants To Make The Next Limbo

The Limbolike might not even need to be a side-scroller. During yesterday’s big Xbox showcase, publisher Annapurna Interactive unveiled Cocoon. Developed by the lead gameplay designer on Inside and Limbo, you can’t miss how it carries the DNA of those two games, despite its top-down perspective. There’s some weird shit going on, too: You carry worlds within worlds that exist in Pokéball-sized orbs. Huh.

Given the lengthy and often arduous timelines of game development, it takes a while, but there comes a point where you see a landmark game’s influence start to spawn enough obvious comparisons that you can’t ignore it. We’ve hit it for FromSoft’s punishing action-games. We’ve definitely hit it for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with even the typically brash Sonic the Hedgehog going the route of a somber, melancholic open world. Six years removed from the release of Inside, I feel confident in declaring that we’ve reached its saturation point, too. Bring on the Limbolikes.