League of Legends spinoff Hextech Mayhem, coming to Netflix Gaming, hints at what other show tie-in games might come.
If League of Legends fans enjoyed getting a mobile version of the game, Wild Rift, earlier this year, they’re probably overwhelmed by the explosion of new content following the release of the Netflix series Arcane (based in the same universe starring its most famous characters). Among them is Hextech Mayhem, a new game that’s available now on Nintendo Switch and PC – which is also coming to Netflix. Hextech Mayhem is a bit of a hybrid: a side-scrolling runner featuring rhythm-like mechanics, which sees players jumping and diving to the beat of the soundtrack. The beat prompts, in whimsical League of Legends fashion, are explosions: players control the tiny but chaotic Ziggs as he bombs his way through the industrial city of Piltover while trying to evade the orderly and naysaying Heimerdinger. Both characters are among the hundred-plus champions in the original League of Legends, but take center stage in Hextech Mayhem, which is one of several spinoffs currently being produced by Riot Forge, the publishing arm of Riot Games. And while there’s no date set for its release on Netflix, Hextech Mayhem gives us an idea of what the streaming giant’s plans are for expanding into gaming. In short: what makes a Netflix Game? The answer isn’t clear-cut, at least right now. Rather, it seems Hextech Mayhem has several qualities that ended up fitting Netflix Gaming’s appeal: it draws from the world of an already-established IP with a tie-in show on Netflix, and has casual gameplay that likely appeals to streaming service subscribers. In other words, both giant companies are reaching to frontiers of entertainment that are new to them, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that their demographics overlap. Streaming content fans are also gamers – especially if the show they’re watching has a tie-in game playable without leaving the app. Riot Forge selected Choice Provisions for its project that would become Hextech Mayhem, noting the studio’s work on the BIT. TRIP series of lauded rhythm-based auto-runner games. While there’s clear influence of the latter in Hextech Mayhem’s gameplay, Riot Forge Creative Director Rowan Parker assured that the publisher worked with Choice Provisions but allowed the studio to find their own way to interpret League of Legends to its gameplay.
