Cityscapes have always had a kind of ugly charm to them for me. Even if your main definition of beauty derives from a moonlit flower on a winter's eve, or the blossoming sunrise over a mountainous horizon, there's no doubt that peering into a vast, endless concrete forest has an awe-inspiring effect as you imagine the intricate weaving of life it contains.
The problem is that the beauty you can find in cities is so elusive that it can be hard to imitate. In trying to forge its own charm from the ugliness of the concrete walls that shape the space so many of us call home, City Climber, a ragdoll physics game, does something remarkable.
Developed and published in 2017, the game is a physics-based platformer composed of the same keyboard-twister style mechanics that you would see in titles like QWOP. With nothing but your mouse, your character's arms, and an array of conveniently placed handlebars to grab ahold of, you're tasked with climbing through the game's 14 levels in the best possible time.