Warframe 99 lets you fight a 90s boyband in space and I don’t know what more you could want

There are few games as ridiculously wild, visually inventive and endlessly ambitious as WarframeDigital Extremes seems to have one mode when designing the game world, and that is to go all out.

The best evidence of this is the full reveal of Warframe 1999, an update that overhauled the slick sci-fi visuals of Warframe and adds portions of the Metal Gear franchise, classic anime, boy bands, and early instant messaging services.

Warframe takes place in a far, far sci-fi future. The ancient Orokin Empire has colonized Mercury, Mars, and the other planets in the Origin System. Their attempts to colonize other systems have failed, leading to an AI war. The player takes on the role of a Tenno, an ancient warrior caste that inhabits a super-fast and powerful robot body. From there, they jump bullets, slash, and dash through dozens of enemies.

The world of Warframe is so strange and unrecognizable that it can be off-putting; Warframe 99 flips that formula on its head. The Protoframes are all people, with their faces clearly visible. They ride sick motorcycles, play arcade games, and hang out in the mall. The decor is relatively modern and very recognizable; the stylized “S” graffiti on a wall, red plastic Pizza Hut-esque cups, old arcade games. Everything looks like it was torn from the scribbles in the margins of a teenage notebook and then brought to life.

Of course, that’s just the basic idea. Like the TennoCon presentation shows, once Arthur—the man with the Excalibur Protoframe—delves into the contaminated tunnels beneath the mall, he finds all sorts of weird shit. This culminates in a sequence where, in the far-future Origin System, a giant boy band stage emerges from the majesty of the cosmos, playing a ’90s bop as Railjack spaceships cautiously investigate.

I’ve seen a lot of space battles, but I’ve yet to see one against the metaphysical reincarnation of a pop group, re-emerging and re-built from borrowed flesh and memetic ideas. It’s these wildly creative swings, performed with sincerity and style, that Warframe so much fun.

The biggest problem with getting excited about Warframe 99 is having to endure the rest of the game. Warframe to get there. I love Warframebut it’s a big, deep game – and if someone is new to the characters in 99, they’re going to have to endure a fair bit of faceless robot gun guy gameplay before they can play as them. That journey is filled with imagination, character, and some really good twists, but it’s a journey that requires a time investment that not everyone can muster.

It takes a while before Warframe to take shape for a new player, and while Digital Extremes has made changes to the new player experience over the course of the year – and has plans to do more in the near future – it can still be an uphill battle. But I have so much appreciation for the game’s visual and creative design, and 99’s reveal at this year’s TennoCon only cemented that fact further. I’d rather have an imperfect, wild ride of a game than a sanitized, safe, smooth one.